I read an article in the paper (“Reason to Hope for Immigration Change,” Feb. 18) stating why we need immigrants that finally fired me up. We are constantly being bombarded in the news that say our people won’t take menial jobs. Where has responsibly for ourselves gone? We need to take back our spirit to fight for ourselves and our nation like we did during the Great Depression.

We need immigrants to take jobs we refuse? How does anyone think those of us who lived through the Great Depression made it? We took any job available to fill our bellies. When you don’t have a roof over your head, survival takes over, and you grab whatever work there is.

My family of eight worked the orchards of Michigan, the bean fields, grape fields and even found ourselves working among cotton sharecroppers. Yes, we traveled in different states like the people in “The Grapes of Wrath.” With my family of eight working as one, we were able to make it to Washington State. Yes, we landed back working the menial jobs in the orchards. Those menial jobs have their rewards. It can show us that by hard work we can move upward in America’s financial world. I did. I truly believe the government is not responsible for us. We are.

Billee Escott, Kirkland