Paul St. Jean (Aug. 13) obviously did not read Robert Macdonald’s letter of July 23. John Henderson (Aug. 7) accurately and directly quoted Mr. Macdonald as saying that our African friends should “shed their former culture.”

St. Jean is correct that the United States and Lewiston generally demonstrate generosity to immigrants. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and an immigrant country to boot. It is our moral obligation to be generous with those far less fortunate, and who follow in our ancestors’ footsteps. As Shakespeare noted, however, “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

St. Jean is concerned that immigrants should be “adopting our American way of life.”

Which “American way of life” is he speaking about, I wonder? In the St. John Valley, and right here in Lewiston, many American citizens prefer to speak French and eat ployes.

In the Southwest, a high percentage of Americans prefer to speak Spanish and eat tamales. In Boston’s Chinatown, many American citizens prefer to speak some dialect of Chinese, and eat egg fu yung.

Just because St. Jean is, I assume, white and prefers to speak English, doesn’t make him any more American than anybody else.

I know Mr. Henderson. For many years he lived in a Spanish-speaking immigrant household here in Maine, and was appalled at the meanness some displayed toward his friends even after they became citizens.

Citizenship is not the issue for bigots. Differentness is.

Julia K. Simpson, Auburn