Immigrants Can Lead

Re “All Americans Can’t Grow Up to Be President,” Commentary, Sept. 4: I became a U.S. citizen the easy way, as an infant adopted and naturalized by American parents. However, I know people who became U.S. citizens because they almost died trying, because they risked their lives to escape totalitarian governments, because they believed wholeheartedly in our country’s promise of liberty.

I do not want Arnold Schwarzenegger to be our governor, let alone our president, but he deserves the chance to try if he wants to. So do I. We are centuries past the fear that British loyalists might undermine our newly won independence and are long overdue to amend the Constitution.

Kay M. Gilbert

Santa Monica