Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I have never liked identifying any American citizen with a hyphenated word. The entire plan for our country was to be one nation, and for all of us to be identified simply as Americans, and for that reason it is harmful when the president wants support from Americans who happen to be a different color or from a different country.

Has he forgotten that every one of us came from another country originally—that we have always been different in many ways, and this is where our strength has come from, with all of us knowing we are one, Americans? Nowhere else in this world can people enjoy the safety and freedom that we have, and we have to take the reins as "we the people" and make the leaders we elect know that they are there to represent every citizen, without noting their color or origins. Leadership starts from the top, but it is our responsibility to name that leader.

So, from local to national, we had better pick carefully, remembering what we do now controls the future. All of us should care about that. We are Americans.

Dawn Dale

Hayes, Va.