Here's a good read on Gary Locke that talks not only about the relationship that his grandfather has to the census, but also about an interesting rash of letters Locke received back in 2003 when he gave the Democratic response to the State of the Union address:
Some Americans don’t see the common heritage: the hushed story of entry paired with the later success borne of hard work. When Locke gave the Democratic response to the 2003 State of the Union address, he was besieged by hate e-mails and death threats, many telling him to go back to China. The reaction stunned him: Here was a deep hatred he had never been exposed to.Read it in full down at the NY Times.
Few of us can trace our ancestry to the Mayflower. But it’s worth noting that, from a Native American perspective, those Massachusetts Bay pilgrims were illegals.
