"David Petite has a very simple view on the immigration issue raging in the United States.

“You are all immigrants,” he says with a smile. “We didn’t invite any of you here.”

He should know. Petite is a Native American, a member of the Chippewa tribe, where his father was a tribal chief in Wisconsin. His people were around long before we came to these shores and long before John Wayne was shambling around wearing a bad hairpiece and shooting “redskins.”

In the many years I have been churning out columns and talking to a myriad of folks on an innumerable list of subjects, Thomas David Petite ranks high on the list as one of the most fascinating of them all. Raised in Atlanta, he is a renowned inventor in the area of energy conservation and communications and the holder of over 35 patents in the United States. He was recently invited to the White House when President Barack Obama signed legislation to overhaul the U.S. patent system and Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed him to the Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns."

Get the Story:
Dick Yarbrough: Native American inventor proud of past and focused on bright future for children (The Macon Telegraph 10/11)