Hyphenated Americans

Understand something - I am an American - a citizen of these United States.

My ancestors came from Germany, Scotland, Ireland, and several other places.  They became part of the Great American Dream, and ceased to be German, Scottish or Irish. They became American.

They did not relinquish their various foods, languages, literature, or anything else - all of that continued to live on in their homes, but they became a part of something bigger - and when outside their homes, conversed in English and generally assimilated into the culture of this nation - becoming tolerant of others otherness, and gaining in understanding that there is much to be learned from people not like us - and that valuable things that are learned from such folks can become part of our constantly moving and growing culture.  At no time did someone take that American culture, nail it to a wall and say "This is how it is and it cannot change."

I tend to look askance at folks who are hyphenated Americans - German-Americans, Italian-Americans, African-Americans, and suchlike - they place something before the American in what they claim to be - which makes me wonder how anything about their citizenship could be more important than the American part.

We tend to be pretty tolerant - we tend to help new arrivals, show our best faces to folks we do not know, and be rather accepting of others' religious practices.  I know of an area where within a block one can find Christians, Jews, Muslims and a Buddhist family - and none is trying to kill or to convert the other; rather they are respectful of the otherness of others and strive to find common ground in order to be better neighbors to one another.  It's how Americans are - or rather how they used to be when I was growing up.

It seems that here of late we are getting Balkanized - we are being asked to accept a language other than English, asked to adjust our calendars and our laws to suit one group of folks more than the folks who are already here, and we are being asked to give precedence to folks who will not even deign to follow the rules to join us as immigrants.

This is wrong.

We ought not to care what language folk use at home, whether they sit on the floor or on the roof, nor what they will or will not eat - in someone's home that's how it is.  But we ought not to be so prepared to allow someone's home and ancestral culture to be used to tell us that what we have built of a couple of hundred years is no longer valid, and what folks from other places bring is more valid and more useful.  After all, if those other places were all that great, how come people are trying so hard to get away from those places to come here?

In Germany, part of the national tax supports churches.  We don't do that here.

In Mexico, noncitizens cannot own prime property.  We have no such restriction.

In the parts of the Middle East, citizenship is restricted to followers of Muhammed. We have no such rule here.

The USA is a different place from the rest of the world, and the differences are important.  I can see no reason to turn it into France if France already exists - folks could simply go there.  Of course, they'd have to learn French....

The world is full of socialist nations - those in lover with it could go there, but won't - because there are always things there that are different, be it Language, Laws, Climate, Living conditions, or potential for employment.

This great nation is a unique place - why folks would want to turn it into another place that already exists is beyond me.

Some have told me that there's no equality here - but they don't understand that equality cannot guarantee equal outcomes.  We are all born the same way, but we can't all be Ted Kennedy (not that I'd want to be Ted Kennedy.) and we all can't be rich - but the class envy that is being used to justify redistribution of income is obscene.  I've had some lucky breaks; so have some other folks I know.  Sometimes we get bad breaks - and we can either let it defeat us or rise above it.  A lot of our station in life has to do with decisions we ourselves make - and if they are bad decisions, you are not owed the fruits of my labor to bail you out - although I can help if it pleases me to do so.

I've done plenty of stupid things, some of which hurt me rather badly, physically or fiscally.  Nobody owes me a bailout - much as I might have liked to be Malcolm S. Forbes, I wasn't - and there is no set of circumstances that permits me to believe that he (or his estate since he's dead now) owes me a bailout from my own foolishness or anything of that nature.

Lots of what happens we ourselves have to own. Your degree in Albanian Studies probably won't make you rich, or even moderately well off - but that study was your choice, so live with it.  My occupation did not exist when I exited high school trying to imagine what to do if I ever grew up - I had to change, to adapt, to find opportunity and to work to excel to be noticed.  It can be done, but nobody else has to own your errors.

I guess I'm just irritable today - I spent the morning listening to a couple of coworkers harranguing one another about how bad life was, and how much they were owed for having been born.

Americans simply are - they need no excuse, and they need apologize to nobody.  It's OK if you don't like me - but it's not OK to threaten my existence because I have friends who are Jews, because I get paid better or because I will not change my views to yours.  One of the unique things about Americans is that we understand everyone's belief has the potential to be right, so we tolerate all sorts of various beliefs.  This is not easily accepted by those with blinders on who, having seen nothing else cannot conceive of anything being worthwhile that they've not already seen and passed on as good.  But those with blinders on are the ones who'll ultimately suffer for their own ignorance, and their own failure to allow themselves to learn from others.

Enough.  I'll be back another day.