The year is 1907.....but the speaker knew what he was talking about.

[Killer]

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

[YOTH]

God Bless you Killer...I almost cried in national pride reading that. Too bad the chicken pansies in our gov't today are too afraid to ever repeat that quote.

[Killer]

Too bad the chicken pansies in our gov't today are too afraid to ever repeat that quote.:werd:

[Adam_Schwartz]

Excellent post Bill, this is what the US once stood for. Now it's ultra-PC ville where we have to be "sensitive" to others' and embrace diversity at all costs.

Balkanization of any nation is a VERY bad thing, which is what will happen to the US unless we require minimal assimilation by immigrants (i.e. require people to learn English). Usually assimilation naturally occurs because people have to adapt to survive and succeed in the society for which they live, but we live in a nation where ballots, government forms, telemenus, street signs, product instructions, etc, etc are in at least 2 languages, which means learning English is not required. It is a dangerous thing indeed, but most people don't give a shit as long as they have their Ipods and Coca Cola.

[Pull_T]

Heh...i'm undecided on the relevance of this quote today.

On one hand, the situation is similar...enclaves of original native speakers on their own in the Seaboard cities...Little Italy, GermanTowns, etc. They had their own street signs, menaus etc etc

However, the following generation did manage to assimilate just fine and we've moved on. I'm not sure why people assume that today's Hispanic/Asian wave won't be able to assimilate come the second generation. It's premature to panic about balkanization i think. Could happen...but I would predict more of a blending/melding of cultures moreso than balkanization.


(And Poly...so my POV on European Muslims doesn;t seem wholly opposed to what I just said, the difference is that the American immigrants have a more similar overall dogma and worldview than do the Muslims in Europe to the natives there)

[Adam_Schwartz]

You bring up a good point about previous generations of immigrants having their own "districts" and street signs, etc in their native language and they eventually assimilated (or at least their kids did). But those people were also legal immigrants that intended on calling America their home and had assumedly more pressure on them to assimilate. Instant assimilation is unrealistic, I think that is a fair statement.

Today we are faced with literally millions of illegal immigrants from Central America and Mexico who I am not convinced want to call the US home rather than use the US strictly for employment. When I see rallies of people waving Mexican flags and signs that say "Viva Mexico", then I am going to naturally be pessimistic. Then again, we have to look at the group that organized many of those rallies (La Raza, Lulac, etc)

I understand that the US is built on immigration and a blend of cultures, but there needs to be a dominant underlying culture of some type, which might be as simple as speaking English.

[M TYPE X]

"American" is an ethnonationality for those who live and work here and believe in the country. Speaking English and watching cable news TV, shopping at the mall, uhhh driving a midsize sedan or SUV ... it's a beautiful thing. :D