THE MELTING POT MYTH CONTINUED

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of not assuming we can have a 'Melting Pot' of society.  Mankind may be endowed with equal rights, but not all mankind is created equally.  Those who disallow abortion are totally without understanding as to what it takes to raise a child to good citizenship and ability to form an attachment to the society around him/her.  Loyalty is inspired gradually through life experiences and cannot be demanded.

Customs take generations to 'wash out'. With so many culturally mixed marriages today, it is even more confusing, though it is more often the maternal culture that is the strongest.   One must keep in mind that the overriding reasons for coming to America are most frequently economic gain or flight to safety away from a fearful situation.  The emigration is rarely due to a rejection of cultural or religious values or beliefs. .There is value and comfort with the familiar which explains why people tend to set up communities of people who came from the same areas outside the USA. While Americans rage at those they see as being disrespectful to our flag, our national symbol, we must not forget that loyalty for the place of birth as a concept far surpasses the hometown identity of most Americans.

However, in a desire to be politically correct we, citizens by birth in the US, have forgotten that our forebears who were immigrants had to speak English, though they may have read newspapers printed in their own foreign language and spoken their mother tongue in the privacy of their home  Their children have an advantage of learning a second language while their parents learn English.  It is appalling to me that of the more than 140 languages spoken in the US today, acknowledgment in the form of signage, instructions, and even some phone systems (which ask us to press one if we wish to speak in English), does little to maintain the fact that this is a country by and for Americans, though historically we may have stolen it from the American Indians or taken it by force from some of the Spanish. In fact, in many states, English has never  been declared the official language the state or of our country. Many people are working on remedying that today.

The spoils of war were a long time ago and should be forgotten as we are asking American Indians and African Americans to forget that their ancestors did not choose to come here and be abused as they were then.  America is a very different place for African Americans today.  We must not ever forget that all 'black' people here are not African Americans.  If skin color were the same, the notion of melting pot might seem more achievable.  Anthropologists believe that one day there will have been so much cross-breeding amongst humans that we will all be a more similar shade of skin.  However, that will take many generations to achieve.  We are far from that today.

to be continued