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My family's origins are in Norway. When they came here, they settled in Minnasota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin where most Scandanavians settled, but THEY CAME HERE TO BECOME AMERICANS.
People don't do that so much anymore. You're blind if you can't see that.
Oh really? They didn't come here for a better life, more economic opportunities, or freedom of religion? They were just sitting around table one day and said "Gosh I hate our stupid language, all these damn pine trees, and these idiotic customs we have. Heck, I just plain hate being Norwegian! I want to be an AMERICAN. Let's to go America and be that."
You've got some weird ancestors, my friend.
As for mine; they followed the opportunities. And--as driven and hard-working as they were--the 1st generation never amounted to much in terms of money. Bought a small farm, worked the land hard but didn't have the money to buy the equipment necessary to make it really produce. Never got educated, barely survived above the poverty level and sure didn't pay much in taxes. The husband spoke enough English to work in a factory and later sell his farm's produce. The wife didn't like America, didn't want to be here, wished all her life to go back home.
But her kids did love America, did get educated, did help win WWII, did have kids who went on to become even more educated and even more successful, and so on and so forth. It takes a while for a family to make something out of nothing. Even in America. Lucky for all of them and me (and probably most of you here who don't trace back to the colonies) that immigration policies were more lax back then. My ancestors sure as heck wouldn't be allowed in today.
I'm not saying we should open the borders, I'm just encouraging you to take an honest look at your own family history before you go throwing stones at recent immigrants or running around like Chicken Little because you heard somebody speaking Spanish at the supermarket or saw a Sikh and thought that he was hiding a bomb under that turban. As far as threats to your family, you, your religion, and your country go (in whatever order you prioritize) multiculturalism is pretty far down the list of things you oughta be scared of. (At the top is probably your car, btw. Or maybe big-Mac's.)
Stupidity, actually. I'm pretty sure that's the number 1 threat. Try not to spread any more of it around than absolutely necessary.
I believe he's right. We have made the same mistake. We have become a society of feel gooders who, on the surface, wants to make everybody happy. In reality, we have lost what we held most dear; unity as a whole, brought together under the words: "One nation, under God".
People used to come here wanting to be American. For a while now, people come here wanting to be Mexican, Chinese, or whatever, in America. That's not what diversity is. It's acknowedging and celebrating differences, but as a whole, we should still be one and we're not.
People don't want to be American anymore. They just want to live here.
What do you all think?
Wow. Well said! If you ran for office, I'd vote for you!
Oh bull****! Every square inch of this earth has been fought and bled over, won and lost. You make the Indians out to be some monolithic group when in reality they were diverse and fought each other quite often. We came, we fought them, and we won. Get over it. I shed not one tear over that.
Then I shed not a single tear over your ****. Seriously, the Mexicans come over and take over the U.S. then you better shut your pie hole! B/C guess what...you'll end up being the losers then huh? Racists! It's okay for whites to invade native american land, but it's not okay for others to come here and do the same to you? At least they're not forcing you out of your homes and killing your relatives! The immigrants are coming over, they may not be fighting, but if they win then you better keep your mouth shut since they're doing almost the same thing that you're claiming is "okay" for the whites to do to native americans.
As for multiculturalism, I agree that they should be learning our culture and we shouldn't bow down to their culture. About the "Under God" crap, I don't think we have to make them convert to that since Christianity is not the official U.S. religion. I do agree that they need to learn English.
I believe he's right. We have made the same mistake. We have become a society of feel gooders who, on the surface, wants to make everybody happy. In reality, we have lost what we held most dear; unity as a whole, brought together under the words: "One nation, under God".
People used to come here wanting to be American. For a while now, people come here wanting to be Mexican, Chinese, or whatever, in America. That's not what diversity is. It's acknowedging and celebrating differences, but as a whole, we should still be one and we're not.
People don't want to be American anymore. They just want to live here.
What do you all think?
I think that you don't know what you're talking about.
Oh really? They didn't come here for a better life, more economic opportunities, or freedom of religion? They were just sitting around table one day and said "Gosh I hate our stupid language, all these damn pine trees, and these idiotic customs we have. Heck, I just plain hate being Norwegian! I want to be an AMERICAN. Let's to go America and be that."
People to come to America for many reasons. Many of them in the beginning came to the "colonies" for freedom, and hoped to carve themselves basically their own nation of their own rules and beliefs. Which is why the United States was originally a union of separate states and not truly a single nation. That didn't really happen till well after the Civil War.
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As for mine; they followed the opportunities. And--as driven and hard-working as they were--the 1st generation never amounted to much in terms of money. Bought a small farm, worked the land hard but didn't have the money to buy the equipment necessary to make it really produce. Never got educated, barely survived above the poverty level and sure didn't pay much in taxes. The husband spoke enough English to work in a factory and later sell his farm's produce. The wife didn't like America, didn't want to be here, wished all her life to go back home.
Over time, ethnic minorities in America came under more and more pressure to "assimilate", and immigration was almost completely restricted to a small group of Europeans(mostly Western and Northern Europeans). Teddy Roosevelt said that no American be a hyphenated American(Italian-American, Irish-American, French-American, etc). You were either an American or you were not an American, and there could not be anything in between. This attitude permeated heavily between the post-Civil War days until after World War II. In that time period, we went from a country largely composed of separate states, to a single nation of Americans.
The problem you have these days is, there are no consequences for not attempting to fit in. So there is no push to fit in. If all the people you come into contact with speak Spanish, if the schools teach in Spanish, if the signs are in Spanish, and you can find work without speaking a lick of English. Then theres no reason to ever learn any language other than Spanish.
No one is "scared" of multiculturalism, they are merely saying that it is unhealthy for America. It will do nothing but divide us, it has done nothing to unite us. It has done nothing to make us more economically prosperous. It has done nothing to eliminate racism or discrimination. It hasn't helped anyone at all.
Real Americans are the Indians, if your folks are not speaking their language and live like them, then whats real about your folks?
I smell Karma, as the saying goes, cant have your cake without eating the cherry.
The Native Indians must have whined about the same thing, only your in the spotlight now, lmao. The Irony.
For once - a liberal who admits they want to use multiculturalism to destroy the American people - that unlimited immigration is to destroy Ameican people, and our culture because it worked for the Indians and now must be done to Americans.
Awesome, you fought, you won. Great, now You in the backseat getting taken over by some phantomised being in your head. You needs to get over it!.
And i shed not a drop of tear over that!
You make it out that caucaisian (europeans) have a monopoly on what is acceptable for them and what is for different people.
If your forefathers came here to conquer the indians, why cant anyone else do it without weapons without any process of annialating you?
We cant have one rule for one and another for the rest, can we?
Actually we should learn from what happened to the Indians because it is happening to us now. Just because the Indians made that mistake doesn't mean we should. We can learn from history.
You're right that assimilation is not a given, and that invasion is more common. When millions of people have no respect for immigration laws and have no intention of assimilating, learning your language or your culture, then it won't be long before you find yourself pushed onto a reservation or forced to learn their ways. We are already being told that we must learn the language of the newcomers. Just like what happened to the Indians.
We're feeling more and more like the Indians felt.
I wish he hadn't mixed the topic of integration with the topic of religious fundamentalism and extremism in this speech, because it muddies the water of the debate.
Pro-Cameronites are accused, at worst, of hating ethnic minorities and anti-Cameronites are accused of missing the point, and it makes the whole thing harder to discuss.
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