Patriotism
Everyone knows how it took a devastating event like 9/11 to spur patriotism in America. It's not that Americans were unpatriotic beforehand, but the surge of it afterwards sparked a "renewed" interest. I was thinking about this over the 4th of July weekend when I received an email from an old co-worker. I'm just going to cut and paste it in its entirety.
IMMIGRANTS,
NOT AMERICANS,
MUST ADAPT.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we
are offending some individual or their culture. Since the
terrorist
attacks on Sept. 11,
we have experienced a surge
in patriotism by the majority
of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had
barely settled when the "politically correct! " crowd began
complaining about
the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against
anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population
is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. However,
there are a few things that those who have recently come to
our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand.
This idea of America being a multicultural community
has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national
identity.
As Americans, we
have our own culture, our
own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture
has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories
by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.
We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese,
Japanese,Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!
"In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some
Christian, right wing, political slogan We adopted this motto because
Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation,
and this is clearly documented.
It is certainly appropriate to display it
on the walls of our schools. If God
offends you, then I suggest you
consider another part of the world as
your new home, because God is part
of our culture.
If Stars and Stripes offend you, or
you don't like Uncle Sam, then you
should seriously consider a move
to another part of this planet. We
are happy with our culture and have
no desire to change, and we really
don't care how you did things where
you came from. This is
OUR COUNTRY,
our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every
citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every
opportunity to do so! But once you are done complaining, whining, and
griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our
way of life, I highly encourage you
take advantage of one other great American freedom,
THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.
It is Time for America to Speak up.
AMEN
My thoughts on this "article" are a little mixed, but I'm more interested in what all of you think. FYI this was submitted by a man to a Tampa (FL) newspaper and was published. I haven't been able to track down which one specifically, but I would be curious to see/read the comments made by its viewers.
posted by christopher j. gill at 3:39 PM
1 Comments:
Crap like your article never ceases to amaze me. After 9/11, my mother, a 48 year old Chinese woman, had a coworker standup and yell something very similar to this in the form of, "If you're not an American, get out!"
Really, the religion and culture things are hotbutton issues for me, so:
" "In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some
Christian, right wing, political slogan We adopted this motto because
Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation,
and this is clearly documented."
This was placed on our currency (and in the pledge) to differentiate ourselves from the "Godless Commies" of Russia. During the 50's. To fight communism.
"It is certainly appropriate to display it
on the walls of our schools. If God
offends you, then I suggest you
consider another part of the world as
your new home, because God is part
of our culture."
It offends me because America is my country too. This guy can go on whining about it all he wants, but one of the great things about America, as in nature, is that there are a lot of different forces at work. In the case of America, the outcome is our national culture, and our identity. And it's a multiple personality of an identity. If he thinks that the Christian god is the only one that should represent America (or any deity for that matter), I suggest he gets his head out of his ass and take a look around at his fellow Americans.
He seems to almost grasp it here, "This culture
has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories
by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.", but he seems to forget that those "millions of men and women" aren't all Christian. Does he think his fellow non-Christian Americans who struggled, tried, and were victorious deserve any less recognition or honor because they weren't Christian. Does he seriously think that in order to be American, you have to be Christian or accept Christianity?
People like him who think that America is, ever was, or should be a mono-cultural country really piss me off. People like him who think that he's the majority or call on the way things were as a justification of the way he thinks they should be really piss me off. He should use some reasoning skills, use some common sense, open his mind.
I'm not saying anyone should be a PC-spouting offensophobe, but really, if he believes half the crap he wrote about, I have serious doubts about his mental and emotional development.
I hate bigots, I hate people with closed minds. I believe in America. I've been to different places in the world and I think America is great. Not as great as it could be, but great nonetheless. That being said, I think it would be more responsible to think of ourselves as citizens of the planet. Not necessarily from an ecological standpoint, but really more from a socio-economic one. Asshat mouthbreathers like this slope-browed primate really only serve to mire our development as a race and as a people.
"The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance." -Socrates
gabe
12:11 AM
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