Just some more random thoughts on immigration...
* This issue is putting our nation at an important crossroad which will determine our future as a unified nation. The right thing needs to be done, and done quickly.
* What if all my latino friends, five years down the road when the entire southwest is predominantly hispanic, decide to secede from the United States? Would we let them become their own third world country or would we have another civil war over it? Would we cease to be "united" states.
* The founding fathers and later presidents all saw the need of controlling who comes into our country. They saw America as a place to fulfill dreams for those who had character and ambition. They did not see America as a place for all the poor to come and live off the public treasury.
* The more I read about the founding fathers' views the more I see the importance of immigrants coming to the United States to be "AMERICANS". I can see more clearly the need to assimilate. The more I see the need that we as Americans become ONE!
* If immigrants do not want to become Americans and do not want to assimilate, they should not be allowed into the country.
* By assimilation, I refer to immigrants bringing the best parts of the heritage and culture and blessing and enriching America with those things. It means leaving behind the negative aspects of ones culture. It means letting your ancestry become a sub-culture, not the dominant culture. This means immigrants learning the predominant language to provide a better life for themselves and for their families.
* Becoming one has a lot of spiritual symbolism for me. There is oneness with one's spouse and there is oneness with God. I believe there is also oneness with our brothers and neighbors that makes us stronger than does celebrating our diversity. In marriage, in order to become one, you have to stop being selfish and always seeking to satisfy yourself. So to with our nation becoming one. We have to stop being selfish, set aside our differences and lift each other up as we unitedly seek to become one, one America!!!
Hermanos Mexicanos! Que vengan a mi pias para que mejoran sus vidas, pero que vengan con el deseo de ser Americanos y disfrutar las bendiciones de ser parte del mejor pais en el mundo. Aqui puedes hacer to propia fortuna, sin asistencia del gobierno. Tu puedes viver el sueno americano. Que vengan legalmente y que aprendan el idioma ingles para el provecho de tu y de todos los demas.
2 comentarios:
I wonder how fast the Europeans did learn English.
My maternal grandmother Tina was first generation American, didn't learn Engllish til she went to school, but was fluent and literate in English by the time she was 12. Still, she could not read her newspaper, The Fargo Forum, the largest newspaper between Minneapollis and Seattle. She could not read the newspaper because it was printed in German, and continued to print in German till the brink of WWI. Her first language was Norwegian.
Most of the European immigration took place in the mid and late 19the century, with German being dominate then like Hispanic is now. Until the turn of the century 90% of Americans lived on the land and not yet in cities, I imagine not knowing English might have been less of a handicap. Still, the history of Chicago shows that politicians at that time almost never gave a political speech without following it up with a dupllicate speech in German.
I'll stop here, I wonder how fast our ancestors did learn English.
Interesting tid-bit about the German newspaper. I understand that lots of German immigrants settled from the Great Lakes to Montana. By boss is a decendent of those immigrants and is a close cousin to none other than Lawrence Welk. I liked the link to your grandmother photo. I'm impressed with your attention to genealogy. Family history is another passion of mine.
As far as learning English, the only reason I push my latino friends to learn it is because I know that in today's world they will have greater economic potential if they do. For their families sake they should make an effort. Their kids will learn it in school, but all too often they are already in the rut of perpetual poverty.
My danish ancestors, as soon as they knew they were coming to America, started learning English. My German ancestors took a generation to learn it. My English ancestors just continually corrupted it to the point that I am at today.
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