The inhabitants of this Great Nation of ours have had some serious disagreements over the years. Hank Williams Jr. has a song that talks about family traditions, he says his friends ask him why he acts the way he does and he replies, “put yourself in my position, it’s and old family tradition”. I’m not a historian, don’t pretend to be, but I know enough to make the statement, that there have been some pretty rough spots in our history. The Civil War was a very big rough spot, 620,000 Americans died in that misunderstanding. To put that into perspective, 1,264,00 have died in all of our Nation’s wars.
So, here we are, 153 years since the Civil War, and we still can’t seem to find civility among our citizens. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now, wondering why the inability to live together peacefully, continues to linger. It’s all about respect for your fellow man, and your country. These are my thoughts on this perpetual problem.
The inhabitants of the United States are made up of people from all over the world. From all different races, creeds, and religions. I use the word inhabitants as opposed to citizens, simply because we have a large contingency of people that are not citizens, living here illegally. That by the way, has always been the case, it’s nothing new. If you take a look back, when people first immigrated here from foreign countries they had a tendency to live in the same areas and form neighborhoods where they felt at home so to speak. This by the way is still the case. So, in effect they were colonizing this country in a small degree. This tends to cause animosity among others who are native born or have been here for several generations. It’s nothing more than a territorial issue. We have all experienced that feeling, and if you say you haven’t you’re either really different or a liar.
Case in point is Westminster, and Garden Grove, California. In the eighties, it was settled by Vietnamese refugees Not just a few but several thousand. Immediately they started transforming Bolsa Ave. into Vietnamese oriented businesses. The residents of Westminster were not at all happy with this transition, that was being pushed by the city governments of Westminster and Garden Grove. These two once thriving cities were facing tax shortfalls due to aging populations and the construction of the Garden Grove Freeway. The city leaders saw this influx of avid entrepreneurs as a shot in the arm in the way of taxes. However, this didn’t go down well with the long time residents, and they resisted this effort for years. Every time the cities, and county would put up city limit signs depicting the area as Little Saigon, the locals would tear them down or shoot them full of holes with shotguns. At one time a group of residents presented a petition to the city to stop issuing business licenses to Indochinese merchants. Obviously that didn’t happen.
In my opinion, these are the cold hard facts as I see them. The majority of this country is made up of Caucasians. They colonized this country, they built it, and established it’s court systems, laws and law enforcement. They determined the national language to be English, because that’s where most of them came from. They dominated just about everything that happened in this country from day one. It’s unquestionably Caucasian and Christian territory, and still is whether you like it or not. If that’s not acceptable to you, your only choice is to immigrate to another country.
What I just stated are facts, not intended to be raciest. There is plenty of room for people of all races and nationalities to reside in this great country, and should always be welcomed. However, unless you are willing to respect the original founders, and set aside the language and traditions from your country of origin it will always be a problem for traditional Americans to accept. Nothing irks me more than seeing people in my area that have lived here for years and still dressing like they are living in Bangladesh, or Iraq. They are not doing themselves any favors, they are inviting ridicule. I find it especially rude to be dining in a restaurant, and have a group of people sitting at the next table speaking a foreign language, knowing full well they live here. It is totally disrespectful.
If you live in America act like an American. If you’re not OK with that, why are you here in the first place. This is where the Democrats and Liberals completely miss the point. Immigrants should be Americans first, in language and culture, but, in my opinion should always celebrate where they came from. That’s why people have festivals to enjoy food and drink, and costumes from their former homelands. Come Monday, they should put on their American dress and resume life as traditional Americans.
All people living within the borders of the United States should strive to be part of the American Culture, speak the language, wear traditional clothing. Become lawful citizens, participate in the political system. Most of all respect American traditions, including respect for the flag. Abide by the laws of the land.
The biggest challenge for all of us, is to respect other human beings, their families and their property. Just because someone may be a little different, that doesn’t automatically make them an enemy. Take the time to get to know them, understand them. It simply comes down to this, the more we have in common, the less we have to disagree about.
The Civil War is a very bad stain on our country’s past. We should put all of our efforts into never letting that happen again. Taking away all the reminders from the Civil War may not be a good thing. I think it’s worth far more to remember than to forget, lest it happen again.
VERITAS VINCIT ~ LIVE FREE OR DIE
steelpencil.com 