Anathema
Crotchety Olde Man
This topic has come to the forefront of my mind once again with the ridiculous ruling by the Patent and Trademark office yesterday related tot he Waskington Redskins, but it's much broader than just a "Native American" issue so far as I'm concerned....
At what point in time do we stop being Hyphenated Americans (african-american, native-american, irish-american, german-american, mexican-american, etc....) and start just being AMERICANS???
There are parts of my family that came to this continent as little as 15 years after the Mayflower landed. The most recent immigrants in my family came here from Germany/Poland over a century ago. We are AMERICANS.
The fact that I can trace my ancestory back to more than a half dozen European nations, and potentially even to native bloodlines in this country means nothing. I would never refer to myself as Irish-American, German-American. or anything like that. Yet I know a very large number of individuals who do just that and identify even more with a former cultural and national identity than they do with the country they were born and raised in. Hell, I work with two guys who despite never having stepped foot outside this country, nevermind in Brazil where their parents grew up, consider THAT their "home nation" when it comes to rooting interest in this year's World Cup. WTF???? Several members of the family I'm marrying into in two weeks time consider (and identify) themselves as Puerto Ricans instead of AMEARICANS, even though they weren't even born when Puerto Rico was it's own country.
I hear many people talk about all the divisions in our society today, and how it benefits this group and detracts from some other. Isn't it about time we just all became AMERICANS and moved forward TOGETHER rather than looking back at where our families came from and allowing that to push us apart? What is it going to take, another World War to bring AMERICANS back together? Is that even possible at this point in time?
[/rant]
At what point in time do we stop being Hyphenated Americans (african-american, native-american, irish-american, german-american, mexican-american, etc....) and start just being AMERICANS???
There are parts of my family that came to this continent as little as 15 years after the Mayflower landed. The most recent immigrants in my family came here from Germany/Poland over a century ago. We are AMERICANS.
The fact that I can trace my ancestory back to more than a half dozen European nations, and potentially even to native bloodlines in this country means nothing. I would never refer to myself as Irish-American, German-American. or anything like that. Yet I know a very large number of individuals who do just that and identify even more with a former cultural and national identity than they do with the country they were born and raised in. Hell, I work with two guys who despite never having stepped foot outside this country, nevermind in Brazil where their parents grew up, consider THAT their "home nation" when it comes to rooting interest in this year's World Cup. WTF???? Several members of the family I'm marrying into in two weeks time consider (and identify) themselves as Puerto Ricans instead of AMEARICANS, even though they weren't even born when Puerto Rico was it's own country.
I hear many people talk about all the divisions in our society today, and how it benefits this group and detracts from some other. Isn't it about time we just all became AMERICANS and moved forward TOGETHER rather than looking back at where our families came from and allowing that to push us apart? What is it going to take, another World War to bring AMERICANS back together? Is that even possible at this point in time?
[/rant]