09 November 2005

Allegiance

This quote from President Roosevelt (the good one) comes courtesy of Father Time.

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. .and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
- Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Father Time E-Mailed it under the subject "And What Would France Say?", but you have to admit that there's a bit of an American paradox to it. We have people in America who fly the flags of other nations, instead of our flag; in fact, Rampage told me once about having seen a couple of vehicles flying Mexican flags that were in an Independence Day parade in his home town. We have people who refuse to learn our language; my relatives weren't all English-speaking, but they learned the language when they came. We have people in America who refuse to adopt American culture, choosing instead to force Americans to accomodate them.

You all know me. I love the United Kingdom, and I've travelled all over; but as much as I'd love to be a Royal Marine, or work for MI-6, I'm an American, and my allegiance is to America above all others. I speak English not because I have an affinity to it, but because it's the language of my nation. I love apple pie because it's delicious, and because it's a part of American culture. I detest anyone who refuses to adopt American culture, just like I would detest anyone who moved to Italy and refused to eat gelatto and urinate on the sidewalks, or anyone who moved to Greece and refused to eat lamb. I rejoice in every person I meet or hear about who comes to America, and chooses to be an American, no matter what their race, original nationality, creed, or religion is.

If you move somewhere, you'd better damn well expect to become a part of that culture. Western nations, which value freedom, choice, and diversity, are suffering now because they no longer enforce, through culture or law, the assimilation of newcomers into that culture. We need to look no further than the 7/7 bombings on the London Underground, or the past twelve days in Paris to realize that it's time to find some neutral ground between our love of freedom and individual rights, and our need to hold people accountable for adopting the culture of the nation they choose to settle in.

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