Theodore Roosevelt on Immigration
In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt made this statement:"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."
For more on this visit Cogito Ergo Geek, where this was found.......
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3 Comments:
Theodore Roosevelt indeed wrote these words, but not in 1907 while he was still president. The passages were culled from a letter he wrote to the president of the American Defense Society on January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt died.
"Americanization" was a favorite theme of Roosevelt's during his later years, when he railed repeatedly against "hyphenated Americans" and the prospect of a nation "brought to ruins" by a "tangle of squabbling nationalities."
He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized citizen. "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country," he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. "English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools."
He also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called "fifty-fifty allegiance." In a speech made in 1917 he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."
If only we could bring him back to life today.
Anonymous dreams on, while reality marches unrestrained toward the Balkanization of these United States. Unless Americans come to grips with this reality, more corners of our nation will become as Falls Church Virginia, with their own Sharia courts and councils that flaunt the laws governing equality and the rule of law. Right now, in the shadow of our unconcerned or oblivious federal government in Washington, Islamists and others are planting their seeds of autonomy and "difference."
If you wonder where this will all go, whether it is a bad thing for the country or not, ask a Serb, a Croat, or an Albanian what their own experience with non-assimilation is all about.
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