Hyphenated Americans

[BIG IRISH]

The term "hyphenated American" was popularized in the 1910s by President Theodore Roosevelt, responding to the increasing fractionalization within the nation along ethnic lines.

In an October 12, 1915 speech to the Knights of Columbus, Roosevelt said,

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.

When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans.

Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad.

But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. ... The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality, than with the other citizens of the American Republic. ...

There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else."


President Woodrow Wilson also regarded those whom he termed "hyphenated Americans" (German-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc.) with suspicion, saying, "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."

[ShoogarBear]

This posted by somebody named BIG IRISH?

I hope you're trying to be ironic.

[Summers]

Even dead presidents can be wrong on occasion. We're not a homogenous country, and being able to celebrate our differences is what makes us interesting.

[Melmart1]

Should you then change your title to "AMERICAN by birth"?

[BIG IRISH]

Irish by Birth = Born in Ireland--- Are you from Floriaduh?

To Kill an American

You probably missed but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.


So an Australian dentist associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law wrote an editorial the following day around the 25th of September, 2001 to let everyone know what an American is.

So they would know when they found one.


"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.

An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.


An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.


An American is Christian, or He/She could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.

In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan.

The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.


An American is also free to believe in no religion. "Manny"

For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.


An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world.

The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.


An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services.

But they also welcome the least.


The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.


Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families.

It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from a t least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must.

Hitler did.
So did General Tojo,
and Stalin,
and Mao Tse-Tung,
and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world.

But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself.

Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

[NorCal510]

fo sho we get hyphy