Where has the Assimilation Gone? (Corrected)

With the heavy influx of immigrants to this country it's clear that we may have not done a good job of getting these folks assimilated. Things that we took for granted 50 years ago such as learning to speak, read and write the dominant language are no longer necessary to become a citizen. Assimilation means little or nothing to these new citizens and in some cases long term resident aliens.  Our political process has been diluted by the printing of ballots in Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Tagalog, Laotian, and any other language that the ACLUseless thinks should be represented in the political process.

Until Teddy Kennedy bollixed up the Immmigration Law in 1965, 1980, and 1990, the chief goal of the immigration process was to teach people how to assimilate into the culture and political process of this country--legally.  Now it seems that the United States must adapt to the immigrants.

In 1965, the American people were guaranteed that immigration would never exceed its then low level of 250,000 a year. Today, it is at an all-time high: nearly one million a year and growing. Because of persistent congressional miscalculations, immigrants and their descendants will fuel a massive increase in the population of the United States for the foreseeable future. Immigration continues unabated, without regard to changing U.S. labor markets, conditions in the inner cities, or the growing costs to state and local taxpayers. Kennedy's role in creating this situation has been enormous.

But the impact of this unabated diversity seems to be the flavor of the month. The US is not the only country that faces the problem of adapting to immigrants. A London Times opinion piece suggests that the UK has adopted Sharia Law that is enforceable in English courts.  Under the UK Arbitration Act 1996, sharia law courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The London Times quotes Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal as saying,

"The Act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

So the nation that spawned the Magna Carta will now enforce laws which discriminate against women.  In fairness, the Times article points out that the Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same Arbitration Act and resolves civil cases, such as divorce and business disputes.  But what are we to do in the face of overwhelming waves of immigrants--change our way of life to suit a foreign nation's culture, laws, and religion?

Theodore Roosevelt put it best in an address that he gave on October 12, 1915, at Carnegie Hall to the Knights of Columbus.

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. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.

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, 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. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. 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.

I've personally known people that are naturalized US citizens that have their cars adorned with a window sticker flag of their former country.  What's up with that?  It's a lot like permanent transplant living in one city with a major league baseball team and yet the transplant is still rooting for the baseball team of the city that s/he left.   Apart from a mandatory job transfer, it's likely that the migrant left the old city or the old country for a reason, be that economic, social, or religious reasons.  Chances are that there were no real opportunities for a good life there. But this doesn't mean that one should ignore the wonderful memories of the old city or the heritage of the country that you came from.  Nor is it a matter of being provincial.  As the cliché goes, when you are in Rome you do as the Romans do.  Comedian Carlos Mencia has a funny bit in which he points out how former Mexican citizens that are now here in the United States get insulted if you say something negative about "Mexico Lindo."  To paraphrase and clean it up a bit, Mencia points out that "Mexico is a sh*t-hole!  No wonder you left."

When I go the local organic food store, the place is jammed with diverse peoples--both as customers and as workers.  The common denominator seems to be a universal rudeness amongst the apparently unassimilated and the "native born Americans."  Workers push food pallets carts that nearly run me over without so much as a "Pardon me" or "Excuse me" to soften the rude carelessness.  Other shoppers carelessly bang into my cart and glare angrily at me as if I was the one that hit their cart. Having grown up in Texas in which men addressed women as "Miss ________" until the woman gave you permission to use their first name without the Miss; this rudeness is offputting. But all this rudeness really goes to the general coursening of our culture. Now that I think about it, perhaps the rudeness accurately reflects how well the immigrants have integrated and assimilated into American culture.

Two news items point to the general ineptitude, childishness, and arrogance of the Manchild President:

1. 
   
   "Broke" Obama turned down an invitation by German Chancellor Angela Merckel to celebrate the anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. "Broke" said that he was too busy to attend the ceremony.  Doing what? Thinking about sending more troops to Afghanistan while we've suffered the bloodiest month of the war?  Shooting hoops with his cronies? Going out on dates with Michelle Antoinette to New York at taxpayer expense?  Of course he was not "too busy" to pick and go to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago's Olympic bid at Mayor Daley's command.  But the real reason for his non-attendance may be that he would want to offend his fellow Marxist travelers by celebrating one of their most humiliating historical moments. 
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Instead of watching the election returns, the ultimate narcissist watched an HBO documentary about himself.  This story has been corrected by FoxNews. The APWP apologizes for any misunderstanding that may have resulted from this item.