Independence Day Thoughts....
I've been a bit hard-pressed to write this weekend. So much news information to read and digest, let alone write down my own thoughts and feelings; plus catching up from having been away on my trip.
Anyway, it is Independence Day.....so I'd like to bring to your attention, this book: A Patriot's History of the United States : From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen.
It's been strange to see so much revisionist history romanticize Native-Americans and Chicano ancestors as environmentalistic, peaceful "noble savages" who never warred upon their neighbors; while at the same time reviling Christopher Columbus as the evil white devil and bringer of death and pestilence.
Our Founding Fathers have been similarly rejected and denigrated as nothing more than slave-owners and "terrorists" in their own right.
This is the kind of junk that is polluting our country.....this self-loathing and qaugmire of guilt.
Sure our nation was founded at the expense of Native-American Indians and built, in part, upon the backs of slaves; but what country is not guilty of their share of atrocities? What people and tribe has not, at some point in history, been the aggressor, raping, murdering, and pillaging? And they, in turn, not been repressed and subjugated? Yet moved on rather than seek reparations? America has not committed the worst of the worst. And you can't convince me that the America that we have become is not a force for good in so many different ways, in the world.
I am neither Christian nor white....yet I reject notions like political correctness, multi-culturalism, and diversity. Certain aspects of those concepts, I can agree with; but what they represent for me, is mostly negative results, to the extent and spirit in which these notions are often executed upon our society. I don't want to get too in-depth with what I perceive as the benefits and diseases of multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness, at this moment. Just know that I think these liberal notions have done more harm than good, in my opinion. They are uprooting the very fabric of our nation, and replanting what was known as American culture and the idea of a melting pot, with foreign culture that does not integrate itself into the current, established culture; they are pushing revisionist history that blames white Europeans and Judeo-Christian traditions with all the world's evils and seek to eradicate those Judeo-Christian principles of 2oo years upon which our modern nation was founded upon; and this is supposed to make others feel more welcomed. I don't remember the concept of immigration to mean you are free to set up your own mini-country within the US; I thought it meant you wished to become an American; I thought immigrating here meant you want to learn the language, culture, and history, without replacing those things with your own. Assimiliation, not segregation. That is one reason why illegal immigration undermines legal immigration. I love the beauty of all cultures and how they can enrich our own; but I don't want to end up living in Mexifornia. That isn't integration. We already have to press "1" on the telephone if we want to hear the rest of the message in English....pretty soon to make everyone feel welcomed and accomodated, we'll have to listen to options for Japanese, Farsi, Arabic, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and other groups who feel disenfranchised and slighted. Where does it end?
Waving the Mexican flag and showing more allegiance to it (going beyond mere pride in one's ancestral culture and heritage) than to the US flag, isn't being patriotic.
In the liberal belief system, it often seems like tolerance means tolerance for all, except where white Christian culture is concerned; diversity means all cultures welcomed, except for "white" culture, which is not "ethnic" enough; it is this "white culture" that is guilty of imperialism and slave-holding at one time; but it is also this very same culture that was principled enough to defend other nations against aggressors and be among the first in the world to abolish slavery.
We are, at heart, a deeply moral nation. Yet there are those on the Left who seem saddled with moral relativism who cannot recognize evil and have no will to fight it. They can only preach about tolerance and understanding for evil, while showing intolerance for those who have the clarity to call a spade a spade and who have the intestinal fortitude to fight evil. And all the while, they are filled with guilt and self-blame, for wrongs real and imagined; they wring their hands and fret over what the rest of the world thinks of us. Go read a book or article by Jean Francois Revel, the French intellectual, who will confirm that America is in fact, a force for good in the world and that the America-bashers are the ones who are misguided and have it all wrong.
The following is from Amazon's editorial book review, for A Patriot's History:
For at least thirty years, high school and college students have been taught to be embarrassed by American history. Required readings have become skewed toward a relentless focus on our country’s darkest moments, from slavery to McCarthyism. As a result, many history books devote more space to Harriet Tubman than to Abraham Lincoln; more to My Lai than to the American Revolution; more to the internment of Japanese Americans than to the liberation of Europe in World War II.
Now, finally, there is an antidote to this biased approach to our history. Two veteran history professors have written a sweeping, well-researched book that puts the spotlight back on America’s role as a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.
Schweikart and Allen are careful to tell their story straight, from Columbus’s voyage to the capture of Saddam Hussein. They do not ignore America’s mistakes through the years, but they put them back in their proper perspective. And they conclude that America’s place as a world leader derived largely from the virtues of our own leaders— the men and women who cleared the wilderness, abolished slavery, and rid the world of fascism and communism.
The authors write in a clear and enjoyable style that makes history a pleasure, not just for students but also for adults who want to learn what their teachers skipped over.
About the Authors:
Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton.
Michael Allen is a professor of history and American studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma.
Anyway, it is Independence Day.....so I'd like to bring to your attention, this book: A Patriot's History of the United States : From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Larry Schweikart and Michael Patrick Allen.
It's been strange to see so much revisionist history romanticize Native-Americans and Chicano ancestors as environmentalistic, peaceful "noble savages" who never warred upon their neighbors; while at the same time reviling Christopher Columbus as the evil white devil and bringer of death and pestilence.
Our Founding Fathers have been similarly rejected and denigrated as nothing more than slave-owners and "terrorists" in their own right.
This is the kind of junk that is polluting our country.....this self-loathing and qaugmire of guilt.
Sure our nation was founded at the expense of Native-American Indians and built, in part, upon the backs of slaves; but what country is not guilty of their share of atrocities? What people and tribe has not, at some point in history, been the aggressor, raping, murdering, and pillaging? And they, in turn, not been repressed and subjugated? Yet moved on rather than seek reparations? America has not committed the worst of the worst. And you can't convince me that the America that we have become is not a force for good in so many different ways, in the world.
I am neither Christian nor white....yet I reject notions like political correctness, multi-culturalism, and diversity. Certain aspects of those concepts, I can agree with; but what they represent for me, is mostly negative results, to the extent and spirit in which these notions are often executed upon our society. I don't want to get too in-depth with what I perceive as the benefits and diseases of multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness, at this moment. Just know that I think these liberal notions have done more harm than good, in my opinion. They are uprooting the very fabric of our nation, and replanting what was known as American culture and the idea of a melting pot, with foreign culture that does not integrate itself into the current, established culture; they are pushing revisionist history that blames white Europeans and Judeo-Christian traditions with all the world's evils and seek to eradicate those Judeo-Christian principles of 2oo years upon which our modern nation was founded upon; and this is supposed to make others feel more welcomed. I don't remember the concept of immigration to mean you are free to set up your own mini-country within the US; I thought it meant you wished to become an American; I thought immigrating here meant you want to learn the language, culture, and history, without replacing those things with your own. Assimiliation, not segregation. That is one reason why illegal immigration undermines legal immigration. I love the beauty of all cultures and how they can enrich our own; but I don't want to end up living in Mexifornia. That isn't integration. We already have to press "1" on the telephone if we want to hear the rest of the message in English....pretty soon to make everyone feel welcomed and accomodated, we'll have to listen to options for Japanese, Farsi, Arabic, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and other groups who feel disenfranchised and slighted. Where does it end?
Waving the Mexican flag and showing more allegiance to it (going beyond mere pride in one's ancestral culture and heritage) than to the US flag, isn't being patriotic.
And yes, I am using "Mexican-Americans" as the example to state my case. What of it? Do I really have to defend myself against accusations of racism, here? It's not like Lithuanians are pouring over the borders by the millions.
And I am generalizing. I realize that the majority of Chicanos in this country are patriotic Americans, with quite a number of them also several generations in deep. I would think any of the legal immigrants who are first generation Americans would be furious over our weakness in handling the illegal immigration problem. It is like having people cut in line, in front of you.
In the liberal belief system, it often seems like tolerance means tolerance for all, except where white Christian culture is concerned; diversity means all cultures welcomed, except for "white" culture, which is not "ethnic" enough; it is this "white culture" that is guilty of imperialism and slave-holding at one time; but it is also this very same culture that was principled enough to defend other nations against aggressors and be among the first in the world to abolish slavery.
We are, at heart, a deeply moral nation. Yet there are those on the Left who seem saddled with moral relativism who cannot recognize evil and have no will to fight it. They can only preach about tolerance and understanding for evil, while showing intolerance for those who have the clarity to call a spade a spade and who have the intestinal fortitude to fight evil. And all the while, they are filled with guilt and self-blame, for wrongs real and imagined; they wring their hands and fret over what the rest of the world thinks of us. Go read a book or article by Jean Francois Revel, the French intellectual, who will confirm that America is in fact, a force for good in the world and that the America-bashers are the ones who are misguided and have it all wrong.
The following is from Amazon's editorial book review, for A Patriot's History:
For at least thirty years, high school and college students have been taught to be embarrassed by American history. Required readings have become skewed toward a relentless focus on our country’s darkest moments, from slavery to McCarthyism. As a result, many history books devote more space to Harriet Tubman than to Abraham Lincoln; more to My Lai than to the American Revolution; more to the internment of Japanese Americans than to the liberation of Europe in World War II.
Now, finally, there is an antidote to this biased approach to our history. Two veteran history professors have written a sweeping, well-researched book that puts the spotlight back on America’s role as a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.
Schweikart and Allen are careful to tell their story straight, from Columbus’s voyage to the capture of Saddam Hussein. They do not ignore America’s mistakes through the years, but they put them back in their proper perspective. And they conclude that America’s place as a world leader derived largely from the virtues of our own leaders— the men and women who cleared the wilderness, abolished slavery, and rid the world of fascism and communism.
The authors write in a clear and enjoyable style that makes history a pleasure, not just for students but also for adults who want to learn what their teachers skipped over.
About the Authors:
Larry Schweikart is a history professor at the University of Dayton.
Michael Allen is a professor of history and American studies at the University of Washington, Tacoma.
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 7/04/2005 10:10:00 AM
6 Comments:
Excellent post. You are indeed a wordsmith. I cannot improve upon those sentiments, nor would I want to.
Actually, there is something I want to say.
I see nothing wrong with multi-culturalism or diversity or even political correctness although PC is in itself an example of government overkill. It is when we take it way too far that it becomes a problem.
Yes...my post is a bit of a rant, but I made sure to cover myself, if you reread:
Certain aspects of those concepts, I can agree with; but what they represent for me, is mostly negative results, to the extent and spirit in which these notions are often executed upon our society. I don't want to get too in-depth with what I perceive as the benefits and diseases of multiculturalism, diversity, and political correctness, at this moment.
I also said how I like the enrichment that other cultures can bring, adding their strength to America. But what I don't like is forced equality for all cultures and religions. It would be like someone coming to your home and saying, "Your country is a nation of immgrants and about acceptance of all religions and cultures; therefore, English should not be the official language of the country. It does not accomodate diversity and multiculturalism. Therefore, any language goes."
I hope you can see the gist of what I am trying to say, since I may lack some clarity in explaining, here.
Nope. You did an admirable job of explaining yourself. Now tell the truth. You are a professional writer or journalist, aren't you?
Just an English major who had plans to write novels when I was growing up.
Well, Damn, Wordsmith! Help me write my novel! I have been begging for help since i strarted it. You can find it to make suggestions or critiques at www.acuttingwind.blogspot.com
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