What ever happened to the melting pot?

Ok...Before I get cries of liberal propaganda, let me first state that I am someone who believe that America should have an official language: English. Most countries have an official spoken language, and to this day I do not understand why America does not.

Now on to my rant. Today I had the great pleasure of listening to a man rant about how America was falling into the shitter because of all these new immigrants (Indians, Mexicans, etc.) and how they were disrupting the society that we had with their new cultures. He then when on about how the left wants us to abandon our good old American values and make the cultural switch. Now, the problem is, this isn't an isolated incident. Americans today fear that we are going to lose what our country is with the influx of Spanish speaking individuals from South of the Border (for the sake of this argument, I am only going to address those who legally enter. Illegal immigration is a whole other issue). Their are two things I would like to address:

1. Our culture arises from a mixing of previous immigrant groups. America today looks nothing like America from 100 years ago, never mind 10.

2. This Nativist reaction isn't new either and has been a part of our culture since the nation was founded

Addressing 1, we have always been a country comprised of amalgamations of different nationalities. Now, I could understand some outburst at the president's statement that maybe instead of complaining about the Mexican kid in your classroom, your kid should be more worried about your kid learning Spanish (In fact, it annoyed me. Spanish is the one subject I have never done well in.) I feel that it may be pushing it to far to say that we should worry about adopting parts of the culture. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that:

A. There is nothing to gain from their culture

B. Learning a language spoken by approximately a third of our nation is a bad idea

I mean, lets look back at other immigrant groups for point A. We would not have a great deal of our modern culture if we had completely ignored incoming cultures. For example, Cold Beer and Franks can be ascribed to our German compatriots (we would have warm lager otherwise), and you can't get more good old American than that plus a game of baseball. Other things we take for granted stem from other immigrant groups . So condemning are absorbtion of other cultures would mean we have to forsake much of what

As for point B, a lot of people do speak Spanish, so learning it is not a bad idea. I am not saying though that they should not also learn English or given leeway. But the fact is, most first generation immigrants do not learn the language well, regardless of what group they are from. Many Italian immigrants in the the early 19th century learned only enough english to get by. It usually is only the second or third generation that fully adopts English as their primary language as they have been exposed to it long enough to be comfortable with it. Given time, we will likely see English beginning to become more common place in the Hispanic Communities.

Now as to problem 2, the nativist aspect isn't new either. For example, the Irish were hated on for a long period of time because they were Catholics. Most Mediteranean (Greeks and Italians) faced a great deal of dislike because they were of darker complexion and were less likely to speak English off the boat. The Chinese and other Asian cultures were disliked because they were beleived to be inferior humans, and Jews and Eastern Europeans were often viewed with suspicion. All were hated because they took jobs from good, honest "native Americans" (ironic, sicne most actual native Americans were treated as bad or worse then the immigrants at this time period). Though some of those groups still face predjudice from a small portion of the population, they have for the most part been accepted and aspects of their culture somehow fit into the hodgepodge of American culture. And now we have another group of non-white, non-english speakers trying to enter our country and we are faced again with a loud cry of hate. What is both ironic and sad is that it is almost the same outcry, that good, honest "native Americans" are losing out, when many are no more than third generation Americans themselves. America was built off of immigrants, and to now say that we no longer want to be such a nation is unfair, especially when you consider how much we like to promote that America is the nation that does not judge and where any man can rise from nothing.

Honestly, we should take it as a compliment that people are still fighting to get into our country.