Sunday, October 26, 2008

Theodore Roosevelt on Immigration

Theodore Roosevelt in 1907
'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 person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but ! an Amer ican...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... 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.'

Even though I think every American citizen needs to read this, I also think every new immigrant should. I would love to see the hypen-ated citizen lose the 'other part' of thier nationality. No more with the "Mexican-American" or "African-American", as these divide the nation on lines of color and nationality.

1 comment:

  1. Doug, I agree with Teddy. I've always found it odd that there are Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans. When I finally get my permanent residency and then take citizenship, I intend to be an american rather than an anglo-american. I'll just still prefer english beer!

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