LET’S BECOME AMERICANS…FIRST…AGAIN (…and something else…second)

Over the past fifty years we have allowed the alien un-American concept of – political correctness – to progressively infect this country much like an insidious virus. A virus which continues to undermine the foundations and ideals of what our country is supposed to be all about…and in ways which are eroding the unity of our common polity.

The worst of these ways is how we now describe ourselves as some kind of hyphenated American belonging to another “community” besides that of being just… American. The only other “community” that should be referred to here in America is the one in which we happen to live…New York, Pittsburg, Nashville, St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago, Miami, or North Zulch, Texas (there was such a place some time ago, it may even still be around).

The current politically correct style of excessive emphasis on the – pluribus- of our diversity, rather than on the –unum- of our all being American negates the ideals of our national motto…E Pluribus Unum – out of many…one. A motto which the founders of our republic deliberately and wisely chose because they understood that, as a nation of immigrants of disparate origins, races, ethnicities, and religions, it was imperative to have a common glue which would hold all of them together as a single unity which could withstand the forces of disunity such disparity might have over time.

That common…glue…for that unity… has been our Constitution and the commonality of the laws derived from it, plus, a common language, which by the happenstance of history was English. More importantly, that common language proved to be well adapted for our “diversity” because of its inherent absorbing and adaptive character, making it most compatible with that ideal. Today, American English reflects both our diversity and our unity as probably one of the most dynamic and versatile languages in the world (it has more borrowed and adapted words and terminology than any other language on earth).

Yet, in recent times, we seem to have abandoned that sense of common identity, over- emphasizing that disparity of origins which is creating a non-unifying trend that manifests itself in all sorts of negative ways.

For example: voting ballots are now printed in multi-lingual formats (despite one of the requirements for becoming a citizen is being able to use basic English); we now also allow and recognize dual-citizenship (despite the oath of citizenship which requires renouncing all other allegiances); and identifying ourselves with a variety of prefixes to the term American (Afro, Hispanic, Native, Arab, Scots-Irish, German, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu, etc., etc.).

We have also taken certain ethnic festivals and folk celebrations and made them into almost national holidays of our own…St. Patrick’s Day, once an Irish religious festival, now turned into an annual parading extravaganza, and the occasion for excessive public intoxication… Cinqo de Mayo, a Mexican national holiday celebrating their victory over French invasion back in the 1860s (why that should be a cause of celebration here is a puzzlement); Chinese New Year, rivaling both of these in wide celebration and festivities, featuring massive firecracker salvos, prancing dragons, and lithesome young women in silken costumes.

Of course we do have some other and more marginally observed festivals such as the October Fest of our Germanic folk, and the Bastille Day of our French brethren (a national holiday in France celebrating the violent overthrow of a royalist regime…which, ironically, had helped bring about the creation of our own republic). In short, we seem to be very selective about what to celebrate or not. Much depends on how “politically correct” that might be at any moment in time (we generally ignore our Native folk, however, since these have been shunted aside into relatively isolated ghettos we call…reservations…so out of sight… out of mind).

Perhaps it’s time to stop and say to ourselves…let’s all be Americans…first…again…and something else…second. There is no fault in being proud of our individual heritages and cultures but, whether born or brought here, once here, we now belong to another amalgam called…America…and that should be our prime focus and our only identity.

CENTURION