Tue - March 18, 2008AssimilationSt. Patrick's Day has brought up an issue to me
that I thought I would rant about a bit
today.
A friend of mine participates on a blog that I frequent. Lovely people, I used to know her when she was in my squadron so many years ago. Just yesterday it seems to me. They posted some Irish ditties on their website, she going maudlin about how she sang these ditties to her children. Now, the nature of such childhood songs is that they evoke positive memories, no matter how bad the music really is. Those not raised with these chanties find nothing special about them at all, but we can all appreciate a mother's memories of singing to her child. What makes this an interesting issue to me it that these people, I suppose, are Irish. Now, I don't want to assign any ideas to them that I'm not sure they hold, so I'll leave my discussion of my friends and speak generically instead. The Irish and other past waves of immigrants often make the dubious claim that their ancesters differ from immigrants today because they sought to be "assimilated" into American culture, whereas now they don't. So how have the Irish "assimilated?" They sing
bad songs, drink their own beers, and have their own unofficial holiday. In
fact the people who seem to have assimilated are the rest of us, not the
Irish.
The only real difference between the Irish then and the Mexicans and others that are made into political boogey monsters today is that they speak a different language. And truth be told, Mexicans were in many states long before those states entered the union. The Irish haven't assimilated. They blended into the melting pot. And that's a good thing. Now, when more spices continue to contribute to that stew, we should welcome them just as much as we do the Irish. Now, the existence of welfare and subsidies given to immigrants is an entirely different issue . . . Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents | |