It is not often that one particular article can cause me to get so upset and generally horrified about the author and anyone who might believe in him/her. But the latest issue of Foreign Policy has an article written by Sam P. Huntington, that gets my vote for most awful article of the year. Why so awful? Because his article is basically a warning to the United States that Mexican Americans are a threat to the American way of life. He claims that Mexicans are becoming a huge percentage of the population, refuse to stop speaking Spanish, keep a low quality of life, and do not assimilate to the “American Dream.”
Let me just provide a few excerpts, if I can avoid throwing up:
“American identity is now defined in terms of culture and creed. Most Americans see the creed as the crucial element of their national identity. The creed, however, was the product of the distinct Anglo-Protestant culture of the founding settlers. Key elements of that culture include the English language; Christianity; religious commitment; English concepts of the rule of law, including the responsibility of rulers and the rights of individuals; and dissenting Protestant values of individualism, the work ethic, and the belief that humans have the ability and the duty to try to create a heaven on earth”
“Demographically, socially, and culturally, the reconquista (re-conquest) of the Southwest United States by Mexican immigrants is well underway.”
“As their numbers increase, Mexican Americans feel increasingly comfortable with their own culture and often contemptuous of American culture. They demand recognition of their culture and the historic Mexican identity of the U.S. Southwest.
The transformation of the United States into a country like these would not necessarily be the end of the world; it would, however, be the end of the America we have known for more than three centuries. Americans should not let that change happen unless they are convinced that this new nation would be a better one.”
Huntington, while trying to act very “matter a fact”about his conclusions, seems quite scared. Maybe I can help calm him.
Bicyclemark’s Open Letter to S.P.H.’s article “The Hispanic Challenge”
Dear Mr. Huntington,
I have more news from the front lines of the “ethnic” war. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Mexicans and other Spanish speaking cultures are not the only threat to your white anglo-protestant paradise!
Let me explain… I may be writing and speaking English, but I’m a proud Portuguese-American. YES! I speak Portuguese at home, and also on the street with the now close to 1 million Portuguese people who make their life in the US. We teach our children the language, we have traditional festivals, and worst of all – we’re not anglo-protestant!
It gets worse, there are Polish folks in my home city! YES! They speak to each other in Polish, and I hear they have language schools as well! They go back to Poland often, and some dream of going back, or staying here, YOU NEVER KNOW!! Mr. Huntington things only get worse for you and your friends, because I’ve heard the Russians, Chinese, Koreans, Jordanians, Turks, Haitians… they’re all here! Would you believe they call themselves American? But they don’t like baseball… hamburgers.. and hostile take-overs – America is doomed!
I’m writing to forewarn you, lock your doors, don’t listen to the radio, don’t talk to the neighbors. There are more of us then there are of you. If you survive this “invasion” we might even help you build your little elks-lodge, like the good anglo-protestants like to do.
Our sweat is the oil that keeps the machinery of this and many other nations, going. We built this place! In the end sir, neither you nor some old white men in Washington decide what the American dream is. We do.
Stay safe out there,
Bicyclemark
Today’s Music: Bright Eyes – Bowl of Oranges