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A Quote by President Theodore Roosevelt...
Where to begin...
It is always difficult to start one of these. I mean, what the hell do you put in a blog? What should you put in a blog, is probably a better question.
Answer? I will figure that out later. For now, I'll post a quote from former-President of the United States, Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt. One that I believe to be very true, and one I agree with wholeheartedly. Now, at the time of this quote the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution hadn't yet been passed, and the Civil Rights movement for Blacks in America hadn't yet taken place, but I believe this quote can translate very well for everyone(White, Black, Brown, Man or Woman, Gay or Straight) in today's America. Here is the quote...
Theodore Roosevelt on hyphenated Americans:
"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When
I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized
Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were
naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American
is not an American at all."
"This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance."
"But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else."
"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic."
"The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American."
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
- 12 October 1915
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Until next time..
-Wil
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