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| - by user Layla Crossposted from The HILL Chronicles The U.S. is made up of many different nationalities ranging from all economic stratas. The U.S. being called a "melting pot" once was something we as Americans could be proud of. We opened our doors to all ethnicities and religions. But in having done so we have circumvented much of our American heritage for a more progressive anti-American society. Traditionally, when people came to America it was not just to improve their life and their standard of living, but it was to embrace the United States as a whole - learning English, learning American history, adapting to American customs and traditions. That is not so anymore. Now we have immigrants, irregardless be they legal or illegal coming into the U.S. and dictating how we Americans must adapt to their language, their history, and their customs and traditions, not limited to in some cases religion. It behooves me to think that if I were to travel to any foreign country be it to live their or visit that I should expect the red carpet laid out and that the host country should accommodate me. But this is exactly what is expected by so many foreigners entering the United States and the United Kingdom. Doctors in the U.S. must now provide bi-lingual staff to deal with the influx of people unable to speak English, otherwise they may be held liable and open to lawsuit for malpractice. All the American automated systems ranging from telephone companies, electric companies to department stores offer a choice of English or Spanish - sometimes even saying, "to hear this message in English press one." In other words, one is given the impression that Spanish is the language of the land. American University’s Gary Weaver says: “Some economists argue that the continuing rise in productivity is because of the waves of immigrants,” said Weaver in a live Internet chat September 28. Immigrants work hard and frequently revitalize run-down neighborhoods, he said. “This has been the traditional pattern in the U.S. No major city mayor wants to stop immigration!” Weaver, a faculty member of the School of International Service at AU, said many immigrants to the United States “already share many traditional American values and beliefs …. They tend to look toward the future, they want to begin anew, they believe that through their own efforts they can advance economically, and they think they may have a better way of life for their children in America.” He added that “we need immigrants,” and that Americans are “accustomed to people from other countries coming here and becoming citizens.” The United States does discourage illegal immigration, Weaver said, and he acknowledged that since the terrorist attacks of 2001 it is more difficult to get a visa. According to Weaver, the United States has averaged about 1 million new legal immigrants a year since 1964, and some 70 percent to 80 percent of them have been people of color. “Americans come in all colors, and by 2040 non-Hispanic white people will be a minority. In fact, today, in four of our states [Texas, California, New Mexico, Hawaii] and the District of Columbia, white people are a minority. Two of these states are our largest states!” he said. This being said Weaver still misses the point of multi-culturalism. If being white or Hispanic has anything to do with being American - then I would say the common denominator would be that it is we live in the United States of America. There are a set of traditions we share as Americans - a history - English as the common denominator of our communications. Do we trade this in to appease multi-culturalism? Do we exhault one nationality over another giving precidence to one and not the other? This is what multi-culturalism has done, though the original intent was for the United States to be a country where all could live and thrive in the American way of life as was in the United Kindgom. David Cameron of the U.K. said this of multi-culturalism brilliantly: "The doctrine of multi-culturalism has undermined our nation’s sense of cohesion because it emphasises what divides us rather than what brings us together. It has been manipulated to entrench the right to difference, a unifying concept." This perfectly sites exactly what has happened within the United States and United Kingdom. Multi-culturalism has emphasized what divides us rather than what brought us together in the first place. To hear many speak of multi-culturalism today it is as if it is some right of passage. But it is that same right of passage that is destroying the very reasons the United States as well as the United Kingdom exists - the very reason we are to co-exist not alienate one from another. __NOEDITSECTION__ From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki. From The Opinion Wiki, a Wikia wiki.
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