What it means to be an American

What it means to be an American
By Kamo

What does it mean to be American you ask? I think most of us go on with our lives not thinking about what it truly means to be an American. If you can take a moment, and really think about what it is to be a true American, you should instantly feel this sudden overpowering sense of being proud to be apart of something great. Most people take this for granted, and loose all sight on what this truly means. In no way form or fashion am I a racist. If reading this gives you the impression that I am in fact a racist, all that shows is how closed-minded you truly are. I would like to point out one ethnic group that in my opinion, a threat to our way of life, Mexicans. Some people call me paranoid, some call me a bigot, and some just say I don’t know what I am talking about but here it is.I am a first generation “hapa”. My father is 100% Japanese and my mother is Caucasian.

To make a long story short, my mother was and always will be a US Marine. She was stationed in Japan and soon met my soon to be dad. Most may not know the Japanese culture, but dating, even marrying out of Japanese was considered not good by the old school Japanese culture. It took years for my Japanese family to accept her as a new part of the family. Of course, here in the states, we don’t have that kind of issue. Well, at least not as bad.

After my parents got married, my dad decided to leave his family and country and start a new in the USA. When my dad arrived here, in wasn’t to long when I was born. Many of us all know people with similar stories and I hope you can relate to this. Takamasa, my dad, did not speak a word of English. Of course coming to American was a culture shock in its own but he adapted.Hopefully everyone can remember that lesson we all learned in US History and/or World Geography, that America is a melting pot. That is truly what makes this country what it is today. The diversity here is almost uncommon in many countries around the world.

Now I can agree that this country doesn’t have an official language but lets face it, English is the undisputed language of America.I am pretty sure everyone has called their bank, or called some other business and the first thing that is asked is “If you would like to continue in English, press 1…. Gibberish gibberish gibberish espanol, bla bla something 2.” Where the option for Japanese? Where is the option for Vietnamese? Where is the option for French? Where is the option for (fill in the blank)? Why is it that this country has to cater to one but not the other? My dad learned English basically while I was learning to speak when I was a baby. I am 50% Japanese and I don’t even know how to speak it. I asked my dad why and he simply said, this is America… none of you Japanese family lives here and there aren’t that many Japanese in this area.

I can honestly say that I wish I was more in touch with my Japanese side but I can say with all honesty that I would not change the fact that I am an American.It has even gotten to our public school system. If you don’t speak English, its okay… we will teach you in Spanish. No, there’s no reason you should learn about our culture, our language, our way of life…. Am I the only one that sees this? It’s our own damn fault that caused all those protests of predominantly Mexican protesters to try and protest something so profound as making illegal aliens legal. How and why is this fair to all the people that are waiting, trying to come the correct and legal way?

I think we can all call this the stray dog scenario. You have this stray animal that is outside your house. You feel bad for it, so you feed it some food. Now this stray keeps coming back because it knows you will feed it. Over time, you basically feel you are obligated to take ownership of it. This is so retarded! Okay, let’s break I don’t know how many rules, come to America, and just the fact you’re here, you’re here means you have all the same rights as a legal citizen.If I have learned anything from watching and hearing these views from the protests, it basically tells me that these people don’t care about our culture. All they want is to come here, and basically leach off what we work so hard for, and not accept our way of life.

I will close with this."In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907