Posted on 03/03/2004 2:55:13 PM PST by MegaSilver
Racists in America must be having a field day: At long last, they have found a world-renowned intellectual -- Harvard's Academy for International and Area Studies Chairman Samuel Huntington -- to rationalize their resentment against America's rapidly growing Hispanic community.
Huntington, whose 1993 book The Clash of Civilizations was later credited for having foreseen the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, says in his forthcoming book Who We Are (Simon & Schuster) that the United States is threatened with national disintegration because of the soaring rate of Hispanic immigrants.
''The single most immediate and most serious challenge to America's traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico, and the fertility rates of these immigrants,'' writes Huntington, in excerpts of the book posted on the Foreign Policy magazine website .
''Will the United States remain a country with a single national language and a core Anglo-Protestant culture?'' Huntington asks. ''By ignoring this question, Americans acquiesce to their eventual transformation into two peoples with two cultures (Anglo and Hispanics) and two languages (English and Spanish.)'' The magazine website is
www.foreignpolicy.com.
Before I tell you why I think this is pseudo-academic xenophobic rubbish, let's look at Huntington's supporting arguments: He says Mexican immigrants differ from other immigrants in that they are not assimilating into the U.S. mainstream culture, and that they may one day reclaim the territories that Mexico lost during U.S. military invasions in the 19th century.
CAUSES OF ALARM
He is alarmed by the fact that the ratings of Spanish-language television stations have surpassed those of English-language ones in Miami, that ''José'' has surpassed ''Michael'' as the most popular name for newborn boys in California, and that Mexican Americans cheer for Mexico in U.S. vs. Mexico soccer matches.
Huntington sees ''a major potential threat to the country's cultural and political integration.'' Mexico may one day try to ''assert special rights and claims to that territory,'' he writes.
Poor Dr. Huntington. Watching America from his Bostonian observation deck, he is getting real nervous about the erosion of what he defines as America's ``Anglo-Protestant culture.''
But, as seen from Miami, where a majority of adults speak a language other than English at home, his idea that Hispanics pose a threat to America is absurd.
In Miami, many immigrants don't speak English, but their children eventually do.
You saw as many American flags as in any other U.S. city after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the city has become a center of international trade and services precisely because it is bilingual and bicultural.
And where is it written that people are biologically limited to speaking only one language?
Anybody who has traveled through Europe knows that the Swiss, Danes, Swedes and others speak two, three and sometimes four languages.
And Huntington's claim that Mexican Americans pose a bigger threat than Cuban Americans because they are more reluctant to assimilate is simply wrong.
Every time I go to Los Angeles or San Antonio I'm amazed by the number of people with names such as ''Juan Gonzalez'' who don't speak Spanish.
ASSIMILATION TREND
According to a new nationwide study of U.S. Hispanics by the Synovate market research company, the actual trend among Hispanics is toward greater assimilation, despite the new waves of Spanish-speaking newcomers.
Over the past 12 years, the number of unassimilated Hispanics -- those who don't consume English-language media -- has decreased from 40 percent to 26 percent, the study's authors say.
''Most Hispanics, about 63 percent, are bilingual and bicultural,'' says Jim Forrest, the study's director. ``These people are extremely comfortable in both languages. It's a group that has accommodated and has learned how to live in the United States taking the best from their host culture and keeping the best from their home culture.''
If you are wondering whether Huntington's arguments are just misguided, or plainly Hispano-phobic, I suggest doing this little exercise: replace the term ''Hispanic'' in the text with ''African American,'' or ''black,'' then ask yourself what would be the reaction of the black community. I assure you that civil rights groups would call for national protests against Harvard University and Simon & Schuster, as they should do in this case.
My feeling of concern is becoming one of resignation. Resignation to the fact that we'll be having another Civil War in twenty, ten years or maybe less.
Whether it be totalitarian liberals ramming evil down our throats, or this invasion force becoming more and more aggressive in its demands, something is going to break.
When it happens, it will be time to clean house in America.
How many native born of several generations versus immigrants and their immediate offspring in a website such as this:
Open borders is allowing the worst criminals to move on over --- no background checks of course.
Fox even said they are the new "settlers" to the USA --- he means this to be a conquering of this country -- assimilation isn't in the game plan, assimilation obviously doesn't always happen --- Europeans didn't assimilate into North American Indian culture --- they took them over.
That's what I'm referring to.........it's undeniable.
And the differences tend to be between those Americans who have respect for our values and our laws, and those Americans who think our values and laws are the scourge of humanity.
Right.....and those idiots who see American values as being the 'scourge of humanity' are bent on nothing less than the destruction of this country.
We're either headed for a major clash, or this nation will have to go through a major spiritual revival -- those are the choices.
I'll take answer "c"---both of the above.
The left in this country has embarked on an aggressive ideological 'purification' program.
Whether it be the ACLU litigating one profane thing after another, or liberal activist fascists legislating abominations from the bench, or Planned Parenthood wrapping its tentacles around young impressionable children. It goes on and on. A judge ordering a Catholic organization to provide contraception for employees, a direct assault on its value system. Mind you, I am not Catholic, but anybody can see the ramifications of this. It's the left saying, "Go to hell........you'll do what we say, whether you like it or not".
GLSEN and their left wing NEA compatriots telling parents that their agenda supercedes any parental rights.
Relentless attacks on Christians and conservatives in popular culture, the news media, courtrooms, schools.
Being a Christian or a conservative in America is akin to being a Jew in Nazi Germany. The pogroms have started, they will not back off, they are too arrogant to do so. There is one striking difference however.
We have guns.
When the smoke clears, we will have driven every single one of these foul beasts out of this country forever.
Correct. The Indians had the will to stop the invasion, but not the means.
We have the means to stop the invasion, but not the will.
I respect the Indians a hell of a lot more.
We have guns.
And most of our military is conservative. I can tell you right off the bat that ROTC students like myself do NOT appreciate the likes of Michael Moore, et. al.
Well, all I know is that if someone could show me some hard substantiation for it, I would be more than willing to believe that Vincente Fox is staging a low-key invasion of the Mexican Cession from within.
There is plenty of circumstantial evidence to that end.
Ummmm... Before you do that, there is something much more pertinent that you need to attend to. What are your credentials? On what experiences, study and research are you basing your opinion? Anything at all other than the inane "progressive" gene that assumes that all liberals know everything? Has your opinion been declared the equal to findings based on study, reason, logic research, statistics and insight?
No? I didn't think so. How about Jim Forrest, the director of Synovate market research company? What are his credentials? Who funds his group? For whom was the study done and what is their source of funding? Is he simply replicating assertions made out of whole cloth by "studies" buried so deep no one can identify the original source?
Over the past 12 years, the number of unassimilated Hispanics -- those who don't consume English-language media -- has decreased from 40 percent to 26 percent...
I would be astounded if that were anywhere near true, unless there is a lie by omission: it may be true of legal alien immigrants. My eyes and ears tell me the opposite, so what am I to believe?
And where is it written that people are biologically limited to speaking only one language?
Now, this is precious! comparing apples and oranges (never mind that it's irrelevant; Switzerland has among the strictest immigration laws in the world!). This sad sack Oppenheimer can't make the distinction between a society willingly deciding to learn other languages, and being forced to speak other languages due to illegal invasion by semi-literates. Additionally, I seriously doubt that the Swiss speak Spanish at home among themselves.
Anybody who has traveled through Europe knows that the Swiss, Danes, Swedes and others speak two, three and sometimes four languages.
Again irrelevant. Although I would indeed be impressed if any illegal aliens from the south speak two to four languages, and if they do, it is entirely their choice; as it should be ours.
Yes......and that is a very important thing, something these people should consider carefully.
I can tell you right off the bat that ROTC students like myself do NOT appreciate the likes of Michael Moore, et. al.
I have no doubt in my mind about that MegaSilver......let them continue to play with fire.
I've lost fear of such events......and not because of some overblown machismo.
Simply because I see forces arrayed against us who are bent on wiping us out. They are not forgiving to those who oppose their agenda, as we've seen. Total destruction of anyone who opposes their goals is the final solution, and as they have demonstrated, they will go to great lengths to achieve it.
If Christ showed up in America tomorrow, undoubtably these types would try to kill Him again. As they try to kill him every day by word and deed.
America is polarized as several have pointed out; yet the polarization is unlike anything we have seen in America previously.
It literally is good vs evil. It started out as something called 'political correctness', and has evolved (or devolved) into its true self; overt facism, coupled with a desire to impose secular doctrines of the most abhorrent kind upon everybody.
Now some may also think that my references to the pogroms of Nazi Germany are overblown, but they are not.
Simply substitute the word 'Jew' for Christians in the way the left talks about us, and it's plain to see what road we're on.
The left is relentlessly trying to push Christians from public life. Christians are mocked and ridiculed, depicted as enemies of the state, by our not-so-liberal 'friends'.
Christian organizations are under attack, being forced by lawless liberal judges to swallow abominations by the bucketful. All that's missing is the camps, but I'm sure they will find time to create them when they feel they are in a position to do so.
One of us is going down hard, and I suspect that it won't be us.
There is a bright lining for them in such an event however; I'm sure Mexico and the UN will be quite magnaminous in caring for these folks who were formerly US citizens. Vincente Fox (or whoever is calling the shots at the time) better get their healthcare systems, their schools, and their economies squared away.
Because they'll be coming.
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