Posted on 04/04/2006 5:37:57 AM PDT by tutstar
This thread is complements of T.L.Sink who posted this first quote the other day. As I searched the web to locate a url or article to use as the reference I found more quotes on immigration by Teddy Roosevelt. I'll post their links under the quote.
"In the first place we should insist that the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equity 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 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 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 in a letter to the American Defense Society in 1919.
"Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country," he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. "English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools." http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_roosevelt_on_immigrants.htm
“We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.” http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/like/every_immigrant_who_comes_here_should_be_required/325314/
In LA, where I live, that is already the case. It is "insensitive" to ask an immigrant why they can't speak English, even if they've lived in the U.S. for 20 years or more. But I wish I had a dime for every time someone's said to me, "You've lived in LA HOW long, and you still don't speak Spanish?!"
Works for me!!
The problem is out of control, maybe that's why Pres Bush is trying to make deals with Fox and the Canadian PM.
“We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.”
It's too bad this is not short enough to fit on the tag line.
I'm against illegal immigration. But that concept really didn't exist in Roosevelt's time - he was instead commenting on the need for assimilation - which is a vital but separate argument from illegal immigration - plenty of legal immigrants aren't properly assimilating now, either.
No that says nothing about illegals merely any immigrant who does not place America first in his affections.
And he was the youngest president the U.S. has ever had. (JFK was the youngest elected president)
Teddy Roosevelt actually wanted "UNLIMITED" immigration of the "right kind" - do either of you agree with?
Roosevelt was speaking during a time in which the USA was not nearly as populous as today. I would restrict immigration to the types of people who would help this nation (as well as all beautiful babes): educated, Liberty loving, non-AIDS ridden, non-Socialist.
Just wanted to see if you agreed with TR on all his points about immigration, that's all.
I agree that TR spoke valid truths for his day. Why anyone would believe them still valid in all cases is a mystery.
*ping*
Source please, to validate your statement?
Too late - already is in many areas. Here in Arkansas, if you want a job in many locations, particularly in the NW part of the state, you have to know Spanish if you hope to get hired for many jobs.
And forget getting a job as a school teacher in that same region if you don't speak Spanish ---it's a requirement now.
Our "free-market" system is going to force the language on us, regardless of the law. As is told in the quotes from TR, immigrants should "become American" - including the language (English). Yet that has been thrown out the door. we no longer expect immigrants to learn the language (at least Hispanic immigrants).
And the figure I have heard is that at least 3X as many get through without being caught....
Now THAT is terrifying!
If 3000-12000 Americans were crossing the border into ANY country illegally, that would likely be considered an act of agression/war. No country in our history has been successful in defeating the US by military might - but wasn't it Kruschev who said that the Soviets would crush the US, not through military, but from the inside? Little did we know that it would involve the Democrat Party and illegal aliens....
It is easy to pull any number out of the air but one would be wise to dismiss exaggerations. Credible figures indicate that less than a million illegals come over the border per year.
Invasions are not private movements of people. America did not "invade" Texas because thousands of Americans came in when it was part of Mexico. Not even when Davy Crockett and his Tennesseans came to fight was it an American invasion.
Nor will illegals destroy America. Much more danger is posed by the Party of Treason than just by illegals.
And forget getting a job as a school teacher in that same region if you don't speak Spanish ---it's a requirement now.
Our "free-market" system is going to force the language on us, regardless of the law. As is told in the quotes from TR, immigrants should "become American" - including the language (English). Yet that has been thrown out the door. we no longer expect immigrants to learn the language (at least Hispanic immigrants).
I can see a tremendous potential here for the fragmentation of the states as a collective. As this becomes more and more the case in those states, they become less and less American and more and more Mexican and or Central American. The problem will only exasperate itself as well in spite of BS bills on the table in a Congress of which few members have any balls with even fewer possessing any integrity.
I would imagine that some states are eventually gonna raise the BS flag and tell its citizens to learn English. Obviously I could be wrong, but if so, then expect this nation to be more Mexican than traditional American by say, oh, 2030. Anyone thinking that fewer illegals are gonna be coming here as the population becomes increasingly more hispanic is sorely mistaken. As well, once the baby boomers begin to taper off there's going to be an enormous and virtually instantaneous shift (over 15 years or so) away from a traditional American demographic to a hispanic one.
Thanks! Will add to my Homepage Quotes.
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