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After reading this novellete and the various replies I noticed one thing missing. This nation was founded under God. The first Colony in Virginia did not have a mandate from God and the results were clear. Jamestown is a tourist attraction as is Yorktown. The first viable colony that showed continued growth was Massachusetts. It is a shame that MA has lost site of the original vision, but maybe someday they will come back.

As to the South and their vote to split the country. That was doomed before it was even started. They lost site of the vision also. Lincoln said it right when he said that a Nation divided cannot stand. Slavery was wrong from the start. It was also economically unsound. Which is why only large plantations could afford slaves.

This country has produced great people from both the North and the South. What made this country great was not diversity. Diversity by its definition derives from divide. It was from the melding of ideas, cultures, and traditions. It was the giving up of where you came from to become part of what you chose, or was chosen for you.

The US has been called a melting pot, and it was. I grew up in an era of non-hyphenation. The older folks demanded that the young ones speak english because, "We are American".

If you make a stew and take each of the ingredients and wrap it it plastic and then cook it. You get water with some seasoning, but hey, the carrots are still carrots and the onions are still onions and the stew gets thrown out. As in a stew where each takes on some of the other while giving some of itself to the whole and makes a savory stew fit for a King, that is what this country has lost sight of. We have African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Latin-Americans etc. If you are going to insist on speaking your own language and dressing in your own way and refusing to become part of what this country should be, then leave. You would be much happier in Africa, Italy, Norway, etc.

The South has tried, (and in many places still tries) to hyphenate themselves. "American by Choice - Southern by the Grace of God". Having lived North, South, East & West and choosing South to live for the longest, I can say that North Easterners don't hyphenate. They are Americans, not Northern Americans, but Americans. There are the exceptions that are some third world-American, but they don't count.

Give it up folks, you are either and American or you are not. I can't make it any simpler than that.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may God richly bless you through out your life.

Bill Barnes

American First Last and Always

Give it up folks, you are either and American or you are not. I can't make it any simpler than that.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may God richly bless you through out your life.

Bill Barnes

Thanks, Bill; that is great stuff.

Walt

The "pilgrims" that settled Massachussets were actually heading to Virginia to further augment the existing colonies in the Old Dominion. Neither colony was founded because of religious persecution. They were founded for the purposes of land and economic opportunity, and granted permission by the king because of the benefits to the British empire. The pilgrims had religious freedom in Holland and simply left for the economic benefit of the New World.