I live in southern Cook County and drive around the Chicago area for my job. I don’t see the confederate flags all too often, but when I do they usually seem to be on pickups. I suspect the reason for it in some part is racial. I’m not saying its necessarily racial to show the confederate flag in Georgia, but in Illinois I don’t see how it isn’t to some extant. Closed minds in that way really tee me off. America has so far been a wonderfully successful experiment imho. We aren’t like the Chinese with thousands of years of history and culture. Yet we have something that I believe is very powerful in its own way. That is shared ideals. I was recently watching comedy central’s latin kings of comdedy special. This mexican-american is making jokes about his vacation to France. One joke was like ‘hey we keep having to save you guys’ That guy identifies himself as an American and from the sound of his accent he was probably born in Mexico. Nonetheless he didn’t like the French attitude towards Americans. Another recent experience I had was watching a Chinese theater performance. More than half of the audience was Chinese and they were speaking it. The performance was done by a Chinese troupe (sp?) touring America. It was a cultural exchange thing really and they were doing different chinese songs and dances. But they strayed from that pattern twice and sang “oh susanna” and “yanke doodle.” I was pleasantly surprised that those two songs were heavily cheered and had the Chinese singing/humming along. I know very little of the Chinese community and before this would have assumed they wouldn’t even know those two songs. But being American obviously means something to them too.
If you’ve ever met holocaust survivors that came to America in the 50s you’d see that they identify themselves as Americans first. Jews second. And on and on this pattern goes for other immigrant groups. I meet tons of immigrants in my job and some don’t seem to care for this country, but that is the exception in my personal experience. Most are here to be free and reap the benefits of their labor. They seem grateful. I often see the certificate of citizenship proudly framed on the wall.
My comment about the confederate flag I suppose is part of a larger issue about racial supremacy that stems from the roots of slavery. I just wish there would be more vocal opposition to backwards thinking. Immigrants and blacks have always been in our armed forces from the days of George Washington onward. Instead of focusing on how we are different, I wish we would concentrate on what makes us similar. Of course that leads to another topic, on how society/govt keeps things focused on our differences. But I am straying enough from the original topic already. I just notice that sometimes these feelings are posted a bit too frequently for my comfort level and hence why I felt the urge to respond at all to this thread.
Well said! Hear, hear!