Posted on 09/27/2001 9:41:16 AM PDT by Francis
Multiculturalism, Diversity, Integration
by John J. Abele
September 25, 2001
On the evening of September 23, 2001, PBS aired a two hour special program titled, "People Just Like Us," and I watched it all even though it was past my bedtime.
The program tried to illustrate that while we think of the United States as being a classless society, we in fact have the usual number of very distinct and identifiable classes of people. The obvious separations by money, education, position, heritage, school and home type and location were clearly represented and explained. There were other stated divisions which I found debatable, but nevertheless interesting.
One of the surprises for me was to learn that not all people want to climb the ladder of success. Many are very satisfied with an existence that is meager by any definition. While I expected to see some class envy, I was surprised to see that it was vocal and irrational.
I was not surprised that blacks were given consideration, but I think the presentation was slanted. There were educated, articulate and financially affluent blacks shown, but I did not see the drug addicted 20 year-old single mother of four, or the black teens who cannot speak, read or write in English.
After the program I gave it some additional thought and realized that there was no mention of the millions of Orientals, nor the Hispanics, who are more numerous than the blacks. These people change the entire equation. The federal government not only allowed, but assisted millions of these groups to come to the United States. Many people do not yet realize that because of the influx during the past 40 years, the Caucasians are a minority group in California, and some other states will soon follow that trend.
There were some interesting lessons as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11. In the year 2000, more than 500,000 people were in the United States on student visas, according to the New York-based Institute of International Education. California was the most popular place for international students with more than 65,000. It is estimated that there are about 10,000 foreign students in San Diego County at any given time.
A foreign student can get a visa by gaining acceptance to a U.S. school. The school will issue a form the student can take to a U.S. Embassy, which issues non-immigrant visas. Then students can go to a U.S. port of entry and be admitted to the country. At that point they become invisible. There are no records of school attendance, nor whether they ever set foot in a school. And how many of these students return to their native country?
Harry Browne observed, that, "Immigrants will continue to stream into this country, legally or illegally, so long as there's a Welcome Wagon waiting at the border - offering free education, free health care, free welfare and a free lunch. We need to put the Welcome Wagon out of business, so only people looking for freedom will want to come here."
Our politicians and academics have been preaching the gospel of multiculturalism, diversity and integration for 40 years; what we got was Balkanization. Recently in talking to a Chinese immigrant, he said he was going to "Chinatown" on Sunday. He saw my puzzled face so he explained - "Baldwin Hills". He assured me that there is no diversity in that city, and it happened in a very few years - perhaps 20.
Recently, a Russian male immigrant, 26 years old, killed 6 members of his family. The media reported that he was mentally deranged before he came to the United States about six years ago. He lives in an enclave of Russian immigrants near Sacramento. He doesn't speak English and never really had a job. He has obviously been on various government welfare programs since the day of his arrival, and now he will cost the taxpayers millions for years to come.
Then there is the group of Vietnamese "hill people" near Modesto, California. They have been here for about 25 years, and they continue to be "hill people." They are just one generation above their primitive ancestors, and there is just no place for them in American society in the 21st century.
The event that boggled my mind happened about a decade ago. As a result of the Gulf War, there were thousands of Iraqi prisoners of war, captured without resistance in many cases. But the war was declared over in 100 hours by President George H. W. Bush, much to the dismay of many interested parties. Before he left office, about a year later, he arranged to bring some number of these Iraqi prisoners of war to the United States as immigrants. What happened after that I never heard, but I can make some guesses. None of them spoke English, and it will take time and money to train them for any productive and self supporting work - if indeed they choose to do so. They naturally can't be expected to remain unmarried all of their lives, so arrangements must be made for them to import brides from Iraq.
People just like us? I live in a small town where the attraction is that you will live with people just like you are - or want to be. Good climate, good schools, good jobs - but bring money if you want to move here. The cost of living is high, especially for housing, where the average is now about $265,000, and rising rapidly. We had a town celebration last weekend and the local newspaper printed pictures of 20 girls who were candidates for "queen." Every one of them looked like the sister of Bo Derrick, or maybe the grand-daughter of Jean Harlow. There were no blacks, no Orientals, and no Muslims.
The United States was formed and founded as a Christian nation; the evidence is everywhere - it cannot be avoided. It is on the paper money that everyone has - in some quantity. There are about six million Muslims now in the United States. Note that these people are, and want to be identified by their religion, not their country of origin. It is my understanding that they actively oppose all religions but their own. From the day they arrive, they never have any intention of integrating into American society and accepting existing culture. Is diversity an end unto itself?
I think the era of unlimited and unrestricted legal and illegal immigration may soon come to an end. A lot more people have now realized that the process, and the concept is totally out of control.
Western culture and western civilization will simply be inundated and fade into oblivion.
Don't forget, once you have been called a RACIST enough times you will be visited by the local authorities, since dangerous RACISTS always eventually become hate criminals, so the police will be investigating you for your own good.
Now get back to work and keep paying your taxes so that we can afford to give benefits to tens of millions of illegal aliens, and still pay for the salaries of the employees of the police state to investigate hate criminals.
< /sarcasm >
Then there is the group of Vietnamese "hill people" near Modesto, California. They have been here for about 25 years, and they continue to be "hill people." They are just one generation above their primitive ancestors, and there is just no place for them in American society in the 21st century.
This is racist crap.
I rest my case.
As I understand our history, first generation immigrants seldom assimilate into American culture. They strive to live as they lived in the "old country." However, their children and grandchildren typically have become "Americanized." The problem with all our recent emphasis on multiculturalism is that it strives to prevent the younger generations assimilate.
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