The following is an encore presentation of an earlier KSCO commentary, which also appears in Kay’s new book. Here is Kay Zwerling:
As a longtime resident of this planet, and a lucky native born of this incredible Country, I need to speak out about why our United States, once the hope and promise of the world, is rapidly becoming weaker and unable to live up to its past expectations. It is our own goodness, generosity, and trusting nature that is destroying us.
The topic is: Assimilation vs. diversity.
Let’s roll back the clock to around 1913 when my own parents and European extended family were part of the greatest influx of immigrants to the United States.
In the late 1920s as a child, I saw how proud and grateful my family was to be here in America where they saw the hope and opportunity nonexistent in their own native Country. The one abiding desire of all immigrants at that time was to quickly learn to speak, read, and write in English – in short, to become truly American.
It is called assimilation. That desire to be American in no way diminished the love that newcomers had for their own culture, history, and native language. They knew it was their responsibility to keep their own heritage alive, and they never expected their newly adopted Country to do that for them.
Let’s fast forward now to the early 1960s or thereabouts when immigration surged again, from Mexico, Korea, Japan, China, Viet Nam, and many other countries. It was then that the notion of diversity became very popular, and it was celebrated ad nauseum by the politically correct Left.
Always motivated by feelings, never reality, the Left felt that it was wonderful to have this mixture of cultures in the United States, and in many ways it is true, it was; however, the Left, in its enthusiasm, felt that as a Country We the People were responsible for helping these newcomers keep their respective languages and cultures alive.
Big big mistake. So what happened? At that time, most new citizens came from Mexico and spoke only Spanish. Our public education system, led by Leftist educators, created the program of “English as a Second Language” whereby Mexican children received most of their education in Spanish so their parents and they did not have to learn English, so they remained primarily Mexicans, but lived in the United States. That’s called diversity? I call it disaster.
Now, let’s fast forward to now, 2002. As a result of 40 years of diversity, and the rejection of assimilation, many immigrants do not understand English, but they do have the right to vote, so our voting ballots are now in many languages. This is stupid and wrong. And, it is weakening and destroying the identity of our Country. It is time to demand that to vote one must read, write, and understand English, and all ballots must be in English only because English is our national language.
What we have now is mass chaos and ghettoes of different cultures. I say, tell political correctness and diversity to take a hike, because diversity divides and assimilation brings unity. What we have now is a nation of babble. Please, let’s take back our Country now.
For KSCO, this is Kay Zwerling.
© copyright 2010
