Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Teddy Was Right

I am an American History buff. I am reading "John Adams" as we speak. I have finished biographies of Washington and Lincoln. I can't wait to get started on Theodore Rex, the biography of probably my favorite president of them all, Theodore Roosevelt. Dynamic, well read, well spoken, a friend of the environment and the little guy. Here is what he said in 1907, it still rings true today

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.


"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality 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 person's becoming in every facet 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... 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."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I need to read more American history. I love The Greatest Generation. I've read I, Claudius three times (once while in Greece....and the trip seemed a lot cooler because I was actually at some of the places mentioned in the book). Kudos to Teddy on his immigration views, very relevant to today. My grandma came here from Cyprus not long after he was President and she learned the language and always told my mom, "American first, Greek second".

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