OK, I'm back but I don't know for how long.

Melting pot...melting pot...melting pot...

That phrase seems familiar, like I’ve heard it some place before. Ah, yes, it’s what we used to call America. It’s a good term, a true term, and, unfortunately, an obsolete term. This country was build by immigrants, literally and figuratively, without them there would not be a United States. All true Americans know this, but there are those who prefer not to accept it, not to desire it.

Xenophobia: fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. Xenophobia is a very prevalent condition of mankind, always has been and always will be. It's built into our basic genes because it is an important survival mechanism. It's those you don't know that you don't feel you can trust because you never can tell what they're going to do. Did you ever see the movie "Gangs of New York"?

So, what kinds of immigrants have had this xenophobia unleashed upon them? Every kind. Almost without exception. The Germans were despised, so were the Irish, the Italians, the blacks, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, the Hmong, the Mexicans, the Arabs. You name the nationality and we've hated them. But we USED to get over it, and they USED to "disappear into the scenery."

Every time a new influx of immigrants enters this country they have the same problem facing them - acceptance by those already here. And there are some tried and true ways to make this happen. Be aware, however, that acceptance doesn't happen overnight. As PC as we wish to think ourselves, we really don't cotton to strangers all that much. For some groups, nowadays, it never happens and that's beginning to be the rule, not the exception. Why?

Any of you "true blue" Americans ever had a friend of German descent? Italian? A black friend? A Chinese one? Japanese? I would venture to guess that the only way you could have classified these friends was by some feature like their name, their skin color, their facial structures. In every other way you would have described them as "nothing different", "just like everyone else", "like me."

And that's the key. Americans are willing to accept others as "true blue" IF they are "just like me" in everything except such superficial aspects as name, skin color, etc. And they won't accept those who want to continually flaunt their differences, who aren't willing to be "just one of the guys."

We'll accept someone, for example, who is of a different religious preference as long as they don't throw it in our face, make an issue of it, try to convert us.

We'll mostly even do that with sexual preference, "don't know, don't tell." Usually it just isn't important when considering whether to be friends or not. On the other hand, if I know a doctor is gay I'm not going to be comfortable going to him for treatment. And a known gay guy entering a straight steam bath is going to get some harsh looks.

OK, so what areas would a difference being flaunted matter? Religion, we've seen. Sexual preference at times.
Probably many more. But let's talk about the ones which become exaggerated with immigrants - or at least ones which might.

Language, most definitely. If we're not speaking the same language, we're unlikely to become friends and probably will remain very suspicious of each other. We can't even lie to each other to cut the tension.

Of course, new immigrants aren't really flaunting their language difference, they're just new at it. That is, until they refuse to learn English, don't push their children to learn it, insist on having their children's education in their own language, aren't willing to make what we consider necessary adjustments to "fit in." Those people we don't accept.

There's the argument of "what makes English better than their language?" Nothing. It isn't better. It's just the language everyone else speaks in this area of the world. A better question is: "Why wouldn't we want these people to become integrated better into our society? It's better for us AND them."

And, of course, language is just one aspect of what I'll call the "cultural difference" between immigrants and those who have already melted into the pot. What kind of foods do you regularly eat? How do you treat your wife? Your children? How does your religion look at the American way of life? There are thousands of differences, each one keeping these immigrants segregated.

Most of these have been overcome by most of the people who entered this country in the past. It quite often took a couple of generations, but someone who's grandfather was raised in Sicily didn't want to live his life like his grandfather did. He wanted to be American, live the American life. Some of the new immigrants don't.

Just about all the immigrants to this country come here for one reason. Because they feel they can have a better life here than they could have in their native countries. But in the past they were looking for something else, they were looking for a new home, a new society, a new way for their children and grandchildren. They were looking for a "better way of life," not just more money. They wanted the new culture. Many of the new immigrants don't.

Our society is becoming less and less a melting pot and more and more a waldorf salad (and one without mayonnaise, to boot). The parts aren't integrating, aren't melting together to give a full-bodied taste to our society. They are simply mixing together, forming an interesting taste at each bite, but scarcely unified, scarcely "one-taste." The differences are staying too significant for the xenophobia to disappear.

If I desired to move to another country, say France (I know, what a choice, but I was trying for something really different that I MIGHT choose), I would do my best to BECOME French. Of course, with my Oklahoma accent, I never would truly fit in, but I'd do everything I could to try and HAVE them accept me rather than trying to FORCE them to. And if I'd had my children there, they would have learned English as a second language like everyone else in that country, French would have been their primary one.

I'm sure there are parts of American culture immigrants are uncomfortable with, there are parts I'M uncomfortable with. But you can't pick and choose the parts of a society you'll have. You can pick the ones you'll participate in, try to change the parts you don't like, even. But to try and have a completely different culture just doesn't work. It leads to backwater groups like the Amish (I have nothing against the Amish, but they scarcely "fit" in) and eventually disappear. And sometimes (like in "Gangs of New York"), that disappearance is explosive, causing those people and their whole community severe unhappiness.

Bill O'Reilly make a comment the other night and it really got my attention. He was talking about Bush's plan for illegal aliens. By the way, just to show that conservatives are not necessary always in agreement with Bush, I think his plan ludicrous. It's obviously politically motivated, designed to get votes, and hopefully, it has little chance of being passed. See, Republicans can be just a political as Democrats.

As an aside, I was reading something on another blog. This wasn't my original idea but it was an eye-opening thought I figured I'd paraphrase here. If the reason we need all these illegal aliens is to take the jobs that no other Americans will take, who is doing those jobs in states without a large illegal alien population?

Anyway, O'Reilly said that if this plan went through it would just encourage even more illegal aliens to flood across the border. I agree. But he also said, and I agree with him, that this large influx of one nationality, mostly in one small area of the country, will result in the destruction of the culture in that area and the adoption of another, alien, one.

You know, I sort of like the American culture. It has its problems, but I like it anyway. I like its vitality, its life, its progressiveness. And as un-PC as it is to say so, I have to say that I don't see these things in most of the other cultures which are camped out here now. That's sort of the way I find that I feel about them, they're like the tourists who go up north and camp out there, not really part of the community.

I don't want the American way replaced. I know it will change gradually, but I don't want it destroyed in such a wholesale way. The melting pot concept worked. It produced the most powerful nation in the world. There's no reason to replace it. It is the rampant selfishness of the modern world now demanding its own way. Our differences will tear us apart.

The combination of xenophobia and diversity is a destructive combination. Only one of them is truly changeable. Only one of them has ever survived when they come into conflict.

It will not be any different this time. Be prepared.