> Behalf Of Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten
> Gautam Mukunda schreef:
>
> > > Behalf Of Charlie Bell
> > > No, you can't have the telephone, that was a scot...
> > >
> > > Charlie
> >
> > Bullshit. I am deeply and profoundly offended by that
> statement. By
> > _that_ standard I'm an Indian, and I assure you that I'm not. I'm
> > every bit as American as Dan, John, or Andrea.
>
> But are you solely the product of the American way of life, it's
> educational system and it's moral values?
>
> Sonja
No, but that's _the point_. No one is. There is no one on God's
green earth who is "solely" the product of the United States, because
we're all immigrants in one way or another, and influenced by
immigrants as well. That's what makes the US different from most
other countries - not better or worse, just different in very
important ways. That's exactly what's so bad about Charlie's
statement - that Bell wasn't an American because he was a Scot. No,
he was both. That's something that you can be when you're an
American. You are allowed to be both. It's one of the most special
and wonderful things about this country. I too, am both. I have an
Indian heritage, of which I am quite proud. My Irish friends have an
Irish heritage, my Italian ones an Italian one, and so on. None of
those things make any of us any less American - or make what we do any
less of credit (or blame) to the United States. The native countries
of our forefathers too may be happy for the achievements of their
diaspora. They are not, in the least, exclusive.
********************Gautam "Ulysses" Mukunda**********************
* Harvard College Class of '01 *He either fears his fate too much*
* www.fas.harvard.edu/~mukunda * Or his deserts are small, *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Who dares not put it to the touch*
* "Freedom is not Free" * To win or lose it all. *
******************************************************************
