Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>
> > 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.
I would tend to agree with you, but would pose the question then, of how
recent a phenomenon can we trace this to being, if indeed it is so.
-j-
