----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2002 8:27 PM Subject: Re: BUCHANAN DECLARES: DEATH OF THE WEST
> On Sun, Jan 06, 2002 at 07:54:45PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > They will not be able to afford the generous pension plans. What will be > > really hard for them is the fact that they see nationality as something you > > are born as, not a matter of choice. Here in the States, Hispanics, > > Asian-Americans, blacks, Euro-Americans, are all equally American. Gautam > > You mean, rather, something in your genetic makeup? > Well, up until 2000, one could not become a German if one was born there, one needed German parents. The rules in the Netherlands were/are much better, BTW..I have to give them credit for that. But, if you think about it, nationalities were a matter of people who lived in a region for generations upon generations...so it was somewhat genetic. One can tell the difference between most Norwegians and most Italians by looking at them, for example. Even though the British had a world-wide empire, only about 3% of the citizens of Great Britian are non-Europeans. > I think that naturalized citizens of the US cannot become President, if > I remember correctly. > That's true. The line for immigrants who became naturalized was from the time my ancestors came here. "I'm as American as anyone, and my son can become the President of the United States." Gautam was born in the US, BTW. I remember sitting at a party with my daughter's friends and talking with 2nd generation Americans (parents were immigrants) about us all being equally American..one was Chinese, the other was Hispanic. And, it was perfectly true. The backgrounds they had added a bit of spice...variety and all, but I truely believe they are as American as I am. Third generations Turks in Germany are still considered foreign workers. The US is a country that, except for the natives that were decimated (mostly by disease but by war and genocide too), is a nation of immigrants. I think that one reason that the US culture is so all encompassing is that it is the first truely cosmopolitian culture. This will be the real strength of the United States in the next 50 years. IMHO, Europe is just starting to consider a problem we're well on the way to solving. Dan M.
