.... - American

[eisely]

Being an American or something else is a state of mind that has little to do with one's racial or ethnic heritage. The people that I have met and befriended over the years who are immigrants are usually the most staunch in maintaining that they are American before anything else. All these acquaintances are proud of their backgrounds but they came to United States for a reason. They have transcended the questions of where one was born and why does or does not matter.

[JoeBob]

I get a kick out of my Caucasion friend who immigrated from South Africa.

 

He IS African-American, whereas few of our dark-skinned brothers can trace their ancestory so accurately.

 

I guess you could split the hair and say that he's 'South African-American', but that would segue too easily into Tampa Turtle's comment about 'Southerners."

[scoutingagain]

Take a walk in Boston's North end and you can still hear an occaisional conversation in Italian. Head to Southie and it seems every other house has an Irish flag out. Both neighborhoods are heavily Catholic. For some reason they never "assimilated" to the predominant protestant faiths that were present when they arrived.

 

SA

 

 

[Scoutfish]

True with the NA immigrating here too, but they did it before anybody else

and did it a long time before anybody else. They laif first claim and came from the other direction.

 

 

So, My father was born in NC and so was my mom. May father is country boy while my mother was from

Cape Hatteras with a thick hackney/ limey accent.

 

I say house, she said Houwse. I say party, she says pauwty. I spend 5 dollars while she spends fauve dawlours.

I like to go out. She likes to ouwght.

 

So, because my dad was in the USCG, I was born In Cape May new Jersy. He retired 5 years later and moved back to NC.

 

I was a "damn Yankee". Now days, while talking to anybody who has moved to NC from up north after retiring, I am a

:"Damn backwwods Redneck".

 

I just consider myself to be human. "Para" normal human, but human!

[Eamonn]

Had to renew my English passport.

Not really a big deal.

Not sure why it costs about $100.00 more than a U.S. Passport? But everything in England seems to cost a lot more.

When I was done I took the on line survey to help improve the experience and complain about the cost!

Near the end of the survey there were the questions that deal with demographics.

I was OK saying I was a male, but then the drop down what ever it's called for race dropped down.

Listed first was White listed second was Irish-English.

I'd never seen that before!

There was no "Mutt" listing.

Eamonn.

[SSScout]

**Why did my screen suddenly go wiiiiide?**

My aha* moment was when I visited Salt Lake City and had dinner at

the " Carlos' Ratzkeller Pizzeria"

 

 

 

 

[SSScout]

**Why did my screen suddenly go wiiiiide?**

My aha* moment was when I visited Salt Lake City and had dinner at

the " Carlos' Ratzkeller Pizzeria"

 

 

 

 

[Cambridgeskip]

Do BSA have a different verison of the scout promise for non US nationals? In the UK non UK nationals can change the "to God and the Queen" to "God and the country in which I am now lving". This is quite useful for my troop as I currently 8 different nationalities present (including the girl born in Denmark to Italian and Argentine parents, moved to Brazil when she was 1 and moved to the UK when she was 7!).

[OldGreyEagle]

I remember as a young child being at my grandparents in Chicago and they were talking "funny" I asked my mother what was going on and she said they were talking Polish. Her parents always talked it at home. My mother knew it and when I asked her to teach it to me, she said why? We're American, English is all you need. My Grandmother told me the samething. You are American, all you need is English. So now we have immigrants who appear do not want to assimilate and the thought is thats bad.

 

Some troops ban electronics on Campourts because the adults dont understand why anyone would have electronics in the outdoors. And expect the youth to have the same values they have about camping, is it not also wrong to impose the values our Grandparents had on the immigrants of today? Because my Grandmother felt a particular way, does that mean all succeding generation have to feel that way?

 

The only consistent thing I know of is change

[Lisabob]

Eamonn - I think being a "mutt" qualifies you as an American!

 

One of my sets of great-great grandparents immigrated to the US from Poland in the 1870s. I'm four generations after that. I speak some Polish. Some words and phrases are still in common usage in our family. I studied Polish in college for a while, same reason. I was tickled to discover that my elderly great-aunts still remembered enough Polish from their childhoods to correct my grammar and carry on lively conversation. We still make and eat Polish foods at holidays & observe certain Polish traditions. There are still Polish neighborhoods in my hometown where you can conduct much of your daily business (shopping, going to church, social organizations, etc.) entirely in Polish.

 

Some others of my relatives immigrated to the US from Germany. My grandparents actually changed the pronunciation of their names in the middle of the 20th C to avoid seeming "too German." Their parents did not teach them to speak German but they certainly cooked German foods and observed German holiday traditions. They went to adult German school later in life to re-learn the language. My dad, me, and my son, have all studied German. Why? Because our heritage caused us to be interested and we didn't want to lose that link. (Also, I love the logical grammatical structure of German.)

 

My son decided in Middle School that he wanted to learn Hindi. Why? Because that is part of his heritage. So he found himself a summer program at a University and spent two summers immersed in a Hindi program. Then he found a Hindu temple near our home and joined their youth group to work on his language and cultural understanding.

 

You want to tell me, again, about how older generations of immigrants were so different? Because that is not my experience.

[OldGreyEagle]

Lisa, we need to exchnage Kielbassa, Czarnina and Kolache recipes

 

That much Polish I know

 

[Tampa Turtle]

I am actually Portuguese-Irish-German with some American Indian and Hawaiian thrown in. I had relatives who speak Portuguese, German, and Pidgin. In addition, One of my great grandfathers had three wives as he crossed back and forth across the west following wagon trains selling pots and pans. He had three wives he had children with. One was an Eastern european (I think a southern pole) who was jewish, an indian at the half-way point, and a chinese one on the pacific coast. Legally only the first counted. Two of them died and all ended up with the eastern one. My Grandfather could never figure out what kid we were descended from so he used to joke "never throw stones at any religious or ethnic group--for all we know you are one."

 

The Portuguese ones were islanders --Azores--part of the late 18th century diaspora and just like the Irish who left clung very strongly to their heritage. And like the Hawaiian folks I think the geographic isolation intensifies the identity.

 

I think folks differences makes them more interesting.

 

[Mr. Boyce]

Despite the nonsense of recent presidents and their policies, it's good to be an American.

[Tampa Turtle]

As an American it is my right to gripe about my country but when I go over seas I see a lot of reasons my forefathers came here. And, while I enjoy my trips, it makes me grateful to come home.

[eisely]

Cambridgeskip:

 

Re the scout in the US: The BSA scout oath simply states "duty to God and my country." Most people would understand that to mean the USA. On the other hand, I would not challenge the legitimacy of scout oath recited by a youth whom I knew not to be a US citizen, since "my country" can be any country.