I'm Over My Snit Now

My previous post had to do with one of the things that's happening to this country politically. One of my blogger friends expressed a very unique idea - what happened to patriotism? We seem to be more interested in multiculturalism and the fear of offending another ethnic group than love and devotion to the United States.

Yes, I know we all came from somewhere else, or at least our ancestors did. I'm third generation from Norway and Sweden. Ole is third generation from Finland and Germany. Why is it that our ancestors came here and wanted nothing more than to fit in and learn the ways of their new homeland. If they bought something new and it came with instructions (which it didn't back then) they would have been printed in English and, by golly, if they wanted to read them they learned English. They didn't expect the instructions to be written in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish or German.

When my father started first grade he couldn't speak English. There was no ESL teacher back then - if he wanted to go on from first grade he had to learn English, which he did. It was difficult for him because Norwegian was still spoken at home at that time, but that gradually changed also as his parents integrated their way of life to the USA. But to the day he died he had a heavy Norwegian accent, even though he spoke English for 65 years following his promotion from 1st grade. Life was easier for my mother - her family spoke English at the time she was born. Although my little Granny still wrote all her letters in Swedish she spoke English also.

Now we're being invaded by other ethnic groups who want all the benefits and freedoms of the United States, but somehow still want to maintain their culture. I see nothing wrong with that - I still maintain many of my ancestral cultures, like eating lefse, although I refuse to eat lutefisk or even have it in my house. Maintain your culture, BUT don't force it on everyone else. That most definitely includes religion. I don't care who you believe in or if you believe in anyone/anything at all - that doesn't make your religion right and mine wrong. Nor should I have to do away with any public displays of my religion because it offends you. Your religion might offend me but in the USA that's one of the freedoms that we have - or at least I thought we had. It seems to be slowly disappearing.

Anyway, I've had my say - now I have to go start loading the RV.

Love Lena