My column Friday tackled head-on the problem of assimilation of foreigners and their stubborn refusal to give up native customs and language.
I’m speaking, of course, of the Swedish-Americans in Lindsborg (“Little Sweden USA”) and those stubborn German enclaves.
“Valkommen,” indeed.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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21 Comments
Worthy of national syndication.
One problem with Randy’s analysis is that in the case of Germans and Swedes etc there are no regions of this country that we conquered from them. In the case of Spanish=speaking we did conquer a large chunk of territory that was already populated by Spanish-speaking people.
There is a difference between celebrating your heritage and assimulating.
The difference with the Germans and Swedes in Kansas is that they can also speak english and conduct all business in english. We don’t have to conform to their language like we do to espaniol.
I have yet to see any government documents or to hear any telephone messages written or spoken in low German.
Completely incomparable situations, but what the hell else do I expect from a “progressive” with little to say in the first place?
This editorial completely missed the mark. How many operators of 911 are hired to speak Swedish? Or German? How many German/Swedish people ran across the border and into this country ILLEGALLY? How many German or Swedish holidays are celebrated with mass drinking and in many cases, inaccurate information? (May 5th is not Mexican Independence Day as many Spanish speakers have been quoted as saying). How many Germans or Swedes send huge amounts of their paychecks back home? How many German/Swedes march thru town waving flags of their country demanding their ‘rights’ for being here illegally? Nope, this editorial is waaaay off base.
Plus, Ben, the Spanish “conquered” this land from previous residents, so that does not give them any superior rights to it. The Indians were here long before the Spanish invasion.
Geez Randy that comparison was bad enough the first time.Saying a dumb thing once is bad enough. Bragging on it?
I read Randy’s editorial yesterday and thought he was kidding. In fact, I read his comment here very early this morning and STILL thought he HAD to be kidding. Apparently not.
Taking it a step too far, aren’t ya Randy?
Hey, lay off Randy. Don’t you know a satire when you see one? I do agree that he tried to make a point using a bad example. He, like all the staff on the editorial board tries to make a point by going to extreme which undermines their cause and makes them look like fools. The main problem is that with their lampooning they are making Kansas the laughing stock of the country. A lot of out-of-state folks think that Kansans believe the way the Editorial Board writes. The new owners of the paper could help the Kansas image by hiring a complete new editorial staff.
The new owners could also help by completely revamping the circulation department. I cannot count the number of times a paper has been late (”mechanical problems”), missing or soaking wet. I have never seen such poor performance in newspaper delivery in any city I have lived in.
Do you really want to compare Germans and Swedes with Hondurans, Haitians and Somalians? The is a graet difference in the quality and quantity of immigrants we are “attracting” in this time. People are NOT fungible, race matters and the majority of these third worlders don’t have the moral or intellectual capacity to assimilate and contribute to America in a positive manner, period!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!!
Satire? A poor imitation, maybe. But keep trying, Randy. Sometimes it’s tough to get the hang of it.
“The main problem is that with their lampooning they are making Kansas the laughing stock of the country.”
Heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh!
No, Right Angle, I think Kansas’ wingnut legislators and the state board of evangelicals are doing a FINE job of making Kansas the laughing stock of the universe. The media just reports it.
Are you saying we should hide our wingnuttia under a bushel basket? OMG, no! In Kansas, we are PROUD of our wingnuts and the stupid people tricks they perform.
But please, blame the media for telling the truth. Dont blame the wingnuts really responsible for MAKING us laughing stocks.
I personally enjoyed Randy’s SATIRE. Get a sense of humor people. Please!
Howzabout dem Canadian geese? We used to have an agreement for them to stay awhile in the fall and spring in their Canada/Texas round trip, but now we have too many waterscapes and they’ve decided to permanently settle.
It is not the first time Randy has gone to far. It is interesting how everyone talks about this country being built by immigrants but they only talk about part of the history. The immigrants came to this country with a vision of freedom and the ability to make a living and to raise their families. They learned English, they worked hard and they raised their children in the American way of life. They wanted their children to have opportunities that they did not have in the countries they ran from.
You can travel to most countries and they speak English. Why is America supposed to adapt to the ways of other countries? If you don’t like the language then don’t come here. That is pretty simple. If you want a new way of life then come here legally and go through the system like everyone has and does.
Hey, ksfarmgrrl,Why do you like to call people names and put labels on them when they don’t share your myopic opinion? In the early 1400s you would be right in there with the news media of the time calling Christopher Columbus a wingnut as he sailed off to the East..Tell me old wise one:What is the probability of the development of all the solar systems, and our planet with all the different life forms happing by pure chance without a designer? Please answer in scientific notation to save space but please show all work. Don’t just pull a number out of the air..You see I am not an expert in biology or evolution but I do know higher mathematic. I don’t know if evolution was the means but why are you so adverse at critical analysis of it in the class room. If it is true, then it will stand up to any attack..
I should have said late 1400s not early 1400s.
Right angle, you may be interested in reading about the EARLY 1400s discovery of America–by CHINA. “1421: The Year China Discovered America”, by Gavin Menzies (HarperCollins Perennial. PBS did a show on it.
Plato, certainly no Christian, believed in a realm of immaterial perfect forms that were translated, imperfectly into material things. The idea of “design” is very reasonable.
I have been going through old things. Here is what pro-evolution National Geographic said about cats: “The story of cats is ultimately a story about design.” (June 1997, “Cats: Nature’s Masterwork)
The leg bones of the largest dinosaurs were very similar to those of elephants, although the latter evolved completely independently from tiny mammals.
Bats’ wings are shaped like bird’s wings and their flight dynamics are very similar, although bats evolved from unwinged mammals.
Although dolphins also evolved from terrestrial mammals, and their tail-fins (flukes) are horizontal, whereas fishes’ are vertical, they both utilize the exact same principles of propulsion, and their bodies follow the same principles of streamlined shape. When mammals became aquatic, it wasn’t necessary to become fish-like–consider the sea otter for example–but if you want to swim fast for extended distances, there is only one effective design. (In some ways the dorsal fin is even more interesting, because it isn’t actually necessary, so why did dolphins evolve one?)
The octopus’s eye bears amazing structural similarity to that of thehuman.
There are multitudes of other examples of convergent evolution which must force us to admit a reasonable possibility of existence of design forces that we don’t understand.
As to arguments that science is solidly fact-based, while things like ID are metaphysical, this is simple-minded. Science is speculative. All science has unprovable suppositions. Were this not the case, we could reach “The End of Science” in which everything would be known. This isn’t going to happen.
American school-science is really screwed up, as is school-mathematics. It is for this reason that America cannot produce enough scientists, mathematicians and engineers to meet our nation’s needs.
In the 1870-1910 recruitment of Germans, there were many who never learned to speak English. The same has been true of post-WWII legal immigration of Chinese and Russians (I know some). Most immigrants learn SOME English, but never develop a full command. Their born-in-America children develop verbal Amero-English fluency, most without any residual foreign-shaded accent. They speak English in their homes as adults, and their children have no foreign accent-tinge at all.
Hey Heartlander,Thanks for the input on the EARLY 1400s discovery of America–by CHINA. That would be a very interesting development if they would have stayed and we all now would be speaking Chinese..Also dem Canadian geese have learned from the illegal emigrants that all they have to do is stay and Brownback will make them citizens. To heck with the agreement.
It’s a great read. (Disclaimer: I have no relationship with either author or publisher. ;-) )