One Flag, Undivided Allegiance
OffTopicSomeone sent the following to me so I am unsure of its origin. However after reading this, despite it being off topic, I thought I would post it. I know that many of our readers are not American and come from diverse nations, none the less the following words seem applicable to so many things in life, for the words are about loyalty and devotion, truth and commitment. Read this as an American OR read this as person committed to an ideal people standing for something with the courage to face opposition, a Martial Artist! Here it is:
“While the debate over immigration policy rages, let us bring back the simple and elegant words of Theodore Roosevelt on the subject. In a letter to the American Defense Society dated Jan.3, 1919, the former president of the United States wrote: “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American… There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. .and we have room but for one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Times have changed, but not so much as to render obsolete Mr. Roosevelfs ideal. After he left the White House, he warned against the emergence of “hyphenated Americans” that he feared could reduce us to a “tangle of squabbling nationalities.” Those aspirations shouldn’t be controversial, but in today’s supercharged environment they may come across as foolishly naive.
I would like to add that as a Martial Artist we should strive truth and justice. If we must define ourselves let it be as people who stand for justice, there is no hyphen in that! Let me say to all those hyphenated individuals that I do not have a dog, but a K9-American!!
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