E Pluribus Unum vs. E Pluribus Pluribus

Excellent opinion piece by Gary Bauer on Yahoo! News today. A taste of the deliciousness:

Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all." - Theodore Roosevelt

While much of the immigration debate focuses on financial issues - whether illegal immigrants hurt or help the economy - the missing link to understanding Americans' anxiety over the issue is the reality that we are failing to build a citizenry that loves America first. The unasked question is whether we are building allegiance to anything other than the almighty dollar.

The unasked question, and the obfuscated purpose of this administration. Why else would they be in hot pursuit of a North American Union that includes creating a North American "economic space" and using the educational system to teach a "North American identity?"

If many immigrants are not assimilating, part of the blame lies with America's academic and political elites. We live in an era where the Pledge of Allegiance is under attack in many schools. Several schools banned the flying of U.S. flags.

Today, multiculturalism is considered a civic virtue - in which accepting foreign traditions, values, laws and languages is put ahead of promoting immigrants' integration into our society. When Hispanics can do so much of their business in Spanish, vote in Spanish, take a driver's license exam in Spanish and send their kids to bilingual public schools, what reason do they have to learn English?

Assimilation is a four-letter-word to the open borders crowd, as if becoming an American somehow erases your heritage. I don't have to look very far back in my family tree to find a new American...my father immigrated from England at the age of nineteen and became a citizen when I was two. I drink hot tea with milk, love steak and kidney pie, laugh my butt off at Monty Python, and feel a deep connection to British history and culture...all without feeling the need to fly the Union Jack or call myself English-American. Because I, like my father, am an American.

The unmentioned undercurrent in the immigration debate is the lack of Americanization of those who come here unwilling to pledge allegiance to a new flag, and the lack of effort by those in leadership to make one people out of many -E pluribus unum.

The term "earned citizenship" has been employed to describe proposals requiring illegal immigrants to pay fines and back taxes before applying for legal status. But if "earned citizenship" means anything, it surely means a commitment to assimilating into the American way of life. It must mean joining together under one flag, not just one currency.

Jake often poses the question "Are we a nation, or are we an economy?" I vote for nation.

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Illegal Immigration
Immigration Reform
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Assimilation
North American Union