Hugh Lambert put it well in his comment here yesterday re: my post ‘You’ve Come A Long Way Baby…’ ”Victimization as a means of power retention..” that pretty much sums it up. Would it work anywhere else in the world but America? I doubt it.
‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door. ‘
A line from the poem, “The New Colossus,” by the nineteenth-century American poet Emma Lazarus. appears on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty as if she is speaking.
Our Statue of Liberty didn’t mean we would take care of these tired and poor for endless generations but that here, as nowhere else, the golden door of opportunity is wide open. Opportunity is defined as ’a good chance to advance oneself’ but it requires the action of the individual, not just affirmative action.
Generational ‘victims’ throw themselves on the pity of their rich and powerful country, in most cases shamlessly begging for continued handouts. Instead of taking advantage of opportunity, many use it to take advantage. That used to be considered shameful and embarrassing, but is now touted proudly as a means of gaining more when in reality it has gained them nothing, as noted from their constant whining.
My great-grandparents left Ireland and a war torn Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia. They came to America, learned the language without free English classes and built lives for themselves and their children. My people worked hard, made do with what they had, lived through two world wars and realized the American dream. My other line was the Acadian people who were deported in 1755 from the only land they knew. After carving out lives for themselves under harsh conditions for over 120 years they had to start over in a new place. They never expected nor were given handouts.
It is imperative that we teach our children about pride, accomplishment, patriotism and giving back intead of taking.
If you don’t love and appreciate America then please go back to wherever you think you are from.
Amen Mom! Spoken like a true patriot! My grandparents were
Dutch immigrants who survived during the Nazi occupation of their country; they came to this country, were proud to live here and contributed to this great land. Keep up the good work Mom; that’s the way to ‘tell it like it is!’