<We have had to adjust and re-examine who we are with each new wave of change, without losing the essence of what makes us cohesive. This is called "growth".

We have become a nation of laws which someone may join consciously, and not need to be born into like some stratified class in an ancient empire. This is why people come here: to belong to something, to become the people they want to be. Before there was America, leaving the land of your birth made you an exile. Here, you can be a citizen in a new home.



Very well put. America may be the only country in history where someone just off the boat can become as good an "American" as someone whose family had been there for 200 years. That this is not always without problems is obvious, as witness Chinese, Irish, blacks, and others who had a long, hard road to travel, but it's largely true. The philosophical reasons for this are long and involved, but suffice it to say that we are unique as a nation of specific values, and not of specific peoples or groups.

I could move to Japan, China, France, and any other of a long list of nations, and nothing I did would ever make me "Japanese," "Chinese," or "French." In some of these nations, my great-grandchildren would still not be able to call themselves such. America may be unique in all history in this way, although there may be parallels in ancient Roman citizenship.

Lee's concern is legitimate, although he confused "multiethnic" with "multicultural" which are two different animals. It stems from an influx of people who are demanding that we subvert our American, or to be more precise, our Western values to their cultures--to their nationalities, their politics, their peoples and their groups. And although I don't agree with Lee on a number of things, I agree with his concern. As for "firing squads" and the rest, you wrote that. He did not say anything about that in his post.

As for near-term realistic solutions, I would recommend much better control over our borders than we currently have, and more importantly, a better educational underpinning in our universities and schools to teach us just what Western values are, and why they need to be defended. Right now, kids are being taught the exact opposite.