Every wave of immigrants comes here seeking the promise of America. Most find it but they find disappointment too. But humans being what they are, they tend to remember the former but after a few generations forget the latter. America is a land of great bounty but it promises more than it can possibly deliver. Being outsiders, immigrants bring a fresh perspective and an instant comparison to everything they see and experience here. They can see clearly what those long established here cannot.

Like strangers going into a neighbor's house, foreigners detect smells and sounds those who have long lived here do not, through long familiarity, notice any more. Mr O'Toole has got it right. Those of us who still remember the Old World may have seen this coming, but those who have been here for generations will experience national humiliation on a vast scale, whether they deserve it or not.

The great civilizations of the Western world have suffered mightily this century. The French were defeated and occupied with hardly a struggle, their sophisticated culture and rich history shown to be incapable of survival without a handout. The British lost their mighty empire in a decade, Germany will have to carry the weight of its barbarity and savagery far longer than the lifetimes of those who actually deserve it.

But America will suffer the humiliation of those who squandered their promise, not because of war or rebellion, but because of hate, greed, ignorance and fear. And we will carry that weight a long time.

The glory that was Rome, and the grandeur that was Greece is almost gone now. All that remains are some dead languages, decaying ruins and quaint backwater countries, their mighty legacy has been dispersed and taken by others, and built on elsewhere. The summits of their achievements are now admired in foreign museums and pored over in translation in musty libraries.

Is this our destiny, to become a theme park for future empires, a place where they can travel, guidebooks in hand, and see for themselves the hubris they believe they will never suffer?