I'd have to challenge the allegation that America was founded by Brits and/or Protestants.
The Brits and the Protestants have been saying that forever but the facts are a lot more complicated.
Canada, of course, was founded by French Catholics, and Mexico, of course, by Spanish Catholics, but it's also true that Louisiana was founded by French Catholics, while Florida and California were founded by Spanish Catholics.
Some of the earliest colonizers were Dutch and Swedes. The Swedes settled the Mid-Atlantic, including Delaware and New Jersey, and later the Midwest, just ask Garrison Keilor.
Maryland was founded by Catholics.
Pennsylvania was settled by Germans. The Germans are as important to US immigration as the Brits, so much so that Benjamin Franklin argued in favor of German as the official language.
A big chunk of early America was settled by the Scots-Irish, who are important in politics, from Andrew Jackson to Ronald Reagan, and plenty in between (Henry Clay, Polk, Buchanan, Johnson, Grant, Cleveland, Harrison, McInley, Wilson, etc., etc., etc.)
I could go on.
Me, I'm mixed. More Brit than anything, but also German, French, Croatian, Cherokee, Chippewa, maybe a little Welsh and a little Irish, but I think of myself as American.
When the schools asked the kids to come dressed in the ethnic costumes of their heritage, I sent mine to school in blue jeans and T-shirts. No lie. From their dad, they've got more Brit, more German, also Scandihoovian of some sort, not to mention Scots. Fageddaboudit. They're Americans.
The f-ing Brits are giving themselves airs (as Brits are prone to do). We're all Americans now.
Some of our ancestors were almost royalty, and some of our ancestors no better than slaves, and some were either or both but criminals.
Fageddaboudit. We're all Americans now.
We're every nation in the world, we're every color in the rainbow. Russian, Greek, Ethiopian, Bolivian, Hawaiian, Japanese, Mongol, jeez, there's over 100 countries and a few thousand languages, but when you come here, you're American.
Welcome to America. |
