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Every immigrant came to America for a better life; in other words,
we all came here because, one way or another, it is better than where we came from. It is, therefore,
contrary to reason to seek to transform America into what we escaped from or attempt to transfer to
America the failed or failing values or ideas from the cultures from which we came. Those who seek to
create cultural enclaves of disparate cultures to exist in parallel, perhaps diametrically with the
thriving American values must not forget that what they seek to replicate undermined the progress of the places from
which they came, invariably inhibited the well-being and potential of the inhabitants of those cultures
and caused them to leave.
In America, people have a tendency to take for granted the treasures (core ideals and prosperity) that
so richly abound. Some immigrants have followed suit by forgetting where and what they came from,
why they came here, and why America is better than where they came from, at least for the reasons
for which they came. By this, I mean the conditions that necessitated their coming to live in America
and what is responsible for America being what she is — “a better place.” This state of self induced
forgetfulness and self indulgence is responsible for the unpatriotic attitudes of some Americans and immigrants alike.
Even if one is not an American citizen (and have no desire to become one), while one yet dwell in
America, one must still recognize and admit the benefits of America's ideals and support them for the sake
of posterity. Rather than strive to pull America apart or remake it in the image of where one came from.
In as much as one is not expected to jettison the beneficial values of one's ancestral culture, one is expected
to acquire the virtues or values that attracted one to America and which made America great.
And if people cannot, then they ought to return to the places from whence they came and apply the lessons learned,
ain so doing they would have the best of both worlds.
America is far from perfect; in fact, but as long as people dwell in America and are nourished by her,
they have the moral obligation to keep America strong and viable, in maintaining the
values that have made America great and the inspiration she gives to people around the world,
those who nurse, in their hearts, the dream of freedom, self-determination, and self-actualization,
in America and elsewhere. People who cannot learn to love America for her essential ideals, should
leave her.
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Calling attention to America's identity crisis
