National Identity

Hello all,

I want to talk to you all today about national identity.  What we as a nation, in my not so humble opinion, should strive to represent.  What we need to work on in order to start to fix some of the problems in the United States.  I have a few ideas that run a gamut of different topics, so let's get started.

First, I want to talk about the separation of church and state.  Earlier today, I saw a bumper sticker that read: Why should I swear on the bible in court when we cant have the ten commandments in the front of the courthouse.  That got me thinking.  I realized, that was a correct statement.  Why should anyone swear truth to a god, when they can't worship a god in the building?  I agree with the ruling that the ten commandments should not be displayed.  However, I don't think we've taken it far enough.  When our founding fathers started this nation, they wrote in the Constitution that there should be a separation of church and state, in order to avoid religious persecution.  However, this was written by men that were primarily christian during a time of profound religious belief AND religious superstition and dogma.  That's why we swear on a bible, put "In God We Trust" on our money, state "One Nation Under God" in our Pledge of Allegiance to our nation, etc., etc., etc.  I find this hypocritical.  We should replace what we swear to in any government institution to reflect government nationality, not religious belief.  You don't have to be a "good christian" to be a good American.  Hell, you don't have to be a good Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or any of the other religions (or lack thereof, for the atheists) either.  You just have to be a good American to be a good American.  I believe religion ha NO place, whatsoever, in politics.  They don't mix well.  If history has taught us anything, it has shown us how religion can lead to national and social strife.  I'll mention the elephant in the room first, war.  Wars are more often than not fought over religion by one side or both.  However, war is a function of national politics.  I believe that if we can somehow eliminate religion from political belief, war wouldn't be eliminated, but it would be drastically reduced.  Next, the reason abortion is such a hot button issue is because one side is heavily vested in it on a religious level (note some of these people even promote violence over it).  If religion was wiped away from this, politically speaking, people would be free to make up their own minds as to whether or not to accept this socially, in a land that promotes SEPARATION of church and state.  Normally I try to be balanced against both political parties for being stupid, but on this subject I have to attack the religious right of the Republican Party.  The Republicans promote the idea of small government.  However, the christian right gets the Republicans to promote religious social morals as to impose their will on issues like abortion, homosexuality and equal rights, GOVERNMENT FUNDED scientific research, etc.  Which is it, Republicans, small government or government sponsored repression?  PLEASE for the love of all, DECIDE WHERE YOU STAND!!!!  Now, for all of you immigrants that emigrate here hoping for a better life but still clinging to some of your more archaic and barbaric religious beliefs (ie Egyptians and female circumcision), you too must make a choice, because we live in a land that espouses promotion of INDIVIDUAL rights and NOT TO INFRINGE upon the rights of others.  If your beliefs run counter to this, you should reconsider coming here to live.

This brings be to my next topic, immigration and nationalization.  Lets start with a simple topic, English as a National Language.  I believe it should be.  This is due to the fact that the U.S. was formed by English speaking people.  I have no problem with immigrants that come here that don't know the language.  It's understandable.  I wouldn't instantly know the language of whatever foreign nation I was visiting, either.  However, if I was planning to live there, it would be in my best interest to learn in order to communicate.  The same can be said for immigrants that come here to live.  I think, as part of living here legally ( I'll get to illegal immigration later), it should be mandatory for ALL of them to learn English as a second language and speak it, if not fluently, then at least in a form that can be understood through an electronic device like a phone or an intercom.  Now to illegal immigration.  I understand all the commotion about freedom, rights, jobs, etc.  But let's keep this in perspective.  Illegal immigrants have NO rights under OUR laws, because they are NOT OUR citizens.  I believe we don't need to cater to these people at all.  I may sound racist or elitist about this, but I'm not.  I respect all races, and most classes.  I don't respect people that HIDE among us, take our jobs and receive our governmental financial support while not paying taxes into these benefits or going through the PROPER steps that LEGAL immigrants do to live here and enjoy our rights and freedoms.  Those are the people that made our country great and made the United States the fabled cultural melting pot that it is.  Illegal immigrants are nothing more than bottom feeding parasites that eat away at our society.  We currently arrest and deport illegal immigrants, only to have them come back again, like a virus.  Walls and fences won't work.  The illegals will find a way to climb them or dig under them.  Walls and fences are, also, impracticable logistically and financially.  I do have an answer, though.  I think we should ship these people to, undisclosed to them or anyone else, Antarctica, like the British did to the Australians.  This serves two purposes.  One, we wouldn't have to pay to support them once we ship them out, and two, they would be too far away to come back anytime in the near future.  Now people claim the loss of illegal labor would cause our economy to collapse.  I say let it.  We have become too dependent on them, like a drug addiction.  Drug addicts need to hit bottom before they realize they need to beat their addiction.  The same can be said about America beating it's addiction to CHEAP illegal labor.  It's no different than anyone running a sweatshop, or even slave labor.  Both practices are illegal in OUR country.  Law abiding citizens that hire immigrants, are hiring LEGAL immigrants, and I applaud these citizens.  They and the legal immigrants have taken the time to go through the proper steps to be productive members of our society and can truly be balled Americans.

So to recap, I think that The U.S. is a great nation due to it's freedoms, cultural diversity and wealth.  People that try to IMPOSE their religion on, or LEECH from these very traits should be shot.  But, since murder is illegal, just ship them all to Antarctica.

Please let me know what you have to say on the issue.