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Primus' Articles
Don't Feel Sorry for the Disabled
Norman Vincent Peale
Why we should cheer for America
Evangelical Christians should Accept a Mormon in Office
Why George W. Bush was a Good President
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In the early Twenty-first Century a lot of people are telling us America needs to give up our sovereignty and accept equality of other countries. While all people everywhere are equal and should be treated with equal rights and given similar responsibilities, I stand solidly behind keeping America and her sovereignty. If anything, the abdication of sovereignty by the United States of America, would be the most detrimental occurrence both for America and for the overwhelming majority of the world's inhabitants. In my first published work “Heroes of Hope” I labeled former U.N. Secretary Kofi Anon a very negative label . The reason is because he had the intestinal fortitude to say the U.S. should consider giving up its position of sovereignty and military supremacy and accept a simple place among the nations of the world, and he said that hateful and destructive thing, while living on American soil partying in New York with a salary the envy of over ninety-nine percent of the population, being wined and dined like a world leader, in a country whose very security he is jeopardizing. Notwithstanding the few powerful and dangerous examples like Anon, who is certainly not characteristic of a world leader (though he may be characteristic of a solid vocal majority whose voices are drowning out those of a more quiet majority), millions have voiced complaints about American sovereignty, which often come from both American college professors and foreigners, primarily our neighbor to the North, Mexico. I intend to illustrate in this essay why American sovereignty should live on in spite of anything Mexico or anyone else has to say about it. Furthermore, this is a timely issue because many professors of Latin American studies are saying that Mexicans in the U.S.A. are not foreigners but fellow citizens of the continent with full rights to migrate from East to West and North to South. Their previous president Vicente Fox took that view while continuing to enforce a policy that made Mexico one of the most difficult countries in the world for other Latin Americans to enter.
The United States of America has been the greatest country in the history of the world not so much by being white or being multi-racial or for any other particular reason than our values. The Constitution written over two hundred and twenty years ago is the only one anywhere to maintain its sovereignty and power over such a long period. In addition to maintaining the greatest Constitutional system in the history of the world, the U.S. has helped make other great democracies including the Philippines, Dominican Republic, and most recently Afghanistan and Iraq. We have led to further liberation of Europe and huge parts of Asia and also helped fund places where democracy had taken root including the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Persia, and Spain; while former enemies like Germany and Japan had democratic institutions created after their defeat. Most of the countries in the Western hemisphere including Mexico have constitutions that seek to emulate ours', so U.S. democracy is the standard for government everywhere.
I write this in part because I was recently taken to task by a junior high teacher who said that Mexican American students in U.S. (especially in places where they dominate) should be educated as Mexicans, given their cultural identity, and taught of their own nation's greatness, not molded into assimilated Americans. I feel that her comments were racist and I plan to illustrate in the rest of the article that my views are not, they are the most honest, benevolent, and pro-America stance a person can take.
Such a position is dangerous, first because it presupposes that Mexico is not a “white country” while the U.S.A. and most other world leaders are. This is ludicrous first and foremost because Mexico was settled by white settlers. Cortes and his comrades who left more than the flag and Spanish language, they left a culture directly from Sixteenth Century Spain that has thrived for centuries. Unlike this country, very few non-Mexicans are accepted into their country and the few who are allowed to work there (or live or even become citizens) are never treated like equals. Though they encourage white immigration from wealthy nations and people with special skills, they strongly discourage their own neighbors from coming North of the border. As the U.S.A. has become a haven for millions of Mexicans and millions of other immigrants, Mexico does not even want their next door neighbors in Guatemala to have the privilege of immigrating. While they carry on about us not letting every Mexican have his way in this country, the Mexican border guard stand at their Southern border with machine guns ready to shoot any Guatemalan who thinks of coming in illegally.
Such comments and particularly offensive to Americans of European descent because they imply that I should somehow curse myself for being white. I have no reason to apologize because my ancestors came over from Europe. And I will certainly never apologize for America, the most benevolent country which has integrated more than a hundred and eighty people groups into our melting pot. Over forty million African-Americans and obviously millions from the Americas have come here and enjoyed equal status with Americans of European descent. People who say we owe the Mexicans lodging or that we somehow owe them special status in the Northern nation do not intend for all whites to a to all “non-whites”, but simply that all assimilated Americans (including those of Hispanic descent) must apologize to Mexico. They will tell a teacher or civil servant like me trying to educate all students the same, that Mexico is different, that it is somehow a sacred cow and must be treated separately Such teachers and other government workers are not often believers in equality for all; they tend to prefer special treatment for Mexico to all others.
As an American with a disability, I do not apologize for being white and I certainly do not apologize for not sharing the plight of oppressed peoples. I have endured more harsh and hateful bigotry than anyone in Utah has come to endure. While I do not know what it was like to live under slavery or the harsh realities of the South through most of the Twentieth Century, no one in Utah lived under these policies in this generation and no one who grew up in recent times has been subject to such bigotry on racial or sexual grounds, such as I face every day as an intelligent American with a disability who strives to make it as an equal. Most would accept the fact that they would never make it and give up or bury their heads and stay away from people w possible. Instead I have tried, by embracing the greatest country in the world and tried to make minimal adjustments, to succeed in my culture. Because of my disability I am not treated equally and I have been subject to bigotry that no Black or Mexican child going to school today in 2009 will ever experience. I left one of the few places in the world that put me in the religious majority and came to Salt Lake City and having left jobs in Milwaukee, San Francisco and Oakland, all of which placed me in the minority. I came most recently to Utah, knowing it would put me in the religious minority but for the last eight years I have struggled to be accepted as an American, a Utahn and an equal, of the society. I will not, then be brought to bow, when someone says I should accept or defer to him by allowing her to set the agenda. No one else has the right to tell me what the rules should be in dealing with oppressed people, when I'm oppressed as much as anyone alive in Utah today, yet I endure it without claiming to be a victim.
While the “progressive educational politically correct attitude” is offensive to America it is also offensive to our other border neighbor, Canada. Canadians will be the first to tell you they are not leaders of the world and have little if any desire to lead or dominate outside Canada, but they are also the f to tell you they are not a white country, but a heterogeneous nation, one of the most successfully integrated in the world and are highly offended when people call them “a white nation.” Canada's parliament and its business community include proud Canadians from Pakistan, the Middle East, India, the Caribbean, Vietnam, Cambodia, and more than twenty other “home nations.” While Canadian parliaments, especially those of Ontario and British Colombia, include Canadians of Chinese, African, Indo-Chinese, and Pakistani descent, many individuals have cultures in which they or their parents immigrated from over a dozen countries, but have all become “Canadianized.” Yet Mexico is the exact opposite, its business community and its government is completely dominated by White descendants of the Sixteenth Century founders. Canada, like the U.S. is a country that allows people from anywhere in the world to come in, and work and to become citizens and accomplish anything provided they have the discipline to succeed.
After the U.S. and Canada the politically correct grammar of the Twenty-First Century negatively labels the United Kingdom. The U.K. like the U.S.A. is home to people of over thirty different nationalities and has integrated them into one culture, that has existed for the good of humanity for four hundred years and has helped bring realistic goals and dreams to India as well as cultures diverse as Hong Kong and Sudan. Like the U.S., as home to people from many cultures, the U.K. has long been in the business of tolerance, and unlike the U.S. they have encouraged integration of people of other races into families integration children of mixed heritage for over a hundred years, The politically correct rules of Twenty-first century education would have me snub the U.K. almost as much as I snub the U.S. I say “no, thanks!” I will not snub a nation that has been a world leader for over four hundred years nor will I snub the Queen or her subjects from Canada to India. Like the USA, I will never apologize for the Kingdom that has made our language, our legal system, and our realistic approach to freedom of speech and religion the greatest in the history of the world.
Such snubbing offends Australians and New Zealanders, also subjects of the Queen who for a century welcomed people from at least a dozen nations as citizens and equals. Three times in the history of New Zealand the head of state has been a native Maori. Like other “Western conquered nations” Maoris had land stolen from them, but unlike the others, there is no hostility between white men and the natives. In fact, Maoris helped write New Zealand's constitution and were instrumental in securing the vote for women decades before it became feasible in any U.S. state besides Wyoming. New Zealand has in common with Mexico the fact of being a young country with a great population forming its reputation among the Great Powers, so when talking about great nations, if we mention Mexico, we must mention New Zealand. Australia is somewhere in between, not yet a great power, but a regional one in the Pacific. It is an overachiever among nations and a diverse one. Black and Asian Australians have been leaders in all but parliament and have thrived in the business community. They (like the U.S. and the U.K. but unlike New Zealand) came late to the indispensable “business of tolerance” but by now they have integrated many ethnic groups, along with the white majority to make it one great nation and they are the only major country who has fought with the U.S. in every one of our wars. Both within the British Commonwealth as well as great countries in their own right Australia and New Zealand deserve mention among just and important nations.
South Africa presents a special case because studying its history and interesting role with America serving as a microcosm of the world. For most of the Twentieth Century South African politics was dominated by a paranoid fear of Communism and so everything there must be viewed through the lenses of Communism versus anti-Communism. In the early nineties South Africa rose up in freedom and, even more so than Russia which was in comparable transition at the time, has achieved successful freedom for many years. South Africa is the economic rival of Pakistan, Argentina, and yes, Mexico though those nations are larger and older than South Africa under its present constitution. One hypothesis goes, “Well there are few if any South Africans in Utah, so we do not have to talk about them in our schools.” This is flawed om two counts, first truth is not measured by how many people belong to a group, if that were the case vegetarians and bank presidents could be maligned in schools along with people with one foot, and those with one parent in jail. Being a minority even an unrepresented one does not mean a group is irrelevant or necessarily silent. Second, there are tens of thousands of South Africans in the U.S. (mostly White but a good many Black and Asian) and some have become prominent in various fields. As a microcosm of the world, I list South Africa (not among th great powers) but among those most interesting and diverse. While the U.S.A. is the only country ever to fight a civil war so one group could give equal rights to another, South Africa finishes a close second. Tens of thousands of establishment South Africans put their lives on the line and thousands gave them, Blacks Whites and Asians worked to secure freedom and justice for all. Tens of thousands fought to make that country free and they should be recognized here in the greatest country on earth.
The next major country to recognize in such a study is Zimbabwe which has also achieved a level of importance and honor in the world through suffering While a tiny minority of whites had power over it, it was was taken by the black majority while the majority of both races (with the exception of the revolutionaries) achieved a level of dignity during and after internal struggle. Unlike South Africa, power was not relinquished by a benevolent understanding between the races, but by a coup that murdered tens of thousands of white people and drove then from their land. Zimbabwe may not be a major country, but America hosts thousands of them, mainly white, and almost all have seen horrific acts done to them or their family members. If you think Mexicans have suffered, look at Zimbabweans the silent, near stoical people of the land, have borne the major burden with gentle silence and grown through suffering. Zimbabwe may never become a competitor with the U.S.A., or Japan or even Canada, but it is certainly one of the most worthy of honor to be talked about for its place among the nations, since some Americans Mexicans, New Zealanders and Norwegians have suffered but virtually every Zimbabwean has.
After the U.S, U.K, Canada, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, such political correct rhetoric harms other countries in Africa. All the free and developing nations of Southern and Central Africa have reason to feel slighted by such philosophy particularly Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Kenya first got freedom from Europe and has fought hard to establish a society of equality and freedom. Ethiopia had a great society, never conquered through ages of imperialism for three thousand years, but in the Nineteenth Century it was attacked by black and white imperialists and by Fascist and Communist imperialists in the Twentieth. All the injustices have left Ethiopia still standing and ready to embrace the Twentieth Century, with their business and creative minds running a just people. Uganda was probably the most progressive country in Southern Africa all the way to the Cold War era. That changed due to the horrible reign of Idi Amin. As opposed to South Africa where Blacks suffered the injustice of being refused entry into certain restaurants and hotels or allowed to live in certain neighborhoods; in Uganda Blacks suffered the indignity of having their throats slashed and being with gasoline soaked tires, for the crime of not caving in to Amin's every desire. I personally know a man whose father escaped being murdered by Amin with about twenty-five minutes of forward planning Ugandans have suffered horrors unknown to people in the Western hemisphere but in the Twenty-First Century have risen to become some of most prominent people of Southern Africa and may soon be a land of business greats and Nobel laureates. I emphasize this because African countries are becoming recognized in the West but the current political correctness says that Mexico is a special case that deserves to be treated like a sacred cow and Ethiopia and Uganda are not. In fact Muslims of Southern Africa are often treated inferior on U.S. college campuses because many cannot speak Arabic and they practice a brand of Islam that is foreign to many Middle Easterners especially in its general sympathy with the U.S. and Britain. Both in their home country as well as those living in the West, Ugandans and Ethiopians have just as much a claim on respect and national dignity as any nation protected by the “politically correct.” Sudan also freed itself from bondage first from the British and today is undergoing an unspeakably hard civil war in which Sudanese have faced religious persecution and being sold into bondage by their own countrymen.
After discussing the English-speaking peoples and Africa, the most pertinent and often excluded from the new political correctness education code, are the Great Powers of Europe and Japan. France, now in decline (they had long ago fought one war with Mexico) may some day be less influential than our Southern neighbor is now, has achieved in medicine, art, education and architecture, better than any country its size. One cannot list the Great Powers of history without France nor can one have a good and balanced education in history without understanding French history particularly of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Spain has had its share of both overzealous conquerors and good-hearted mentors. They are best known for sending Columbus and his party who came to America not in hostility but in love. While Cortes has the worst reputation in the history of American colonialism, rightly so, we ignore the more selfish Ponce de Leon who converted natives to Christianity not for their sake but his own. Columbus, on the other hand, converted people to Christianity for one reason, because he loved them and wanted them to go to Heaven. Columbus' simplistic, childlike, and ultimately profound motivation for sailing to help found a new world shines in the annals of history as one of the greatest and most selfless things ever done. And while Spain had many cruel oppressors, it had more than its share of leaders and contributors to the Western tradition in art, architecture, music, education, medicine, and they earn them an indispensable place on history's list of great powers. Portugal, too was largely oppressive and less kind as an imperial power, but Portugal today shines as a small country that is newly modern, much like South Africa, a newly modern democracy doing its part to enter the Twenty-First Century as leaders. The Dutch, Italians Greeks, Danes, Norwegians, Germans Austrians, and Belgians have had similar status, rivaling the Great Powers at times, but not reaching the full length to earn a place alongside the Great Powers. After Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, the shining example of a European culture is Turkey, the first great Islamic civilization, who, like England led a great empire and helped influence the world for justice and humanity. For more than four centuries both England and Turkey “took turns” at being both benevolent and progressive as well as cruel and harsh. By the late Nineteenth Century the British Empire had largely retained and somewhat strengthened its kind mother image, while Turkey became the father from whom one flees as fast as he can. By the 1920s Turkey was finished as an Empire but continued to rule as a secular progressive state. They were the junior partner with Britain, the U.S.A., Canada, and France in the fight against Communism. Though they practice a religion very similar to that of the “Great Powers” and those who modernized the standards of “benevolence” and “justice” they are a stellar example in proving that an Eastern religion (or one different from the “Western” majority since strictly speaking Christianity and Judaism are also Eastern philosophies), can be a leader and an example of justice in the world. Turks have stood alongside America and the other great Powers in two global wars, both the Cold War and the war against terrorism and the future of civilization depends on Turkey's perpetual membership in the family of just and forward thinking nations.
The last great power to dominate a region and an era, was like post-medieval Portugal and late Nineteenth Century Turkey an evil power. Japan, like Spain and Mexico has a centuries old tradition and series of traditions and rose to become great in the early Twentieth Century. Do not think for a moment that Japan was great only militarily or that she was not recognized outside the East for her accomplishments. Remember, it was Britain who first saw Japan as a potential Twentieth Century leader and recruited her as an ally (she fought stellar battles with the British in World War I being recognized as a great and potentially rival Navy) and American and British thinkers including W.E.B. Du Bois recognized the Japanese as the first “colored” nation to became a great power. That said, Japan sadly came to a point where she put her brains on the back burner and with bazookas and bayonets dominated a continent and influenced a world. After World War II, Japan chose to put aside their bayonets and bazookas and give their brains a chance, and they again have become an intellectual and business leader among nations. Both before and after World War II Japan deserves to be credited as a great power, and will always be listed on any list of the greatest countries in the world.
When all is said and done, the fact remains we in America and other democracies have much of which to be proud and hold ourselves up as the moral examples of the world. Other countries have much to learn and emulate from the democracies. If we are going to get beyond the “B.S. P.C.” rhetoric of the U.N. and other agents of globalism, the rest of the world must readily admit that fact. While the politically correct are harping us to emulate, or at least show “proper respect” to “Third world” countries, the fact remains, they are daily trying to emulate us and if not become us at least become more democratized. Even words “benevolent,” “just” and “progressive” are only definable and therefore can only be considered good because by relying on a Western tradition, particularly Anglo-American and particularly influenced by the Bible, the Laws and teachings from God and His prophets that have proven good and helpful for the vast majority of mankind While the U.N. wants to be seen as the standard of what is moral and progressive in the world, in fact they host many leaders who are dictatorial and regressive, while similarly the concepts of “evil” and “inequity” can only be fully understood as contradictory to the Western mindset based on the teachings of the Bible and the consciences in human beings.
While Japan and India (now both great democracies ) are examples of countries that had justice enforced on them at the point of a bayonet, examples abound of nations who, without any outside interference are deciding to reject dictatorship and despotism and pursue democracy with all that is in them, even “if it is the last thing we ever do.” China has made a partial change within their one party system and are said to be moving toward democracy, today I have far greater confidence in the new governments of Afghanistan and Iraq to develop respectable Twenty-First Century democracies. As nations both tolerant and despotic, Western and Eastern, advanced and progressive seek democracy for themselves, the U.S. and U.K, watch the world almost daily add elements or full-fledged members to the family of democracies as nations throw off primitive standard and agendas to establish Western style democracy. Many countries of the world including South Africa, Australia, Jamaica, and Mauritius are (or at least attempt to be) havens for people of more than one racial group. While the U.S.A. is the most successfully integrated country in the world, we see other countries becoming more like America. Peru had a Japanese-Peruvian president. Guyana has had East Indians dominating their politics for the past two decades or so. Panama has had both Black and White heads of state work to compete with top hemisphere earners, and other Spanish and Portuguese-speaking nations have increased national dignity by allowing religious freedom, relaxing restrictions on the press, and becoming “tolerant” of mixed marriages and homosexuality. Peru, Guyana, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Argentina, are joining the more progressive democracies of the Twentieth-Century like South Korea, Taiwan. Other countries like Brazil and Costa Rica as well as American allies including Turkey and Togo, are seeking to emulate Jeffersonian democracy, and make a hundred and eighty degree turn toward the family of full-fledged democracies as Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Portugal, Italy, and Spain have successfully done. None of these countries could have become so blessed in total exclusion of the American example. As we have proven not to be “some white country” but the most successfully integrated nation of immigrants in the history of the world, the highest ranking supervisor of military operations under the President in 2008 was was a Black American who grew up under segregation laws. As I'm writing this her party was opposed by a “fat cat” Black American who grew up about as privileged as any American can, and defeated the far more known candidate in the election. The highest ranking general of my lifetime was a Black American son of immigrants. The current commander of operations in our army is a Lebanese-American who grew up speaking Arabic and the second highest ranking member of the U.S. Marines is the son of immigrants from Vietnam. The educators of today may have given up on the American melting pot concept but millions from over a hundred countries never have, and because of them and those who went before them, America still works. As America continues to work for three hundred million citizens and new arrivals to our borders, millions from at least two dozen other countries are trying to be more like the U.S. and U.K. As Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Costa Rica have had tastes of American-style democracy their hunger is whetted like those in outdoor lines at Fuddruckers. Even Cuba, the one enemy nation that remains in our hemisphere (unless you count Venezuela ) was once well on its way to becoming a Twentieth Century democracy not so much to compete with Argentina and Switzerland as to compete with Canada and Australia, in 1959 it was the most progressive, modernized, and religiously heterogeneous in Latin America before the Castro brothers came in and (ironically like the other Marxes of Duck Soup) turned everything upside down for the worst. The greatest American export has always been democracy and we can hope and pray the Twenty-First Century sees Cuba and dozens of other countries become American-style democracies.
Emphasis here must be placed on the fact that in addition to its highly offensive tone against the two greatest nations, the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the snubbing of smaller but great democracies, the politically correct rhetoric snubs many Americans its proponents would insist they are in business to help. We have already shown how politically correct rhetoric is disrespecting and harming the U.S.A. England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, France, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Japan, and numerous small but committed democracies. The rhetoric is also a slight to the tens of millions of Americans who are immigrants fighting to make it the American way and also to tens of millions of Americans in so-called “politically protected” categories who are making and have made it the American way, about forty million African-Americans, four million Asian-Americans, and large numbers of Latin Americans. Millions, literally virtually all Americans have descendants who came here to escape persecution or simply build a better life for themselves and their children. Virtually all the populations including Jews, Polish immigrants, people from the British isles, and Asians have successfully assimilated along with the Black population. And while many of the Blacks did come here against their will, millions of new black immigrants are coming from Africa and the Caribbean every year to share a part in the American dream. While many Asians have been and are being assimilated, the politically correct snub them as they also snub the Latin Americans who are making it or have made it the American way. These untold millions mostly of Mexican descent (both Chicanos from the Southwestern states and immigrants and their descendants) are proud Americans. Over thirty million Americans are part or all of Mexican descent but when asked will certainly identify themselves as Americans. There are currently thirty Hispanics most of Mexican origin serving in U.S. Congress and four living Mexicans have served as state governors, one ran a fairly serious campaign for President. These men and women have made it the American way and hate being pigeonholed as “Mexicans” and would resent implication that they are foreign. They are Americans. This is their country and to tell them they are Mexican and can never be American is as offensive to them as it is an insult to any descendant of immigrants who has made it in America. Tens of millions of Americans of Mexican descent have mad it the American way by embracing the greatest and most inclusive country in the history of the world they have succeeded immensely in medicine, law, education, business and every other field. To tell an American of Mexican ancestry he belongs to a foreign nation must be resented.
Finally I say all this because the new political correctness unfairly insults and demonizes the greatest nations, the U.S of America and the United Kingdom. To be historically and morally correct, one must accept that these are the two kindest most peace loving and offering, most religiously tolerant nations on earth While patriotism is derided such is the case only if you are American or British while virtually every country in the world is taught patriotism and love of country, for their own reasons. Canada teaches its people about the greatness of Canadian institutions and the need to limit American influence. Australia and New Zealand teach their citizens moral superiority and the claim to often outdo the other (much like Canadians try to outdo Americans). South Africa both with and after apartheid teaches the pride of the country and its dominant race, and its need to continue to influence the culture for moral superiority. Ireland teaches its citizens the glories of old Eire and the need to be free of British influence The desire to teach its cultural greatness and at times superiority influenced and continue to influence nations, European and otherwise France, Germany Russia, Japan, and Iran. The need to resist Western influence has been a “patriotic sell” in Iran but even more so in small isolationist nations like North Korea, Palestine, Turkmenistan and Syria due to dictators and government controlled education. The U.S. and U.K. are the countries that have most earned the right to teach patriotism and yet they are the two countries in which patriotism is least emphasized. The truth is politically incorrect but the truth is the truth nonetheless, as Oliver Cromwell said, “I must speak the truth without considering my audience.”
I end this article by stating two bittersweet realities. First the U.S. is home to the “United Nations” but beyond the name the two have little reason to mix. The United Nations has become a haven for despots and anti-American anti-Semitic rhetoric, sometimes influencing its practice. In that sense it is more like a group of states, each clamoring to get their own point across with nothing united about them. The U.S. on the other hand is a united nations of its own, a super state made up of fifty states of people from all over the world, a true melting pot of some of the world's brightest and best, united in America. The second irony and I say it with no bitterness or animosity intended is that Mexico is the only country to border a world power and be plagued with internal problems which preclude it from becoming a world power itself. I admit I'm ignorant of Mexican history and I know Mexico has had great cultures in the past, especially under the Maya and the days Montezuma. For Mexico to move beyond the tragedies of their past and the uncertainty of their future, they must stop relying on their neighbor to the North to import and “solve” their “population problems.” They must also shun the racial rhetoric which the upper classes in Mexico have long used against the Black and primarily Indian citizens. In a nation where five percent of the country controls almost eighty percent of the wealth, the rich white descendants of the early settlers have become unapologetically prejudiced about their own superiority and relate others' inability to partake in wealth to their race, not the general inequities of the country, that is one reason why poor and largely bi-racial or non-white Mexicans prefer to live in the United States (indeed it is a mystery to me why such Mexicans so adamantly defend their home country and despise the country that gives them so many privileges but that is a separate discussion). If rich Americans and their leaders used the racist rhetoric that is common among the Mexican upper class it would be the biggest scandal in the world. Furthermore, while expecting the U.S. to accept great numbers of their poor among their huge and growing lower classes, Mexico refuses even to let their neighbor to the South, Guatemala participate in Mexican wealth. For Mexico to become a great power they must allow all people to work together as equals and to earn middle and higher status without regard to race, religion, or family background. While I may know more about Mexican history than many if not most Americans, it is not enough and I feel bad I'm unqualified to talk about it beyond what is observable today. The Maya never secured protection from a “great power” of their time and and even among other indigenous powers, they struggled and were eventually killed off in wars with other tribes and the remainder by the white man, primarily from Spain. Mexico has had one Nobel laureate and partially while researching for this essay I learned that Mexico indeed has a great culture with much to offer the world. I hope Mexico redresses these realities so in the Twenty-First Century it can achieve what China and Indonesia are beginning to achieve. As an American, however, I hope more importantly that all the students who go to American schools in Utah and the other forty-nine states, embrace America as their country and work to be their best and become successful as Americans. I believe this is one of the nicest things you can say to someone, you are already accepted as one of us, you are an American, now all you have to do is accept it for yourself. “ It is very resentful that people are sometimes called racist or politically incorrect for saying such things, when the embracing of the culture and implicit motivation and work for success within it is the most anti-racist, the most American, and arguably the most effective attitude people can take. Indeed by embracing it and accepting the kind-hearted and accepting ways of the overwhelming majority of Americans, all people who live here can be part of the American dream.
Primus S. Butler
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