The Swedish reaction to multi culturalism may be a good sign. They are not announcing bigotry against the immigrant but, it is Sweden with Swedish culture and customs and values that should be respected by the immigrant rather than the relentless move to multi culturalism. Similarly, are "we" going to start blending other cultures into our Halloween observances? Some Dia de Meurtos, etc. ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead Nations that welcome immigrants should not have to surrender their national identity. The Identity (values) of America is a White, Protestant Nation. No apologies should be required. If the ferigner likes it here better. Respect the culture he likes. Rather than natural borns surrendering what is American to damned multicultrualism. Columbus Day is American. Too bad injuns Halloween is American. Thanksgiving is America. Santa Claus is American. Easter Bunny is American No more surrender of American ! Moi, Supports Columbus Day ! And Lief Erickson Day too - NOT Moi r > g No Not American but should be
Columbus Day was originally an Italian holiday celebrated in the Italian community in the US but it was made a national holiday by President Roosevelt in 1937 to pay homage to Italian Americans who had overcome many obstacles in the New World such as institutional discrimination against southern Europeans in the 19th century. Columbus Day is largely about a celebration of their ethnic and cultural heritage and the national holiday is not actually meant to celebrate the discovery of the New World by European explorers. [video=youtube;YOygAsFMVOM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOygAsFMVOM[/video]
Benjamin Franklyn was worried about the American culture because of the amount of Germans that were coming. That continued and they kept their language and intermarried with Germans from Germany. There were also French and Dutch speaking areas. The first immigrants to have major problems were the Irish. Not only were they extremely poor and came in the millions, but they were Catholic as well and also drank. Of course they had their shanigans in politics like having the dead vote... which didn't go over too well with the Puritanical Protestants. Stores had help wanted signs saying no blacks or Irish need apply...and there were riots against them. When the Italians began coming en masse, the Irish being more settled began looking down on them, and then the Italians began looking down on the Puerto Ricans...and on and on it goes. Frankly I think this is the problem between the Catholic countries in Eastern Europe which were once a part of the Austrian Empire, and their Orthodox counterparts. The Austrians were quite snobbish towards Slavs, so the Catholic Slavs began mimicking them and began looking down on the Orthodox in turn, and today you can see that with their attitude towards Russia and Serbia. Anyway in the 1920's there was a resurgence of intolerance in the U.S. and an immigration law came into affect that stopped immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. My mother was lucky, her father was an American and during those years any child an American citizen had was automatically an American regardless of where they were born. My father in turn had to 'jump ship' as it was called in order to get here, and he would have kissed the ground he walked on because of what the country and its people gave him. When Kennedy became president he abolished that law, and immigration from Southern Europe started again.
