How do you envision America: Melting pot or salad bowl?

[ecstatic]

[bemildred]

1. Other: decadent empire. nt

[TahitiNut]

2. Gonna keep polling until the results are "acceptable"?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1235067

:shrug: :eyes:

[ecstatic]

5. oops... didn't see that thread! nt

[madeline_con]

3. Salad bowl

Everybody gets to be unique and keep their own flavor, but we're all hanging out under the same dressing. :popcorn:

[JuniperLea]

4. I hope we melt together

I think that is the only way we can truly begin to dismantle racism in this country.

Besides, and I know this is a shallow aside, I think mixed-heritage people are the most beautiful people in the world.

[babylonsister]

7. The whole irony of this is that the majority of us ARE mixed-heritage,

whether there's an 'illegal' adjective in there currently, or there was in the past.
I WISH I spoke another language, and now that's a bad thing? I'm sad for our country, sad
the differences aren't being embraced but lambasted.

[JuniperLea]

13. You are absolutely correct.

I would hazard to bet there is a very small percentage of people living in the US who are purely of one race. And since we all came from the same African woman, that is merely an evolutional footnote.

It reminds me of the old Star Trek episode where there are two people, both with a half white face and half black. They were hideously bigoted and it was very hard to understand why... until the end when Capt. Kirk asked why they fought and hated one another, they looked the same to him! With much disgust, one of the men turned to Kirk and said, "Can't you see? He is black on the left side of his face and I am black on the right side." Silly, huh?

Earthlings are so weird.

[Scoody Boo]

17. Many of us are of "Mixed-Heritage," but...

we should not be of Mixed-Citizenry. I came from Mexico at the age of 14, not speaking a word of English. I became an American after graduating high school. I served in the Army as a Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and with 3rd Ranger Batallion. This is my country. Mexico is from where I came from, but my loyalties are with my new country. Even to point of defending it against my old country under arms.

I have nothing against immigrants, but anyone wanting to make a life here should make their new home a priority.

I would choose America over any other country. I fought under our flag and would never fire upon it unless there was no other choice, but never, EVER in defense of another country.

Bush is not America. America is a set of ideals. We are over the hump with this nightmare. Keep the faith.

[babylonsister]

21. "America is a set of ideals." Yes, it is, and my ideal is not to

shoot first at people who want to establish a better life here. There have to be some controls, but who would you choose to shoot at first, the people who have only been here a few years, vs. the ones who have been here longer? Only the ones who haven't married an American, or the ones that don't have kids yet? It's a very slippery slope, my friend, and as usual, it's not being thought out, it's being rammed through. There will be repercussions.

[Scoody Boo]

23. I am not talking about shooting illegal immigrants...

I would never stand for that. I was talking about a shooting war between Mexico and the US. I would never take Mexico's side against the US in a war. Or Iran's side, or China's side, Cuba's. Not in a shooting war.

But I will not waver in saying that saying that if you move to a new country, you really should be choosing that new country over your old one.

[babylonsister]

29. Are the illegal immigrants who love this country even being given

a chance, or option? Were we under attack, that's one thing. But there's no attack happening, there's a bunch of angry, possibly racist people reacting to what's being twisted by this admin and some angry, racist people. Another Catch-22 that's being played perfectly by the powers that be.

[tocqueville]

6. E Pluribus Unum

this wonderful Out of Many, One, was replaced 1956 by the preposterous In God We Trust...

which shows that America is in bigger shit trouble she thinks...

I'd say that today it's more a patchwork than a salad bowl, and absolutely not a melting pot, except in some urban areas.

the alternative salad bowl/patchwork leads automatically in the long run to the disintegration of the state

[Berry Cool]

9. Who wrote what I read long ago that I still believe:

"America is not a mess of people boiled down to the lowest common denominator."

I've been lectured to many times by Canadians saying "See, you people have a melting pot, but we have a MOSAIC." And my reply has been "We have a MOSAIC, too. Don't let that melting-pot crap fool you."

[tocqueville]

12. the melting pot doesn't have to be negative

I see it more as a stew where ingredients enhance eachother but are still identified.

My grandmother came from Russia
A satchel on her knee,
My grandfather had his father's cap
He brought from Italy.
They'd heard about a country
Where life might let them win,
They paid the fare to America
And there they melted in.
Lovely Lady Liberty
With her book of recipes
And the finest one she's got
Is the great American melting pot
America was founded by the English,
But also by the Germans, Dutch, and French.
The principle still sticks;
Our heritage is mixed.
So any kid could be the president.
You simply melt right in,
It doesn't matter what your skin,
It doesn't matter where you're from,
Or your religion, you jump right in
To the great American melting pot
The great American melting pot.
Ooh, what a stew, red, white, and blue.
America was the New World
And Europe was the Old.
America was the land of hope,
Or so the legend told.
On steamboats by the millions,
In search of honest pay,
Those nineteenth century immigrants sailed
To reach the U.S.A.
They brought the country's customs,
Their language and their ways.
They filled the factories, tilled the soil,
Helped build the U.S.A.
Go on and ask your grandma,
Hear what she has to tell
How great to be American
And something else as well.

"The Great American Melting Pot" song from Schoolhouse Rock!

[ecstatic]

20. I wonder why they replaced that line?

Thanks for the info about the addition of "In God We Trust" in place of "E Pluribus Unum." I didn't know (or at least didn't remember). It's funny how selective our leaders are about enforcing what the founding fathers would have wanted.

[tocqueville]

22. wikipedia is your friend.... nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Upside down cake.

or a cake left out in the rain...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. How about a nice buffet with everyone welcome at the table?

Variety is the spice of life.

Unfortunately, most Americans prefer pablum.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. How Bout Burning Pot In A Bowl. I Like That Thought Better.

[tocqueville]

14. choice 1&2 is not a real choice, it's the melting pot variation positive

[treestar]

15. I envision America as the open space

If the world were a mansion, some rooms would have doors locked from the inside, some from the outside, others both, some that you had to knock on to open, others you can go through if you pass inspection by a doorman, but America is the open space where anyone can come and go.

And that's how it become the omst powerful and rich nation on earth.

[Swamp Rat]

16. GUMBO!

:D :9

[Orsino]

18. A nation full of people...

...some of whom will insist on either of those two metaphors.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. A salad bowl with one dressing.

The best of the U.S.A is in the ability to retain the 'old country' traditions while adopting a self-definition as American. We are best when we are willing to accept the old and embrace the new.

[me b zola]

24. America is a big, fat, delicious pot roast.

Seriously. Americans are the ingredients, the broth is American culture.

When I cook a roast, the meat & vegies take on the flavor of everything else that has been slooooow cooked together. The meat remains distinguishable as meat, yet has undergone a subtle & wonderful transformation, same with each of the vegies. Most American's identities are shaped by their own ethnic roots, but are to some degree have been influenced by other's ethnic roots.


American culture is the broth. When the roast is first set to cook, the water has no flavor--no identity. After hours of cooking, the water is now a delicious mixture of all of the flavors of the ingredients in the pot. The broth now is something distinguishable all unto itself. That's America, folks :)

[nealmhughes]

25. I voted salad bowl

but if we all turn out as Halle Berry, Raedawn Chong or Barak Obama, then I'm all for the mixing bowl! Hubba hubba!

[FloridaPat]

26. With global warming - it has to be melting pot.

[Sabriel]

27. I'll go with "TV Dinner"

Seriously, we're all compartmentalized, never daring to touch the other item for fear it'll contaminate our essence.

Feeling a little cranky tonight....

[radio4progressives]

28. It has become a Paranoid Fascists State

Some in America are desperate to hang on our White Supremacy. They fear that "those people" are going to take over someday and maybe they fear financial retribution or other.

[TexasProgresive]

30. Fruit salad with a hefty sprinkling of nuts. n/t

[ComerPerro]

31. Steven Colbert described it as a Lunchable

[MatrixEscape]

32. Other:

I see it as a host of simulacra and as an all-encompassing, engulfing simulation that has already emerged and, despite appearances to the contrary based on nostalgic and localized conceptions, has taken precedence over conventional ideation as to envisioning outcomes, overall.

The romantic, precedent responses in these final throes are merely knee-jerk echoes or wakes of that inevitable process.

There are potential responses and solutions, but the system has accounted for the obvious, (and even not so obvous) ones and nobody "in his/her" right mind is really allowed to entertain them now, especially in this growing, dominant, Westernized, cultural nebulae. This is obvious when we consider the effect of traditional methods used to date in relation to outcome and effect on the resiliance and growth of the system as its capital increases the flow of information to a saturation point as meaning is replaced, or surpassed, with hypyerreality, (more real than real).

I do find the periodic and staged distractions amusing and fascination is certianly a useful response in place the meloncholia and ensuing depression that the acceleration and impending implosion induces.

[babylonsister]

34. Do you talk like that? I'm

in awe, but will have to look up a few words before I get it! :wow:

[Buxtehude]

33. We must all learn to work together

but ethnicity is important in knowing who we are.