Immigration vs. National Identity

I received an email the other day with a picture attached and this text:

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Every American citizen needs to read this!

You know, it's funny that these emails are often wrong in subtle ways. I know it makes me look pedantic, but the mistake in this one is almost comical because it's such a silly mistake: this letter was written in 1919, not 1907.

Granted, it hardly matters since this does accurately represent what he had to say on the subject (the Snopes article quotes other speeches and letters and has good context at http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/troosevelt.asp).

I will say, however, that this just demonstrates that this subject has been long debated. I feel no reason to agree with this attitude just because it is Roosevelt or because it is old. I come away from reading things like this with two main thoughts. For one, I think the debate about illegal immigration often gets sidetracked into racially prejudiced tirades about the attitudes and actions of legal citizens that happen to have Mexican heritage. Secondly, people seem to forget that the freedoms we hold so dear in our country also mean that people must be given the freedom to act as they choose in regards to their country or origin. Being an American means, in part, that I have the freedom to fly any flag I want, that I can say anything I want about the government and that I give assistance to anyone I want. No person or government agency can tell me how I live my life in these regards.

I think the confederate flags that many southerners fly are a great example of this. Do you think that the practice of displaying a confederate flag should be illegal? Do you think that my Asian friends in high school shouldn't have been allowed to go to Chinese School? Should I be restricted from wearing a kilt and taking my daughters to a highland dance class?

Are you ready to arrest or fine people for celebrating Cinco de Mayo? What about St. Patrick's Day? The Chinese New Year? Octoberfest? Do we need to disband the Highland Games? Should the Scottish Clan organizations be disbanded?

I self identify as German, English, Scottish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and Jewish. At no point in my life have I ever thought of myself as not being an American.

These quotes are used as a sort of rallying cry, but how many people consider the logical implications of them if we take them literally? It's all great fun when it's the rights of someone else that we infringe upon, but it never feels so good when those same laws restrict our own rights. I'm not opposed to laws like this because I don't want more people to identify as American (on the contrary, I think that would be great), I'm opposed to them because I want to retain the personal liberties that I believe are the foundation of out great country.