The founders of American Democracy never intended or stated in their signed documents that we should all "melt" into a homogeneous mega-group. Nor did they impose a homogeneous mega-culture on their fellow Americans.
What truly requires us is to observe the U.S. Constitution which is amenable so as to accommodate truly necessary changes. It's worth mentioning that, written in English though, our Constitution does not make English our official language. As a matter of fact, during the American Civil War, Lincoln's soldiers spoke all kinds of European languages, much as Washington's did during the American Revolution. That being said, English has long been widely accepted as our lingua franca. In this regard, I must add, Spanish is not far behind.So by all means be openly proud of your ethnic identity, culture, and language because your U.S. citizenship has given you the liberty to pursue happiness in this country.Such liberty is enshrined in our Constitution which has been amended, at huge human cost, to outlaw slavery on our way to racial equality. I know, we have yet to root out racism. At the moment, we are still learning to live with diversity in a supposedly inclusive society.In my humble opinion, we don't need the melting-pot metaphor. We do need to defend our Constitution in principle as well as in practice. Author: renqiulan
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