Roosevelt and McClintock, My Heroes

As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Mexican President Calderon recently gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he tried to school us about Arizonan/American immigration law. This guy’s got cajones grandes, considering his own immigration laws are stricter than ours. And, he probably likes that Mexico’s poor, not to mention many criminals, keep coming over here. Let the U.S. worry about ’em!

In response to Calderon’s speech (which got a standing ovation from the Democrats and maybe some Republicans, too), Representative Thomas McClintock (R-CA) gave a short speech of his own, in which he explained why Calderon should mind his own business! He also explained what sets American immigration law apart and how & why it works — when enforced, that is. Give a listen…

Nicely done, Congressman! At least one person in Congress gets it.

I’m not going to get into this whole issue much, tonight. I think McClintock said what needed to be said, and quite eloquently at that. But, I did want to reproduce the quote he gave from Teddy Roosevelt. It’s a great quote that touches on many issues in the debates over immigration in general, naturalization, and multiculturalism.

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, from a letter written shortly before his death in Jan. 1919

Photo portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt

Photo portrait of President Theodore Roosevelt

I may not agree with everything TR said or did, but on this, I say, “You tell ’em, Teddy!”

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