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Ever since I read a speech from Theodore Roosevelt that I felt was so true and great I have again and again read it and reflected on how it pertains to things today. The speech:
I agree with this speech and one area of life among many I have applied this to is celebrating holidays that don’t come from this country. Two of the most popular are St. Patrick’s day and Cinco de Mayo.
I am of Irish heritage and am proud of this however as the another speech suggests there is room for only one flag. I don’t believe this means that I should disown my heritage but the question of whether or not to celebrate this holiday has conflicted me for years. On one hand as an American I see no reason to celebrate this Irish holiday but on the other hand I think it’s a great way to celebrate my heritage.
I have other reasons to not celebrate this holiday such as the holiday being one of two holidays I refer to as amateurs night, the other being New years eve. Amateurs night is when all of the non-drinking clowns decide to show off and get completely tanked at the bars. I try to avoid these people if at all possible. The other personal reason why I have avoided St. Patrick’s day is due to the obnoxious “fake Irish” clowns who think drinking green beer while shaking the biggest four leaf clover they can find is what the Irish are all about. However these are two personal reasons which are a bit off the point of the above speech.
Here is another bit of a speech by Teddy Roosevelt regarding immigrants which specifically mentions St. Patrick’s Day:
I was wondering what others thoughts are on the speech and maybe how it relates to celebrating non-American holidays. Has anyone else been conflicted as how to best celebrate their heritage while not causing rifts in our country.
Crypto
“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all.
This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.
But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else.
The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English- Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with the other citizens of the American Republic.
The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.
Addressing the Knights of Columbus in New York City
12 October 1915 “
I agree with this speech and one area of life among many I have applied this to is celebrating holidays that don’t come from this country. Two of the most popular are St. Patrick’s day and Cinco de Mayo.
I am of Irish heritage and am proud of this however as the another speech suggests there is room for only one flag. I don’t believe this means that I should disown my heritage but the question of whether or not to celebrate this holiday has conflicted me for years. On one hand as an American I see no reason to celebrate this Irish holiday but on the other hand I think it’s a great way to celebrate my heritage.
I have other reasons to not celebrate this holiday such as the holiday being one of two holidays I refer to as amateurs night, the other being New years eve. Amateurs night is when all of the non-drinking clowns decide to show off and get completely tanked at the bars. I try to avoid these people if at all possible. The other personal reason why I have avoided St. Patrick’s day is due to the obnoxious “fake Irish” clowns who think drinking green beer while shaking the biggest four leaf clover they can find is what the Irish are all about. However these are two personal reasons which are a bit off the point of the above speech.
Here is another bit of a speech by Teddy Roosevelt regarding immigrants which specifically mentions St. Patrick’s Day:
“He must revere only our flag; not only must it come first, but no other flag should even come second. He must learn to celebrate Washington's birthday rather than that of the Queen or Kaiser, and the Fourth of July instead of St. Patrick's Day.”
I was wondering what others thoughts are on the speech and maybe how it relates to celebrating non-American holidays. Has anyone else been conflicted as how to best celebrate their heritage while not causing rifts in our country.
Crypto