MY STARTING POINT
THE MELTING POT
By Nancy Quillin Long
Written August 2024
America, the melting pot, is the place where people yearn to
live in freedom, but many throughout the ages have paid greatly for those
freedoms. It should not be taken for granted. It was earned.
We live in a time of turmoil, but it only takes a moment to
crack open a book of old to realize that there has always been turmoil.
As immigrants pour across our border, I cannot
“undo” what is in my blood and has been passed down, generation after
generation for over 250 years, to the point where I am now; my thoughts, my
culture, my beliefs.
Reaching out to others
and understanding their journey is a place of compromise and understanding that
no one is better than the other.
I learned this best years ago as a young teacher in 1978. It
was a quick study to know that as I stood in front of my classroom, the most
important thing for me was to look out over the classroom and NOT see race,
color, or creed. Though I am Caucasian, the majority of my students were black
and Hispanic. My purpose was to educate each human in a place without prejudice
or bias. EDUCATE! Not teach them what to think, but how to think. Teach them to
read, write, spell, communicate effectively, learn about cultures, history, math…to
teach them the basics, not to teach them rewritten history or new math…but the
BASICS. With that said, we cannot push aside our American culture, at the
expense of a great many to placate a few. It is what it is. (see post on Judea
Christian values)
There is a reason why
people flock here to the melting pot which is the greatest place on the face of
earth to live. We must not lose sight of the basic truths of WHY that is so.
I make no apologies for where I stand on my principles because
we, as a nation cannot erase the history that is written in books. As a
genealogist, I know that my ancestors were the people who carved out this
nation. I have yet to find a branch of the tree that are recent immigrants.
With that said, I will go to my grave standing on the principles set forth by
my forefathers who fought and died for those values. It is a culture and no
amount of trying to erase that from the history books can change the facts. Is
it a culture that is better than another? No, not really…but why is it
something that is so desired across the globe? We must be careful as we move
forward that we protect those values. A nation without borders is not a nation.
So, let’s go back to the beginning of our nation. There were all
kinds of explorers that reached the new world. These explorers discovered a
place rich in minerals with abundant resources and untouched wilderness. They
encountered the indigenous people. Battles were fought just as they have been
throughout the ages. There was a hammering out of who claimed what territory, even among the explorers. History reflects that the New World was anglicized. They began carving out the wilderness and making progress. Was it pretty? No!
The indigenous people fought for their land, rightfully so. Did those
“newcomers” suffer hardships, most definitely. Long story short. Over the course of time, there were many cultures that came to live a better, more prosperous life. It was a rich diversity of communities that were melted together. Was any one of those cultures better than the other? No. They were all striving to live, eventually, under the laws that created the best nation on earth. For that, I am
grateful to know and understand my culture. Were there wrongs committed along
the way? Yes! Of course, there were. It was difficult to carve out this New World, and our culture is rich with contributions and stories of each culture. I spent 6 weeks each year studying folklore, which was rich from stories of those cultures and what they contributed to the melting pot. It reveals such diversity of how our American culture came together.
I stand with my jaw dropped, then, trying to understand why I have been made to feel so guilty by what I see as rewritten history at times. This IS a melting pot. We adapt,
change, grow…we’ve grown over the years, knowing that we must fight against
prejudice, but we can’t change what is history. Each of those changes has
caused us to grow together.
I got over that long ago, as that young teacher standing in
front of a classroom. I can’t change the “wrongs” that were done to others, but
I can grow and understand their challenges. Yet I will never abandon my core
values, my Judea Christian values…as that IS the concept of such a beautiful
nation that others across the globe desire. Let us NOT bend and break that culture and continue to attack the basic principles which formed who we are as a nation.
