Is Assimilation Possible?
It is reasonably simple to find your way here in America: Follow the rules. Integrate. Drop labels. Assimilate. Be productive. Repeat. Before long, you begin to experience the freedom that comes with being an American.
It's really that easy. After all, this is America; that "Shining City on a Hill" -- a nation of immigrants, magnificently colored by a diversity of persons and cultures amalgamated into "one nation under God." That's who we are and how we roll. The beauty of it is…those who are uncomfortable with that… are free to leave. No harm, no foul. Something the Tsarnaev brothers should have done long ago. Lives would be saved, limbs would be intact, a little 8 year-old boy would still be smiling, and I'd have no need to write this column.
While we search for answers, it is human nature to cast blame. But it is unacceptable to blame the American way of life as some liberals are doing. Killing or maiming innocent people is not how we resolve personal conflict.
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With that said, I also believe left-wing knuckleheads in the media, schools, and universities need to accept their share of responsibility. Relentless anti-American diatribes will eventually work their way into the hearts and minds of those already struggling to assimilate.
A perfect example is former NBC anchor and author of "The Greatest Generation," Tom Brokaw, who recently suggested America is partly to blame for the Boston bombings because the Tsarnaevs may have felt "alienated" and upset over U.S. drone strikes on "innocent civilians." What an odd statement coming from a man who profited by praising a generation who fought wars to win, political-correctness-be-damned. The difference then was America was willing to do whatever it took to halt evil in its footsteps.
And now he seems to find it politically correct to damn America. What's up with that?
It also doesn't help that terrorism sometimes pays off. If you wait long enough, you could end up like former homegrown terrorist, err, activist, Bill Ayers. Without repenting for his deeds, Ayers found a way to weasel into the American education system and was awarded the title of "Distinguished Professor." Apparently so distinguished, he was granted the privilege of hosting a fundraiser for the then-presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008. Hold on little Tsarnaev, there's still hope.
I am a conservative, so I have a heart, and because I am a Christian, I have a bleeding heart. And my bleeding heart breaks for those who don't realize the gift they have and deliberately refuse to be woven into the fabric of this nation of immigrants.
Everyone seems relieved that the Tsarnaev brothers were most likely not connected to a large terror network somewhere else in the world. If this is true, this suggests this evil came from within themselves, despite all they had going for them. This battle they seemed to have going on between two very different worlds was powerful enough to convince them that even an innocent 8 year-old boy is fair game. How many more are there?
This seeming inability to assimilate came into clearer focus for me this week during a White House press conference when Muslim reporter, Amina Ismail's, question seemed to liken an act of war in Afghanistan to an act of terror. "…President Obama said that what happened in Boston was an act of terrorism," said Ismail, "I would like to ask, do you consider the U.S. bombing on civilians in Afghanistan…a form of terrorism?" Of course, the correct answer is "no," but the obvious disconnect begs a more troubling question: Is assimilation even possible?
