MISS PATRICIA M HEFNER ([email protected])
Fri, 21 Aug 1998 10:21:10, -0500
Patricia Hefner wrote:
> We all came from somewhere else, excluding the Native Americans.
Actually even Native Americans came from elsewhere, crossing the land
bridge from Asia near the dawn of the age of man. so technically the
only true Americans were the animals that existed long before man. Of
course if I go back that far I could also claim that since life came out
of Africa we are all the same race...but naw..such a nutty idea who
would listen to that?...
I think the reason people call themselves Irish-American, Italian-
American, Asian-American, etc. is because America has no real deep
historic culture. Sure we have history, but not culture. America was
built by so many cultures and faiths that it never really took on a
culture of its own. America is sort of like McDonald's, fast, plasticky
and can cause indigestion, or Armageddon, flashy, explosive and lacking
and real depth. (fill-in-the-blank)-Americans therefore embrace their
ancestry for a sense of self. This keeps America from having one group
culture that a country like France or Japan has. Take for instance
Canada where the French-Canadians identify with the French rather than
their own country and it is almost like there are two countries in one.
This is the same for America only we have 20 or 30 countries in one that
are all merged together.
so what am I saying...umm..*shrug*...just spouting off theoretical
rhetoric...
Pirate Bob
That's quite a good analysis of the whole thing. I happen to be trained
as a historian, and my "subspecialty" is medieval Europe. That's why I
want to feel *some* affinity, as superficial as it may be. I mean, heck,
the city I was born in, Birmingham, was only founded in 1871--any
questions??!! :-) :-) Oh, well, I'm off to raid the book stores for U2
books.
Pax,
Patricia
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 07:25:22 PDT