By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 10.5.06 @ 12:07AM
We have all arrived here as immigrants, but we have all melted into the American melting pot and added our different spices to the American stew.
NEW YORK -- Here I am in our nation's Apple, or Big Apple as the
phrase has it. Its air has recently been polluted by the foul
oratory of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (always pronounced
with a jazz beat) and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Speaking
at the United Nations, they appeared back to back, as unhygienic as
that may sound. Chavez called the President of the United States
"the devil." President Ahmadinejad, wearing his trademark Sears
Roebuck windbreaker, took the high ground, speaking of "humanity,"
"commitment to the truth, devotion to God, quest for justice, and
respect for the dignity of human beings" -- particularly if the
womenfolk appear in burlap bags and the menfolk pray in Islam's
traditional "Bottom's Up" position.
The image of America that these haranguers summon up is that of
some nationalistic behemoth that is about to roll over on the
lesser nations of the earth. To hear them roar the USA is a vast
menacing race, threatening... well, threatening "humanity,"
"truth," "justice," and the "dignity of human beings," as the
Iranian rabble rouser put it.
Perhaps he should have stayed in New York a while longer and
looked around. America is nothing like the behemoth he claims to
fear. It is a country of immigrants from different lands and
different religions, all drawn here by the lure of freedom,
prosperity, and the rule of law. Yet despite the diversity of race,
religion, and national origins, we Americans all get along pretty
well. There is no Sunni district of America where a Shiite American
is unsafe. Our small populations of Kurdish Americans have nothing
to fear from the variegated Americans around them. Here the rule of
law and the promises of our Constitution keep us living together in
relative peace.
Next week this city holds its annual Columbus Day Parade,
celebrating the achievements of Italian-Americans, but open to all
Americans to enjoy. We have all arrived here as immigrants, but we
have all melted into the melting into the American melting pot and
added our different spices to the American stew. Presidents Chavez
and Ahmadinejad should have stuck around to enjoy the parade, and
have a slice of pizza.
This year's Grand Marshal of the Columbus Day Parade would
particularly fetch their attention. He is the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, a second generation American
whose Italian parents arrived on these shores just before the
Depression. A Marine, he is the first from the Corps to serve as
head of the Joint Chiefs. He is also a fellow who has much to say
about the success of immigration and tolerance here. Appearing
before the Armed Services Committee not long ago he was eloquent on
the service of immigrants in the military who gain their
citizenship by fighting for their adoptive country. Some 8,000 a
year do this.
In that appearance General Pace spoke of the hard work his
parents undertook to raise their four children and of the
children's achievements: a sister who is a lawyer, two brothers
graduated from the Naval Academy, a younger brother who is a
successful businessman. "No other country on the planet," he told
the Committee, "affords so much to those who come here" as America.
Then he added a line that ought to get the foul-mouthed dictators
thinking. "I am still on active duty today for one primary reason,
and that is I still owe those who served with me in Vietnam." He
keeps two pictures on his desk. The first is of Lance Corporal
Guido Farinaro, the first Marine to die under Pace's command in
Vietnam. The second is of Sergeant Matt Maupin, our only service
member currently missing in Iraq.
General Pace remains a soldier out of his sense of duty,
loyalty, and honor. On Columbus Day he will head out onto Fifth
Avenue with pride in his Italian heritage and in his country, the
good old U.S. of A. He will have Italy and America in his heart,
but he will have Vietnam and Iraq there too. Our troops serve
abroad to protect freedom and to advance it. We failed to advance
freedom in Vietnam -- though the anti-war movement of the day
insisted that if we withdrew, freedom would flower. A generation
later freedom has yet to flower in Vietnam. The General wants to do
better in Iraq, and remember in Italian pace means
"peace."
topics:
Trade, Business, Religion, Islam, Constitution, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran, United Nations, Immigration
