THE INSANITY OF THE TOSSED SALAD

 For the last few days I have been doing some computer training required by the security company I work for. This training covers a number of subjects that I must be compliant in as security site supervisor. The vast majority of these courses are very relevant to my job. Things like active shooter training, CBR or chemical biological, and radiological threats, dealing with aggressive people, fire safety, bomb threats, etc, etc. There was one course that caused me to roll my eyes, however. Cultural Diversity. As soon as I saw that title I could feel my jaws tighten because I could only imagine what I was in for. Much of the course dealt with the usual things like racial stereotyping, ethnic stereotyping, bigotry, racial discrimination, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, and transphobia. As someone who has never mistreated anyone based on differences regardless of what those differences might be I dutifully waded through the training and printed off my certificate of completion. The two areas of this training that gave me the worst heartburn, however; was the part about America no longer being a melting pot and that I must address transgender people by the gender terms that they identify with rather than the sex than they were assigned at birth. In their words we were no longer a melting pot but a tossed salad. A salad bowl or tossed salad is a metaphor for the way a multicultural society can integrate different cultures while maintaining their separate identities, contrasting with a melting pot, which emphasizes the combination of the parts into a single whole.

I do not apologize for the fact that I am still, and always will be, a believer in the idea of America as a melting pot. Assimilation has been our strength that has given us a uniquely American character. It is that character that I can recognize no matter your race, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. That is if I ran into you on a street corner in Frankfort Germany, London England, Istanbul Turkey or Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. If you are part of the so-called tossed salad, maintaining your language and culture in preference over our language and our culture I might not recognize you if I ran into you in the cities that I mentioned. Granted, in some cases we took the melting pot idea a little too far. For example there are Americans whose ancestors came to this country years and generations ago who know nothing today about their native languages or cultures. In some cases they even changed their surnames in order to sound more American. Yet we can be a melting pot and hold on to our family heritage with the melting pot concept. I know a woman who immigrated from a non English speaking country but she has taught her children to be bi-lingual and to be aware of the culture she left. In public, however; their preferred language is English. I would easily recognize her as an American anywhere in the world. Race plays no part in my view of things because her skin is brown. I have always said that if I died and was able to come to life 100 years from now I would not care if there was not one white person in sight as long as I can still recognize our unique American character in people.

 We put a lot of emphasis on diversity when it comes to skin color or gender but not enough on diversity of thought. I have been around diverse people all of my life. As a child I was around black people as much as I was around white people. In the military I served with people who had last names that were common American names like Smith, Jones, Brown Charles and Milliken.  I also served with people who had names like Gonzales, Rodriguez, Camacho, Macarowski, Cavaro, Rickenbacker, and Horvat. Sgt Charles and Sgt Milliken were both Black. They were the best sergeants that I had in the Air Force. Sgt Camacho was from Guam and he always reminded me of Geronimo. He was funny, colorful, and spoke with an accent but he was a proud American. Sgt Macarowski was a Polish immigrant who spoke with a heavy accent but he was a good friend and a proud American. I met Airman Rickenbacker in basic training. His grandfather was the famous WW1 ace Eddie Rickenbacker who was of German descent. It was an honor to serve beside these great Americans. In industry I have worked with and befriended many homosexuals. We always respected each other. They never flaunted their homosexuality in my face or insisted that I accept their lifestyle. We had nothing but respect for each other. I have worked with and supervised homosexuals, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and actual Indians that were from India, I also worked with Arabs, Muslims  and many other nationalities over the years. So I know a little something about cultural diversity. Guess what? We also had diverse opinions on politics, religion and life in general but we always seemed to be able to get along somehow. Diversity is nothing new. The tossed salad concept is balkanization, however. Balkanization is destroying America.

 The term balkanize means to divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups. This is exactly what we have been doing for years now. There is very little pressure on immigrants today, especially illegal immigrants, to assimilate into the American culture. Being appreciative of differences in culture and language is one thing but to encourage people not to adapt our language and to elevate the culture of the lands that they came from over ours is national suicide. Many, if not most immigrants today, as in the past, came here seeking liberty, economic opportunity and a less corrupt form of government than what they escaped from. Immigrants should always bring their talents to the American table and to be able to be contribute to our society. They should not come here expecting to take from America without giving back. The danger that cultural diversity poses to America is this. If we give in to the politically correct notion that we should accommodate their culture rather than the immigrant accommodating ours, we run the risk of turning America into the hell holes that they escaped from. California is looking more and more like a third world country everyday because of their political leadership. The homeless are camped everywhere, defecating and urinating on the sidewalks. Drugs needles are everywhere. The middle class is leaving and the wealthy live behind walled in enclosures protected by heavy security. The middle class are escaping to states like Texas and Tennessee but they threaten to turn us into blue states by voting the way they did in California. How long will it be before we begin looking like California?

 If you look at the history of immigration in America each wave of immigrants were escaping tyranny or poverty. The English, Scots-Irish, the Irish, French, Germans, Italians, Eastern Europeans, the Chinese, Japanese, early Hispanic immigration, Jewish and Arabic immigration. The Puritans and Pilgrims were escaping religious persecution. Protestant Scots-Irish were escaping the tyranny of their English landlords, the Irish Catholics were escaping the potato famine. Germans, French and Italians were escaping the political turmoil caused by the Revolution of 1848. Jews were escaping the persecution caused by the Russian pogroms and the later Nazi persecution. Cubans were escaping Communism. Even the Vietnamese and Laotian boat people of the 1970's have assimilated very smoothly into American society. America is a lifeboat in the world with a lot of space left in it. Like any lifeboat, if you try to take in too many at one time the lifeboat can be swamped or it could capsize. Once inside the lifeboat order must be maintained if the occupants are to survive. I think of the Titanic. There were many people freezing to death and drowning near the lifeboats. Many of those lifeboats were not filled to capacity. Some weren't even half full. The people in the lifeboats could hear the screams of the drowning passengers and their pleas for help. They wanted to save everyone but the reality was that they couldn't, even if they put forth their best effort to do it. America cannot save the entire world. By our example, however; we can show the way for other countries to become lifeboats themselves.

 Finally, I want to talk about the fact that according to my training I must address a transgender person by their gender preference rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. I will risk my job, or at some point in the future, going to jail, rather than indulge in a persons delusion. If you are born with male genitalia, you are a male. Or if you are born with female genitalia, you are a woman. A male is defined as a person who has the power to impregnate a female. A woman is defined as a person designed to be able to give birth. That is science. I personally know transgender people and I have never done anything to embarrass them or mistreat them. If they want to change their first name I will even address them by that name but I will never lie to myself and say that they are a woman if they are a man or a man if they are a woman. These people are suffering from a form of mental illness. If a person walks up to me and tells me that he is Abraham Lincoln, or Jesus Christ. should I say glad to meet you Abe, or fall on my face and worship Jesus? That person would be suffering from a mental illness called Delusions of Grandeur. A delusion of grandeur is a false or unusual belief about one’s greatness. A person may believe, for instance, that they are famous, can end world wars, or that they are immortal. Why is this any different from a person believing they are a male when they were born a woman, or vice versa? I have heard several health professionals say that a person who believes that they are a different gender than what they were assigned at birth are suffering from the same mental disorder that people who are anorexic are suffering from. If I indulged a persons delusion who was anorexic and they died as a result, I could be charged with murder. For example if they thought they were fat and I continued to agree with them rather than telling them the truth. No, in a spirit of love I should say you are starving yourself to death and you need help. Yet society indulges the delusions of transgenders. 

 The sad thing is that American corporations are giving in to being bullied by special interest groups like the LBGQT movement. Although I am not a great fan of their food, I have always admired the courage of Chick-fil-A for standing their ground over the same sex marriage. The CEO, Dan Cathy, was opposed to same sex marriage and didn't back down under pressure. Chick-fil-A weathered the storm and their business is booming. People made a point of showing their support of Chick-fil-A during this time. Business has always been booming for them. I am a person who is inward driven and if I see something that is wrong I am not afraid to make a stand. Sometimes it might cause you to lose friends, or you may have people treat you with hostility, or shun you. There are consequences for your actions, even when you are in the right. At 70 years old I have no regrets for those times that I stood my ground on an issue and I still have a sense of pride about what I did. I survived it all and I will survive again regardless. Sometimes people have to die standing up for their beliefs and like everyone I want to live. There are some things worse than death, however. I would rather die a free man than to live as a slave.