Quote:
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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
The bazillions of huddled masses that came through Ellis Island and other ports had one thing in common. They wanted to be Americans. The ones climbing the back fence just want.
Welcome to the Cellar, badmemory.  |
I've really got to differ with you there... The multitudes of poor Irish immigrants who came flooding across the Atlantic Ocean during the potato famine were not doing so because they wanted to be
Americans, they did so because, as you put it, they
wanted... they
wanted a better life, they
wanted a chance to work, they
wanted a chance to put food on the table. America was their best chance at achieving those goals, and that is why they came. Not because they would become Americans, but because of the perceived chance of a better life
in America.
Just like the many risks we have seen so many of these poor Mexicans take, often with fatal results, these Irish were taking their lives into their hands when they came across... Large numbers never lived to see the other side of the ocean after setting sail, steerage was not a healthy way to travel and large numbers fell to diseases like cholera...
So what say you all? Lets ship all those damned Irish back across where they came from! Goodness knows during this flood of Irish immigration that sentiment was rampant in America, probably put forth by some of the ancestors of this find group of people who are so quick to say the same things about the current influx of Mexicans.... But what happened to all those Irish? This penniless rabble that flooded the shores of America with nothing to show for their name? hmmm... wouldn't surprise me if some of their descendants are among the ones now adamant about what a crime it is for the poor of Mexico to dream of a better life elsewhere... Three cheers for the American Dream... as long as you are already at least a 3rd generation American that is!
P.S. Thanks for the welcome, though I'm not exactly new, just a lurker who was finding some rather self-righteous talk a little too hard to swallow for once...