Xenophobia in America

Well, besides me potentially (or even highly likely) to be categorized by some in our country as a "right-wing extremist", I do have some issues with some of my fellow conservatives.

Last week, I attended one of those local tax day tea parties (we had a couple thousand show up...not a bad turnout). Overall it was enjoyable. We had some good speakers and a lot of it revolved around constitutional basics. Good stuff. Unfortunately, the whole experience was ruined (for me anyway) by one of the last speakers. I don't know who this woman was or where she came from, but she was so full of hatred and self-righteousness that was truly appalling. She took a rally that had been (up to that point) fairly neutral as far as political parties went and started bashing specific people in the Democratic party and liberals in general.

The low point in the whole deal was when she started going off the handle about President Obama's comment about the USA not being a Christian nation. Now, I'm about as Christian a guy as you'll find (and no fan of Obama), but she was spouting such intolerant crap (generally towards Muslims) that I was embarrassed to even be there. I feel I have a pretty good understanding of was Obama meant (even if he said it in a completely dreadful way) and I understand the reaction to that statement. But come on... If what this lady was saying and what the masses were cheering on went to it's logical conclusion, they would want all Muslims, Jews, Hindi, etc. kicked out of the country (and I KNOW there are a lot of people who don't think my religion is Christian).

Amendment One of the United States Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Stick that in your intolerant pipe and smoke it.

And not only that (now that I have my bile up), conservatives (of which I consider myself a strong part of) need to stop turning the illegal immigration issue into such a racist quagmire. Yes, illegal immigration is an problem and should be dealt with (change the current immigration policy we have in this country and enforce the immigration laws with strictness - including slapping those businesses that hire illegals), but I am getting so SICK of people looking down on someone because English isn't their first language.

And that's another thing: English isn't the official language of this country, nor should it be! So what if you have to "Press 1 for English" on your flipping phone whenever you call some big company! I do it every single day at my job. It's not a big deal. Whatever happened to the great promise of this country as summed up by the Statue of Liberty inscription:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

The Native Americans didn't like the Western Europeans when they came over; the Western Europeans didn't like the Eastern Europeans; the Eastern Europeans didn't like the Asians. What a bunch of intolerant crap. Ever hear of the Melting Pot (or perhaps we're more like a Mixed Salad)? If you truly believe we are all children of God, then act like it!

(***big breath***)

...nope, not ready yet...

(***another big breath***)

Government based on the Constitution - now and forever. Leave your personal bigotry in your head. I don't want to hear it.