Hyphenated Americans

My ancestors came to this country from Germany in the 1850s. Yet, to my knowledge, no one in my family ever called himself or herself “a German-American.” We were taught that if you live here, work here and enjoy the unparalleled freedoms and privileges this country has to offer, you’re an American. Period.

Teddy Roosevelt put the matter in proper perspective in his speech before the Knights of Columbus in New York in 1915:

“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. . . . The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities.”

To which I can only add, “Bully!”

WILLIAM S. KOESTER

Upland