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“There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism… German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else.”
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Theodore Roosevelt
10/12/1915
The above bit of Roosevelt’s speech to the Knights of Columbus in New York City has been used quite a lot by both the left and right to bash the other. I think Teddy himself would be annoyed, because his intent was anything to be anything but divisive.
It’s a statement about America as the “melting pot,” and is just as valid today a it was 100 years ago. Add in African-American, Muslim-American, Gay-American… Whatever-American. The point is, the overwhelming majority of what any of us knows we learned from somebody else. The broader our sources of knowledge, the broader our perspectives, our insights, and our value to ourselves and others becomes. That’s what being Intentionally Vicarious is all about.
