I received this via email just now and I liked it so I am sharing it. If this offends you, then close the thread or engage me in conversation. Just a heads up though, I really don't care if this offends you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
One of my sons serves in the military. He is stationed stateside, in California . He called me yesterday to let me know how warm and welcoming people were to him and his troops everywhere they go. Telling me how people shake their hands and thank them for being willing to serve and fight, not only our own freedoms but so that others may have them too.

Then he told me about an incident in the grocery store he stopped at yesterday, on his way home from the base. He said that several people were in the line ahead of him, including a woman dressed in a burkha. He said when she got to the cashier, she made a loud remark about the U.S. Flag, lapel pin, the cashier wore on her smock. The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, "Yes, I always wear it proudly, because I'm an American."

The woman in t he burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.

Then, a Gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward, putting his arm around my son's shoulders and nodding towards my son, said in a calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and women like this young man have fought and died so that YOU could stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR own country, we wouldn't need to be there today. But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly, I'll gladly buy you a ticket and pay your way back to Iraq , so you can straighten out the Mess in YOUR country, that you are obviously here in MY country to avoid."

Everyone within hearing distance cheered!

Only 2 defining forces have ever offered to die for you.

1. Jesus Christ
2. The American Soldier

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

__________________

Well, i like that, minus the Jesus Christ part.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

The funny thing is Liz, I only believe that there is a god. (and my god doesn't have a name or biblical reference at all. I just believe there "is" one. I mean everything came from something and its something scientists can't explain.) I am not a big fan of the Jesus Christ theory myself but I am not one to knock anyones religion. I wrote that because that is how the saying itself goes. lol

__________________

I know thats how the saying goes

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

That is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! But then again I am a little biased as I have a very good friend who's husband gave his life for their freedom.

I'm not going to get into the religous part of this but I think the rest of the sentiment is great. It truly angers me that people come HERE from a foreign country, expect us to cater to THEIR needs and whims even to expecting us to learn THEIR language!
And then gripe about how awful WE are.
If they don't like it,...GO HOME!

__________________
Merlin,
What's Life Without A Little Magic!

I've seen that before. Actually it's been circulating for a couple of years, now.

I think as a story, it caters to the sentiments of patriotism that are really prominent right now, and gives a lot of people a warm-fuzzy feeling about the situation. So it does serve the purpose of making people who feel strongly about this war feel good.

What I don't like is that it's presented as a true story. Besides the fact that seeing a woman in a full burqa in the U.S. is extremely rare, she would never be out shopping alone. She'd be with her husband or father, and probably would not speak to anyone the entire time. And as far as I know, no one has ever stepped forward to say that they were there, or even heard first person about it taking place.

I don't like that this paints the picture that all Iraqis (and by association all immigrants) living in the U.S. are mooching off the system, then complaining about the government. That's just not the way for most people. It's a shame that they get portrayed so negatively, now. Just as anyone from Russia did before, and Germany before that. It promotes a feeling that U.S. citizens are superior to people from other parts of the world, when we're really not. We were simply born in a place that's not being ravaged by war and religious conflicts at the moment.

I hope it's okay to throw in a different point of view on the subject, like that.

__________________
"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

great points Typh.

__________________
My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

It's absolutely ok to throw in your opinion. This is one of the reasons I like the unleashed forums. It allows us to discuss different things.

I myself don't have anything negative to say about any culture that isn't american. Those that have come to the U.S LEGALLY have done so because they didn't like their previous residence and wanted a better way of life for themselves and their families.

On the other hand, I can not stand hearing about all the illegal immigrants expecting "rights" and privalleges like social security access and drivers licenses. If you didn't take the time to come here legally, or to instate legal citizenship after you entered illegally, I don't think we owe you anything.

Most illegal immigrants work "under the table" so they remain under the radar. If they haven't paid taxes like the rest of us, they don't deserve anything from us.

THAT drives me nuts and THAT is where I draw the line.

Another thing that peeves me are those people in this country that DO believe we should be learning THEIR language. The opposite is true! If you came here, you do as we do. We do not cater to you because you came to this country, you learn our language and adapt to this country.

If I went to spain, portugal, russia, or anywhere else, I would be expected to learn their language. I would not expect them to all change their language and learn english so that they could communicate with me.

I find that utterly ridiculous.

__________________

This is a very interesting issue. Perhaps I could post here some aspects of the Portuguese history.

Portugal has been either en emigration or an immigration country, depending on the historical moment.

Right after our foundation in 1143 (in the North of Portugal) we had to battle our way South conquering territory from what were called "the Arabs", that came from the North of Africa and Middle East in the 8th century, and controlled the Iberian Peninsula (nowadays Portugal and Spain). Having won the battle (took almost 2 centuries to define Poruguese borders) our kings at the time allowed the former occupants of the Peninsula to stay, as long as they became Christians (no religious tolerance at that time...).

Between the XV and mid XX century, we sent people to Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Vert, S. Thomas and Prince, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Macau, and the "State-cities" in India, Goa, Diu and Damao. Technically this was not emigration, because those were all Portuguese territories (so-called, at the time, Portugal-beyond-the-seas).

Being a small country we did not have enough people to control all those huge territories, so the official policy was to marry locals as a way to better "mingle" the cultures and, of course, control our colonies. This was a unique policy in old Europe (contrary to the one used by England and Spain, for instance) and allowed us to keep our colonies even without the military power needed for the effort.

In the 1960´s after a wrong policy adopted at the time and failing to leave peacefully our African colonies the war started with independence movements supported either by the Soviet Union or USA (usually both, each one supporting an independence group). To avoid the war, lots of Portuguese emigrated to central Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany and Luxembourg); other moved from Mozambique to South Africa (around 600.000). Nowadays, Paris has more than 1 million Portuguese and Portuguese sons or grandsons.

From the Azores several hundred thousand of Portuguese went to the US (big colony in New Bedford).

The emigrants were very important in those countries (specially central European) because they did the work that locals didn´t want to - and a lot of the locals had died in W.W.II.

Things changed.

Today we have immigrants coming to Portugal from Brazil, Moldavia, Romania, and other East European countries as well as Northern Africa. They are also doing the very important work that we don´t want to do - just like Portuguese did in Central Europe 40-50 years ago... But, of course, this also creates an unemployment problem. No need to hide it.

These are the "moves" throughout history, and if we fail to integrate the immigrants - and if immigrant don´t want to be integrated - huge problems develope (just remember Paris some months ago).

But, on the contrary, if integration is succeed, everybody gains with it.

Sorry for the very long post.

Regards,
João

__________________
Regards,
Joao