February 5, 1976
Page 2709
IS THE MELTING POT WORKING — AND SHOULD IT?
HON. NORMAN Y. MINETA OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, February 5, 1976
Mr. MINETA. Mr. Speaker, this year, in which we celebrate the American Revolution Bicentennial, marks a most fitting time to reflect upon the contributions of the many heritages which have comprised our unique national character. Nowhere is this "unity through diversity" more evident than in the Congress of the United States, where one can look on the floor of the House or the Senate and witness Members who, in representing their constituencies, also reflect the wide spectrum of those ethnic heritages.
On January 25, 1976, Family Weekly magazine printed interviews with 11 Members of the House and/or Senate whose ancestors immigrated to this country to achieve a better life through hard work and dedication to those ideals which have made this country great. Their words, which I now submit for the RECORD, eloquently demonstrate how our country continues to reflect, in 1976, the motto, "E Pluribus Unum," — "Out of many, one."
The article follows:
IS THE "MELTING POT"WORKING—AND SHOULD IT? 11 LEADERS ON THE PAIN, STRUGGLE AND FIERCE PRIDE OF BEING "THEM" AND "US" AT THE SAME TIME
As America faces its 200th birthday, it is natural to wonder how well we have adjusted to our own identity as a land composed of many ethnic groups. FAMILY WEEKLY went to leading Congressmen and Senators of ethnic origin to find out how they answer some provocative questions like: Have you suffered slights or harassment because of your ethnic background? Should America continue to be a land of multi-heritage, or should there eventually be just a single heritage? Is there a conflict between the "melting pot" tradition and the concept of preserving one's ethnic identity? How does your ethnic background make you and America stronger?
REPRESENTATIVE FRANK ANNUNZIO (ILLINOIS)
(On Capitol Hill, they call Frank Annunzio "Mr. Ethnic." One of his crusades, the legalizing of Columbus Day as a national holiday, became part of an omnibus bill on legal holidays.)
I grew up interested in ethnic problems. My father was a tradesman. I worked my way through night school and earned a master's degree in education at DePaul University in Chicago. Like all children growing up in a large city, I had Irish, Jewish and black neighbors — and I had my share of fights. They'd call me "dago" or "wop"and I'd slug them. All ethnic groups have had to battle slurs.
Growing up in a mixed neighborhood has made me a very strong American. We were a close- knit family. A deeply religious family. We commingled all the American and Italian holidays and customs, and I still do the same today. As a matter of fact, every Sunday I become an Italian cook and make all the recipes my mother brought over from the old country — braciola, flank steak in parsley and garlic, meat balls, spare ribs in sauce, spaghetti.
Now we have enriched the family with a little Irish blood. One daughter married an O'Donnell. But I'm happy to say last Columbus Day parade found the little O'Donnell grandchildren marching right along with their Italian cousins. That's my idea of America as it should be!
SENATOR ABRAHAM RIBICOFF OF CONNECTICUT
(Senator Ribicoff was the first Jew to be elected governor of a New England state.)
Preserving the melting-pot approach is a matter much on my mind lately. I worry that this philosophy may be endangered by those who now stress isolation of cultures.
As the son of Jewish emigrants from Poland, I am always aware of my ethnic background. I was fortunate to grow up in the small-town atmosphere of New Britain, Conn. As a boy, I was subject to religious slurs, but these instances were rare and had no lasting impact. What did leave a lasting impression was the belief of my parents that you will be accepted for what you are, regardless of background.
My friends came from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. I went to their homes at Christmas. They came to mine at Chanukah.
During my first gubernatorial race, I faced anti-Semitic smear tactics. I decided to confront them. I said, "Anybody, regardless of race, creed or color, has the right to aspire to public office. It is not important whether I win or lose. The important thing is I'm not here to repudiate the American dream, and I know that the American dream can come true." I won the race.
REPRESENTATIVE YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE OF CALIFORNIA
(Mrs. Burke is the first black woman ever elected to the House from California.)
As a child, I don't suppose I suffered any more than any other black children in the Los Angeles area. But, I did become aware that I was expected to fit a certain mold. When I was 10, I was admitted to a special school where I was the only black. I was subject to a lot of personal abuse. Later I went to a high school that was only 10 percent black. To prevent my being classified again, I became very much involved in student activities. I was vice president of the student body and graduated with honors.
In a way, I feel that my background has given me an advantage. The drawbacks normally associated with being black and being a woman only challenge me to overcome them. This has made me a stronger person, and I feel that if other minority groups would take the same attitude, it would add to our country's strength.
SENATOR JAMES ABOUREZK (SOUTH DAKOTA)
(The only Arab ethnic in Congress, Senator Abourezk has championed another minority group — the American Indians.)
I know about bigotry. As a kid, I was called a Jew by classmates who knew I was somehow different but didn't know what that difference was. It only makes me feel closer to my Jewish colleague, Abe Ribicoff, who must have experienced something of this cat-calling.
Even so, I still think our different ethnic backgrounds are a good thing for America.
Non-conformity makes anything stronger. With a divergence of ideas, one is bound to come up with a better result.
Why my interest in Indians? Well, they've always been a special ethnic group to me. I was born on the Rosebud Reservation. My father had immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon, and he was a pack peddler in that area, carrying a heavy load as he went from house to house with his wares. Success for him was saving enough money to buy a horse. Eventually, he saved enough to start a store. He was one of the few white men who didn't exploit the Indians. In fact, during the Great Depression, he never turned down a grocery order, even when he knew he would never be repaid. It brings tears to my eyes to remember how, when he died, the Indians lined the streets and mourned with us.
I don't want the good things of the Indian way of life to disappear, just as I don't want the good things of my own Lebanese background to fade from memory. To keep my own heritage alive, I speak a little Arabic and I have taken two of my three children to Lebanon with me. Both stayed on with relatives and came back with new pride in their ethnic heritage.
SENATOR EDMUND S. MUSKIE (MAINE)
(Senator Muskie was Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1968.)
With only three Polish families in my hometown of Rumford, Me., I was distinctly in a minority. I can still remember the sting of such ethnic references as "Polack." I also remember the burning of crosses of the Ku Klux Klan.
My father gave me important advice. He told me to be proud of my strong Polish background but to think of myself as an American first. He was a tailor named Stephen Marciszewski, who came to America when he was 20. The reason he came was that his father was determined that he grow up in a free society.
There is no conflict between America's "melting pot" tradition and the preservation of my ethnic identity. The "melting pot" distills the best traditions into something distinctly American.
In my family today, we still talk about the customs and traditions of my parents because I enjoy them and associate them with fond memories of childhood.
SENATOR JOSEPH M. MONTOYA (NEW MEXICO)
(As a college student of 21, Montoya ran for and was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives. On Capitol Hill he became famous as a member of the Watergate Committee.)
Until the turn of the century, no one had ever heard of a melting pot in America. It has only been recently that the idea of melting us all down into identical carbon copies of some mythical and generally Anglicized American caught the imagination of the public.
My own family came to this continent in 1958. We have always treasured our heritage and kept our ability to speak Spanish as well as English. I was lucky to be born in New Mexico, where nearly half the population is bilingual, and where there is a deep and warm understanding of our multicultural traditions.
We do not feel that there is anything "ethnic" or foreign about names like Sierra Nevada or Los Angeles or Montana or New Orleans or Albuquerque or Sante Fe. We all understand and use words like ballet or rodeo. We all eat things like pizza or chili or liverwurst or crepes. So, you see, our American culture is really rich with the words and ways of many groups.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES A. BURKE (MASSACHUSETTS)
(Congressman Burke is a member of the prestigious Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the Committee on Social Security.)
The other day, on the floor of the House of Representatives, a colleague called me an Irish- American Congressman. I rose and said, "I am not an Irish-American Congressman. I am an American Congressman of Irish descent."
I am tired of being a hyphenated American. The sooner we get through with hyphenated Americans, the better off America will be! I was in World War II, and I can tell you the blood of every ethnic group you could name was spilled on those beaches, but nobody was saying, "There is an Irish-American and there is an Italian-American." They were all Americans.
Of course I'm proud of my Irish ancestry. I grew up in a Boston neighborhood concerned with ethnicism. I was the kid who went around the neighborhood lighting gas stoves for Jewish neighbors who could not light their own on the Sabbath for religious reasons. It was not a part-time job. My mother sent me around. It was her good-neighbor policy.
I still keep one Irish habit my mother taught me. I say a few words to the good Lord every night, and I do so again in the morning. And then I read the newspapers, and if my name is not in the obituaries, I shower and shave and go to the office.
REPRESENTATIVE TED RISENHOOVER (OKLAHOMA)
(Barely 41, Risenhoover is one of the youngest members of Congress.)
During the dark hours of World War II, a Navy munitions ship exploded in San Francisco Bay, and my father, a Navy enlistee, was killed. It was a bitter loss for a nine year old boy. My widowed mother moved us to a small town in Oklahoma. There, I quickly discovered, the name "Risenhoover" was considered German. Was I an American, or was I part of Germany's fascism?
Playmates taunted me and called me a Nazi. I faced them squarely. The red, white and blue of my patriotism was matched by red noses, white rage and blue bruises — some of them mine.
Eventually I made a great discovery — that bullies are more interested in trying one's patience than in testing one's patriotism.
We all matured together as we grew older. I gradually turned to debate and won them over. My battlers became my buddies, and I can say with affection and pride, they are my staunchest supporters today.
I really believe that the people in America are growing in tolerance. Today, ethnic names are seldom handicaps; in fact, they are usually assets. Excuses of race, sex, creed or national origin just don't wash any more. They are especially meaningless to a person named Risenhoover who suffered — but survived — World War II.
SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE (HAWAII)
(A holder of a dozen decorations, Senator Inouye lost his right arm in fierce combat during the closing days of World War II. He is Assistant Majority Whip:)
Many of today's young voters weren't alive when, as an infamous sequel to the infamous Pearl Harbor attack, the Federal Government rounded up tens of thousands of Japanese and placed them in barbed-wire concentration camps.
But what progress we've made! Today, three members of the House and one member of the Senate are of Japanese descent. Thousands of other Japanese-Americans have reached high professional levels. The lesson I draw from all of this is that there is a melting pot process at work in America — but the process is neither automatic nor painless.
I grew up in a predominantly Japanese neighborhood in Honolulu. Ours was really a fairly happy existence. But I do recall "English standard schools." These were public schools for those students who could meet a rigid standard of spoken English. In other words, they were schools for Caucasian children.
I suppose this Hawaiian version of cloaked segregation did stir some resentment in me, but I didn't really let it bother me. I was convinced that I could do as well and learn as much in the public schools.
I became a father at the relatively late age of 40, and I was concerned that I wouldn't have the opportunity to sit down and tell my son of his ancestry, of how his great-grandfather came to this country, of the sacrifices his grandfather made for his son. So I decided to put everything into a letter, which eventually grew into a book, "Journey to Washington."
REPRESENTATIVE E. "KIKA"DE LA GARZA (TEXAS)
(Representative de la Garza served in both World War II and the Korean conflict. He is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.)
I'm proud that the Spaniards sent out the first expedition that discovered America. We started it all. And as for my Mexican ancestors who were already here, they gave us a cvilization which created pyramids greater than those of the Nile, a calendar, zoological gardens, libraries, and medicine so advanced that they even performed surgery!
I was very fortunate in not having experienced any intended slights or harassment worth mentioning in the area of Texas where I grew up. As a fourth-generation Democrat from down on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mission, Texas, I made it to the Congress of the United States by the grace of God and our system of government.
There is to my mind no conflict at all between the melting pot tradition and the concept of preserving one's ethnic identity. That's what America is all about. Each person can be his own self — old world, new world. If one wishes to wear a yarmulke, a Homburg, a cowboy hat or a sombrero, he can do it and no one will say him nay.
REPRESENTATIVE F. EDWARD HEBERT (LOUISIANA)
(Congressman Hebert—pronounced "A-bear"—is intensely proud of his French origin and does not let his colleagues forget it.)
Although my family comes from the Cajun country in Louisiana, I never learned to speak French. To do penance, I am involved in a program to keep our French heritage and the language alive in Louisiana.
I feel very strongly that ethnic identities should be preserved in America. Having Cajun blood has never hurt my career. In fact, I feel it has been my strength. I remember once when my daughter Dawn tried to give me some political advice. I said to her, "Listen, honey chile, I didn't study journalism and I did all right in the newspaper business, and I didn't study political science and I have done all right in politics — so let me do things my own way."
Growing up in Louisiana, of course, I didn't face the problem of name calling or of being considered "different." Nearly all of us were of French heritage. But after coming to Washington, I have on occasion had to face some ribbing because I am a Cajun. It doesn't bother me until someone makes a serious accusation against my people. Then I let them know how I feel.