Speak English Damnit...Even Though It's Not Our National Language!

When I first moved to my oddly-named little town I was excited that it was named after an Oklahoma Indian, because I am about 1/8th Oklahoma Indian, too. Just like Jim Thorpe.

Naturally, he was born in America, and naturally, he was born speaking his native language - not English. That is not a truly American language. This athletic genius, an American original, "The Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century," - He died with an accent. A truly American one. Not like yours, I promise. This one was authentic.

No, I am not everything there is to be in the world. I have no Zambian ancestry, and I am not directly Asian (via the Indians, I suppose I have indirect Asian ancestry). But I am a profound genetic contradiction. I have said this before, and I am fiercely proud of my ancestors ability to bravely "mix it up".

I have a father with a Jewish mother and a Scotch/Irish father.

I have a mother with a half Indian/half Irish father and a mostly Irish mother.

So, I guess, technically, I am mostly Irish, but that little bit of Oklahoma Indian has gone a long way - especially where my nose is concerned and that equal amount of Jew has made my eyes look exactly like my father's, like my great-great grandmother's from Budapest.

I am a Burnett, a Fitzgerald, a Borgos, a Goloby, a Preszlar, and a few million other things. After contemplating this subject for, about, the 600th time, I have decided that this makes me a true American.

My ancestors spoke Choctaw and Cherokee, Gaelic and varying Celtic dialects. They spoke Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Hungarian, German, and Ukrainian. They probably knew Polish, too, just for good measure, and none of them spoke English much at all. Not even the Irish ones. Almost none when they arrived and little more by the time they died. No English. My great-great grandmother ran a Kosher restaurant in Brooklyn this way - without ever knowing English. She died in the 1930's. Today, she would have to move her babushka scarf over her eyes when she walked down the street. Otherwise, she might be subject to a bumper sticker, like the one I saw last week. It read, "Speak English or Go Home!"