The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 16, 2009

Your View: Country should be a melting pot

Bill Cutts Sr., Mankato

Imagine my surprise to pick up Thursday’s Free Press and see the headline “Latino center proposal divides MSU.”

During World War II, part of my service was at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

I taught incoming draftees how to live in the Armed Forces; and see that they got to their classes on time and in a military manner, and how to march, etc.

At the time I started my tour of duty, the services were segregated. Blacks had a separate camp, whites had theirs and “never the twain shall meet.”

An order came down that the segregation would end and all would be integrated. We did so, as ordered.

I was working with a group of 160 men. A number could be called “rednecks.”

There was a lot of talk about going over the hill and so on. Surprisingly, the process went much smoother than expected. A lot of apprehension, a few fights, but — in my group anyway — no drastic occurrences.

The trainers were always alert to keep things running smoothly and they did, though it was rough at times.

Now, I see our country is bound and determined to reverse the process. Now a Latino center, next the Muslims will want theirs. The blacks, of course, will want equal treatment. I have no idea how many separate languages are spoken, each insisting on their “rights” and who knows how it will end.

My country at one time was known as the melting pot of the world. I hesitate to come up with a defining term of how we should be now be called, but we certainly are not melting together. Rather, the opposite.

We quite definitely need an emulsifier.

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