“Halt the Hyphen” Website Appeals to Americans’ Unity – Call for Assimilation
When our grandparents came to America from Europe around the turn of the 20th Century, most could speak no English. Â They did not know American customs. Â They did not know American mannerisms. Â Things were so very different in America; they did not know how to live here at all.
Yet, the very last thing they wanted was to be called or call themselves Polish-Americans, Russian-Americans, Romanian-Americans or even Jewish-Americans.  They had dreamed in the Old Country of being “Americans”, and that’s exactly what they set out to do once they arrived at Ellis Island.
So, they learned the English language. Â They learned American customs. Â They learned American mannerisms. Â They learned to adapt to their new lives because, more than anything else, they wanted to assimilate into American culture. No hyphens were necessary or even thought of back then.
Today, American born and foreign born people living in America have decided to “brand’ themselves with hyphenated identities reflective of the countries and cultures they, or their ancestors, came from, even if their families have lived in this wonderful country for generations!  Today we have, in no particular order, Mexican-Americans, Polish-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, Arab-Americans, Italian-Americans, and on and on.
That’s why “Halt the Hyphen, LLC” was started.  Created as a non-political, social organization, its founders’ goal is to help refocus the minds of Americans on unity, assimilation and old fashioned American pride.  Preferring to remain anonymous due to personal beliefs, its founders respect and celebrate the pride and spirit of ethnicity, but they warn of polarization that can lead to national weakness, distrust and even violence.  Their stated goal is to reunite and blend Americans back into the “melting pot” our forefathers described and envisioned hundreds of years ago.
For more information, to blog your ideas, and for a selection of products that will help to show your unhyphenated pride, Visit www.HaltTheHyphen.org.
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