George Washington said in 1783 that our borders were open for the wealthy and educated and oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, who were free to participate in all our rights and privileges – if these newcomers followed American standards of decency and proper conduct. He wanted them to assimilate to their new country’s values. And most of them did. Most of these European immigrants considered themselves Americans and never saw their homelands or families again. This was mainly because travel to Europe was difficult, not because the new country insisted on it, although it made assimilation easier to accomplish.
The goal used to be for all immigrants of different backgrounds to “melt” into a new race of people. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, this ideal was challenged when we were encouraged to celebrate diversity and move beyond this melting pot. Assimilation was changed to multi-culturalism.

Multi-culturalism is promoted by many, but it doesn’t give the people a common goal, belief or even language anymore. Many of the immigrants here now have no knowledge of the history of this country and no interest in learning it. They have no loyalty to any common idea or belief, and often don’t consider themselves Americans. A large number never learn English and never learn their rights or responsibilities and never become a part of this country. What can we do to help them become Americans?

The task of assimilating into a new culture doesn’t rest with the people already there, it is the responsibility of the immigrants to take advantage of the opportunities that are offered to them in their new home. They must try to adapt to life in this country. It doesn’t mean they should forget their own customs, it doesn’t mean they should change entirely, but it does mean they should do their best to learn the language and the rules.

When Americans look back at their history of immigration, they assume that assimilation is a relatively easy process, since their parents and grandparents did it. But it is very hard for immigrants to give up old languages, customs and practices so they can be absorbed into their new society. Most people possess a strong, passionate attachment to their own culture and way of life and in most cases, they are emigrating because of poverty in their own country. If their country offered them a good life for their families, most of them would stay home.

We need the immigrants who are here and will need more all the time. We should find a way to combine the assimilation we used to strive for and the multi-culturalism that so many want now. We have to convince these new people to become Americans without giving up all of the customs from their former homes.
We need more Americans, not just citizens (or non-citizens) living here who never fit in.

original from: Donna Poisl

First of all, only about half of the articles that appear in People Magazine are going to be about celebrities but all of the information that is available on the People Magazine website is celebrity-based. The other half of the articles, which consists mainly of human interest type subjects are only available through a People Magazine Subscription. That is one of the main reasons why it is a good idea to have a subscription to the magazine so that you can see all of the things that they print, not just the ones that are freely available on the Internet.

Secondly, People Magazine subscriptions give you the opportunity to hold the magazine in your hand and enjoy it anywhere that you’re at. Most of us tend to have some down time at least for part of the day and this can be an excellent time for us to enjoy our People Magazine subscription and catch up on the latest. There are plenty of times whenever I enjoy thumbing through a magazine whenever I am relaxing on the couch and the last thing that I would want to be doing is sitting in front of my computer, surfing the Internet. That is one thing that you get from a People Magazine subscription that you absolutely cannot get by viewing it on the Internet.

If you decide that you want a people magazine subscription, you’re much better off having it delivered to your house in this way than picking it up at the store. Most of us tend to buy a People Magazine every week anyway whenever we are at the store in order to catch up on the latest. You can save a considerable amount of money, however, by having it delivered directly to your house. They typically have a month of free issues of the magazine and then you can decide if you want to continue receiving it at home. You are also going to pay a lot less money per issue and typically save almost 50% off of the price that you will be paying at the store.

Even though it’s a good idea to enjoy surfing the website in order to catch up with the latest on most of the celebrities, People Magazine subscriptions are simply too convenient to pass up. Not only that, the next time you pass by the magazine rack in the line at the grocery store, you will be able to pass it by, already knowing exactly what the issue is about.

souce from : c h r i s s a l i b a . b l o g s p o t . c o m

John Szwed, who is a professor at Yale University, writes well enough. And he is thorough in all the information he gives you about the recordings of Miles Davis, peppering the text with lots of fascinating bits and pieces of information. Yet the way it is all presented is rather lacklustre. Why not allow yourself some enthusiasm for what you write about?

Interspersed between the academic mini-biographies of Davis’s albums, there are biographical details of Davis’s actual life: the women, drugs, health problems etc. Indeed, half way through the book there’s an unnumbered chapter (between chapters five and six) simply called Interlude where the author writes about Miles Davis’s personality, with no musical references whatsoever.

This is the odd thing about So What, and why I guess you walk away feeling that the book is lacking some human essence. So What for the greater part examines the discography of Miles Davis, but does it in a kind of quarantine from Miles Davis the man. To me it had always seemed that the biographer has the job of trying to explain the music by the life, and vice versa. Usually both intermingle in a pleasant way that provides meaning for the reader.

It’s not all bad though. Running to 400 pages, there has to be quite a bit of biographical detail, and for Davis nuts, you’re going to find lots of details that you probably didn’t know of. There are also some fascinating quotes from friends and colleagues of Davis, who do their bit to psychoanalyse him.

Needless to say, Miles Davis was an extraordinarily complex man. Someone who was very, very enigmatic and mysterious, even, I would dare venture, to himself. He was full of paradoxes and contradictions. Painfully shy, yet extroverted. Someone who abused women, but needed them to mother him. You get to the end of this biography and realise that you have to be satisfied with not knowing what really drove Miles Davis to make the music he did. Perhaps the only answer is to listen to the music to try and find the answer there.

This book was not so bad, it’s just that I would expect a book on Miles Davis, a major twentieth century artist, to be a page turner. Could you imagine Picasso or Hitchcock getting such a prim and rigid biography of their life and achievements?