Sir;.... What, really, is your concern??? So what if America begins to resemble the world if the world begins to resemble us???.It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire...Now it does, at least on the expensive part, or English adminstered colonies... But as a legacy the world speaks English, and the former colonies most resemble England in their institutions and laws...The problem for them, and for us is that the riff raft of failed empire follow us home... I love the the Vietnamese, their culture, their cooking, the attitudes, their hard work, and their ready smiles... Yet, we would not know them but for the failure to understand them, and their country's need for an independent nation...And you can repeat this story endlessly, how our support of Israel, for example has resulted in so many Arabs here, or how our meddling and crimes in Persia has brought the Persians to our shore...When we fail, our friends and supporters fail, and we bring them home to America...Here they serve another purpose, of helping to divide us...But upon what basis can we be united??? We call ourselves a nation and have never been one people with a common mother, so we often use the word incorrectly, as a place rather than a people... We need unity, but at what price????We suffer the very division we sow around the world to have power...Now that we are here together; what have we in common???You think that because we nearly all once came from Europe that we were not always divided... What the government seeks, and should achieve it cannot reach because the economy has always sought our division just as the need to make profits on foreign shores has divided others, first, the living from the dead, the blessed from the damned, and finally the rich from the poor, the owners from the slaves... As our markets contract in the face of global expansion of capital, and competion, we find, that to have our rich we must suffer more and more the division we have forced upon others... We are not one nation, but many.... Some people come here never expecting to fit in, but to make a killing, and go home to be wealthy amid want...The answer to our problem is in our oath... We have all pledged ourselves to the republic, one nation, indivisable, with liberty and justice for all... The people in China need justice no less than we...The people in Afghanistan and Irag need justice just as we...The people of the world need justice just as we need justice, and this goal is impossible without equality...Yet, our economy is based upon inequality, in the destruction of social and economic and political equality...What we say we accept, and pledge ourselves to, we almost all as soon as our voices grow silent set about denying and negating... We have only one common mother, which is the mother of all nations, and it is justice... We say liberty and justice for all, and this equality we swear to cannot be denied if we will have one nation, and one united nation of people on this earth... If Capitalism must die so we can live in peace, then hasten the day...We should go our sepparate ways, each person to his nation until we can learn to put aside our differences upon the common need of all people for liberty and justice... We are all equal in this regard, and though many people and peoples would put themselves first, they are no more entitled than any others to the common fruits of our existence...You sound as though you would have us united... You have broken the dam, and now swim against the flood...We need unity to have strength, but we cannot achieve unity without a common purpose... What is your common purpose???You cheer the cause, but curse the effect...Which all the better proves my point... Thanks...Sweeney

Re: James A, Sweeney. I think he's right about this, Mr Sweeney, although I suspect you and I would part company with him on solutions. It CAN happen here. Just as Americans look with disgust at Nazi Germany and think, it can't happen here, I say it sure can. But we have a chance in this country, thanks to being born on third base when it comes to location, wealth, natural resources, space, and a single national language, to discover a different way to deal with diversity than we see just about everywhere else in the world, but we may well be blowing it. One thing we lack is a culture that truly favors peaceful and adult solutions to differences of opinion or orientation rather than war, fighting, name-calling, and scapegoating. Another thing we lack increasingly and disturbingly is education. Like it or not, also we need to control the uncontrolled swelling of our population by people pouring across our borders. I'm sure Mr. Buchanan will go for that one. For my money, the combination of our withering educational infrastructure and our unbridled immigrant-fed population growth, which is openly encouraged by businesses looking for cheap labor and by just about every model out there being offered for economic growth, including those favored by the righteous Paul Krugman, are the two greatest forces propelling us toward either the Kosovo syndrome or just plain burning up the planet.

Dear Pat Buchanan: Your column “Dumbing down of the U. S. Navy” Was very offensive to me. I am a Commander and Blue and Gold Officer in the Navy interviewing students from three High Schools in my area, that have made an application to enter the Naval Academy. I have been performing this duty for the past fifteen years, and have volunteered countless hours toward providing the Naval Academy with the most qualified candidates that will be superior Naval Officers. The Naval Academy Admissions Office evaluates a vast amount of documentation of physical, medical and academics for some ten thousand applicants each year to select the best qualified. However, by policy those selected must be interviewed, face to face, by a Glue and Gold Officer. A report with recommendation of the Blue and Gold Officer must be submitted to the Admissions Office before that candidate's folder is sent to the Selection Board for final selection. Because of your lack of information you have seriously offended myself and all other Blue and Gold Officers across the nation.