As found on I-Report....by me!!!!

First, let me make one thing clear to everyone.

I have no shame in any of my ancestry. African, European, or Native.

I believe they all contributed to the world I now live in.

I believe they all are a part of me....genetically speaking. Beyond physical traits, there is nothing in me, however, that has its basis uniquely because my grandmother was Native American. Same for my European great-grandfather and my African grandfather.

WHO I am is a direct result of when I was born, where I was raised, the environment I was raised in and , most importantly, the lessons I was taught while being raised by my parents. They did not teach me the African or European way of approaching problems. They did not teach me an African or European set of morals or values. They did not dwell on our past. They dwelled on our future.

It sounds nice and cozy to talk about heritage and ancestors and their impact on our self-identity. In some countries and cultures, that is more applicable.

America is different.

America is a country where everyone that came here LEFT somewhere. They left somewhere to start a new life in a new "world" - voluntarily or forced. They may have brought their culture with them INITIALLY, but each generation reduced that inherited culture more and more to the point where , eventually, that culture is just the celebration of a holiday or a certain meal here and an ancestral name passed down to a child there.

While one celebrates their ancestry and ethnicity, what about the here and now?

One hundred years from now, YOU will be the ethnic ancestor of your great-great-great-great-grandchildren. Will they still call themselves ethnic-dash-Americans? How many more ethnic groups will they have been mixed with 100 years from now? Just how many dashes do we get to use in describing ourselves? What makes you so sure YOUR ethnic group will not be one of the ones dropped like many of us have downplayed/dropped our "other" ethnicities? Why wait a hundred years?

The point of being in America is to be an American. We are creating a new culture and a new ethnicity as we live and breathe. I say we should embrace our task and work dilligently to pull the best of all our ancestral cultures and make a unique culture that - one hundred years from now - will be identified as an American ethnicity.

What is so wrong with that? How is this shame against my ancestors?

Every immigrant to every country 100 years or more ago faced these same tasks.

Poland did not have the culture it has now until the immigrants to that country made a Polish culture. I am sure Polish culture can be dissected to be a mixture of this country and that country.

The same for Germany, Ireland, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Irag, Iran, Saudi Arabia, England, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Japan, China, Figi and Russia. The same will be true when mankind colonizes the Moon, Mars, or some other planet.

I will say this again with all due respect for my ancestors and my contemporaries...The dominant genes in my DNA may control how I look and what I "am" but they have NOTHING to do with WHO I am. WHO I am is what I have control over.

I want my descendants to be proud of WHAT I did to contribute to their lives, their country, and their world.

I don't care if they forget where my great-great-great-grandparent was born. If you really checked, I think you will find that you have no idea where YOUR great-great-great-grandparent was born either. You assume, because of your physical traits, that they were born on the continent of Africa.

What if you check your DNA and find that most of your ancestry is from Poland?

Will you then change your dash?

Race discussions on Ireport...

At www.dropthedash.com there are pages and pages of comments from people black, white, brown and other, who agree with the dropthedash campaign.

We all know what America was...how many of us are willing to work on what America will BE for our kids?

It will take people on all sides of the fence to acknowledge what was done wrong, what is being done wrong and what needs to be done right for our country to move past this silly racism and "who's more racist" squabbling between Americans. We will not fix the past except by making sure our children don't have to repeat it.

How to do this? it is NOT by bickering about it for another 100 years!

You fix disproportionate representation in prisons and unemployment by making our kids stay home and study each evening instead of hanging out on the block. Education, morality, and value-based child rearing fixes or prevents most problems.

This is not racial.

Black, white, red, and brown people raise their children every generation with no bad experiences with the law or within the court system. Keep your kids within your sight AND site and you can prevent most situations from happening to them.

Focus on your child's life instead of your own.

Raise by example.

Don't let your children hear your adult conversations unless you would be comfortable with them having the same conversations with their friends.

This is common sense stuff people.

Your children will naturally be exposed to bad things in this country and/or the world. You need to make sure they are more influenced by you than them. Teach them how to make good decisions based on doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Teach them to not expect anything from the government or other people and they will always be able to pick themselves up whenever they fall. Teach them that every "ism" in this country is just another obstacle to go over, around, or through. Nothing is insurmountable as long as you believe in yourself.

All these "truths" were taught to me and my six siblings as we grew up. My parents lived through Jim Crow and suffered at the hands of racists and institutionalized racism. Yet, they chose to teach us those lessons listed above instead of hatred. They never encouraged us to blame anything on anything or anyone. They taught us to get our education because that's the one thing NO ONE will ever be able to take from us.

We all were raised on a farm on a dirt road in rural Georgia and we all now are successful professionals in varied disciplines....Information Technology, Education, Nuclear Engineering, HealthCare and Child Protective Services.

www.dropthedash.com is a site dedicated to promoting the discarding of ethnic qualifiers to our nationality.

Hyphenated Americans have chosen to be a separate group within America and that - in and of itself - is contradictory to being American.

Our ancestors did not fight, march, and die for their descendants to be part-Americans...they suffered and sacrificed for your American birthright to be accepted and recognized by your own country. America will never get rid of all individual acts of racism, sexism or any other "ism".

The "isms" are no longer institutionalized. The "isms" are no longer protected by un-equal laws. The "isms" are not practiced by the majority of Americans anymore. This as close as we will ever come to a level playing field and - truth be told - it is all America owes us.

Any further advancement of black people will be accomplished by each individual black person...or brown person...or white person...etc., etc., etc

More rants about equal opportunity....

The nation is becoming a bunch of squabbling, hyphenated nationalities looking for their rich Uncle (Sam, that is) to shower them with money and attention. The battles for equal opportunity have been fought and won. Equal opportunity does not mean guaranteed success. You have equal opportunity to fail and to not try at all. There are people of all colors and hyphenations that fall into all examples.

Black people can not be looked at as a group anymore than white or brown people. We are all individuals with varied mindsets, mentalities, priorities and responsibilities. Some of us do the right thing because it is the right thing to do...some of us are content sitting on the front porch watching life go by...just like the rednecks in the trailer park or the hillbillies on the mountain or the spoiled rich kid in the affluent suburbs.

I refuse to have to defend, support, or coddle those who have the means and mentality to do better but choose to not try.

This is not racism.

I am an American black male with African and European ancestry and this is what I feel about what I see.

I have relatives who are successful and some who are trying to be and some who never will be.

We all do and there is not too much you can do besides make sure they are AWARE of the opportunities they are ignoring. Anything else done for the sake of "soul saving" only exasperates the problem and extends it one more generation. I say now is the time to get tough and show some tough love.

If you truly want to improve your living condition, come on up. If you don't, get out of the way of the person behind you that does.

Found this online today....

An American Bill of Responsibilities
by Judith H. Rose

Fifteen years after the Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution of the United States, the amendments known as the Bill of Rights were ratified. These inspired men believed in a balance between citizen responsibilities and citizen rights. They knew that an emphasis only on rights would inevitably lead to self-interest and anarchy. They also knew that without this balance our nation could not endure. It is time to restore that balance. If they could counsel us today, the Founding Fathers might suggest the following Bill of Responsibilities:

You have the responsibility to be a loyal citizen of the United States of America and to expect the same of every other citizen or immigrant to this great land. You have the responsibility to honor the flag and everything she stands for, and to pledge your allegiance to your country.

Accepting citizenship means that you are, first and foremost, an American, not a hyphenated American or an expatriate of another country who is here solely for economic advantage. While you do not need to agree with every law that is passed, you do have the obligation to obey the law and work through peaceful means to achieve change. Further, for as long as you are living in this great country that continues to guarantee more freedom to its citizens than any other, you have the obligation to be grateful for the blessing of living in such a land. In America you have the freedom to leave at any time, should you be dissatisfied. No permission is needed.

You have the responsibility to speak up when the criminal or legislative actions of any persons threaten the welfare of your family or your nation. It is not someone else's responsibility to blow the whistle; it is yours. "They" should not do something about the problems. You are "they." It takes courage and time to stand up against evil and destructive forces, but if you do not do it, who will?

You have the responsibility to consider the welfare of ALL the citizens of the United States of America, even if it requires some personal sacrifice. The nation cannot survive the promulgation of narrow self-interest, be it of the individual, the community, or the state. As long as you judge every law or solution to a problem solely by how it affects you or your surroundings, rather than the country as a whole, there will be no real answers, nor can America remain great.

You have the responsibility to support yourself and your own immediate and extended family. Being self-sustaining, providing for your own family, and helping your neighbor to the extent possible are requisite for a healthy economy and society. No society can flourish when a sizable number of its citizens expect to do nothing while accepting a government dole. Reliance on government entities inevitably destroys individual self-respect and the economic well-being of both citizen and state. If you take care of yourself and family, and the community picks up the slack, this nation will have one-third more funds for worthwhile projects and both you and this nation, will become strong and resilient.

You have the responsibility to make a difference in the lives of your family, your community, and your nation. As a good citizen you are here to make a contribution to this country. America has always been in the forefront in medical advances, scientific research, humanitarianism, and other areas. You have the responsibility to continue this tradition through hard work and good use of your time. You have the responsibility to bypass excuses of race, economic standing, and victimization of any kind because, no matter which excuse you choose, someone has successfully overcome it.

You have the responsibility to be educated and informed. A public education is not enough. Finding truth is a challenging lifetime task that you must pursue diligently. You have the responsibilty to seek truth from many sources. You must question what you read in any publication or listen to in any media report and be willing to consider all sides of any question. You must realize that such a quest for truth will take a tremendous effort to seek it out. The truth is not revealed unless actively sought.

You have the responsibility to use wisdom in selecting those who will lead you. You must learn to seek men of good character, not those with only charisma or a handsome face. You must become a connoisseur of character rather than a pawn of a salient slogan. You must remember that character is never outdated. A man or woman with no self-control should never be trusted with the welfare of our great country. You must never tolerate leaders who are untruthful, deceitful, or seek to exercise power rather than give service.

You have the responsibility to value and defend human life. Quality of life considerations, age, or handicaps do not in any way lessen the value of life itself. Any life taken by mankind before its time cheapens the life of every other American. You also have the responsibility to educate those who would degrade human life by considering it, at best, equal to or even lower than animal life.

You have the responsibility to honor your freedom of worship and to defend that right for every citizen in this country. We, your Founding Fathers valued religion highly and depended entirely upon God for the inspiration and help needed to form this union. We expect no less of you.

Redistribution of this document is permitted, so long as attribution of original authorship is preserved. The original location of this document is http://charltonrose.com/misc/billresp/.

iReport.com posts

I have put several posts on iReport and would love for you all to visit them and make a comment.

Search for "hyphenated american" and you will see the logos...


thanks

the Video of "The Hyphen" by John Wayne

If you won't drop the dash for me, do it for John Wayne....

The Hyphen
Words: John Mitchum, Howard Barnes
As Recited by John Wayne (yep, THAT John Wayne)

The Hyphen, Webster's Dictionary defines, Is a symbol used to divide a compound word or a single word. So it seems to me that when a man calls himself An "Afro-American," a "Mexican-American," "Italian-American," An "Irish-American," "Jewish-American," What he's sayin' is, "I'm a divided American."

Well, we all came from other places, Different creeds and different races, To form a nation...to become as one, Yet look at the harm a line has done- A simple little line, and yet As divisive as a line can get. A crooked cross the Nazis flew, And the Russian hammer and sickle too- Time bombs in the lives of Man; But none of these could ever fan The fames of hatred faster than The Hyphen.

The Russian hammer built a wall That locks men's hearts from freedom's call. A crooked cross flew overhead Above twenty million tragic dead- Among them men from this great nation, Who died for freedom's preservation. A hyphen is a line that's small; It can be a bridge or be a wall. A bridge can save you lots of time; A wall you always have to climb. The road to liberty lies true. The Hyphen's use is up to you.

Used as a bridge, it can span All the differences of Man. Being free in mind and soul Should be our most important goal. If you use The Hyphen as a wall, You'll make your life mean...and small. An American is a special breed, Whose people came to her in need. They came to her that they might find A world where they'd have peace of mind. Where men are equal...and something more- Stand taller than they stood before.

So you be wise in your decision, And that little line won't cause division. Let's join hands with one another... For in this land, each man's your brother. United we stand...divided we fall. WE'RE AMERICANS...and that says it all.

What is the Drop the Dash campaign really about?

This campaign "Drop the Dash" is about unity within our country. It is about:

• finding the common issues and concerns that we all care about.
• using these points to bring us all to the table to work them out.

Leave the arguments about who did what to whom when and why behind.

We have laws and policies that make it illegal to use race or ethnicity as a tool to hold any people down. These laws and policies are not a panacea to the effects of generational discrimination but it is up to the people - black, white, and brown - to make them work. As long as we keep trying to affix blame and/or claim victimhood, we will keep going around in circles.

Meanwhile, the next generation of Americans end up learning how to get on the same ride and it extends itself for another round.

Stop the rollercoaster ride.

Get off.

Step away and see what we are doing wrong.

We all contribute to the problem and we all know the solution. We just need to do what's right because its the right thing to do.

Accept that America's history has both good and bad chapters...Accept that, as a country, we have matured through many of the growing pains any country embracing varied ethnicities and races will experience. We did this without tearing ourselves down or apart.

So what do we do now?

• We need to all acknowledge the socio-economic divisions are more valid than any based on dominant genes.
• We need to try to understand why people do not rise above their birth status even when the building blocks to do so are readily available to the masses.
• We need to turn down all the over-sensitivity that keeps people from sharing their true feelings. You should be able to talk about racial issues without being labeled a racist just because you are not the race with the issues being discussed.

I am not condoning or encouraging field day against minorities with racial epithets and such.

There is a THICK line between talking racial and being a racist.

We all know it but we are scared to give an inch for fear lynchings and blaxploitation will return.

Be for-real people.

We are Americans and the vast majority of Americans will never allow our country to return to the ways of the wacko segregationists or even the radical black nationalists.

What do we know that needs to be said out loud?

• We know environments affect your being more than your skin color.
• We know public policies that diminish the individual's fire to achieve can infect entire socio-economic classes and extend the expectation of entitlements to another generation.
• We know some people want to get away from the cycle of destitution and others are okay with living their entire lives this way.
• We know education is the surest way out of the trailer park or ghetto but we also know many people in those environments don't see it that way.

My campaign is about trying to bring those of us who want to be together....together. It may mean some get left out or left behind. At some point, this is just a neccessary evil.

I believe the true Americans are those who want to contribute to America and get what they work for.

I believe this is what all my ancestors wanted to accomplish for their descendents in this country.

I believe they all wanted me to see myself as an American.

I believe they all expected me to call myself an American...regardless of which ethnicity dominated my external appearance.

CNN "Black in America" special

There is a CNN special coming on later this month and - even before I see it - I have to respond to an email floating around.

This is the email:

Subject: High Priority ** Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 00:12:20 +0000 High Priority

** Did you know that companies in the US have said they would hire a white man with a felony record and no high school education BEFORE they would hire a black man with NO criminal record and a 4-year degree?

On July 23 at and July 24, CNN will premier a series, 'Black in America with Soledad O'Brien' and I personally challenge you to watch it WITH your children, especially your sons, if you have any, uninterrupted.

The aforementioned statistics and many others will be revealed during the series.

A friend had the privilege of meeting with Soledad O'Brien and actually SEEING this premier, and what she saw brought tears to her eyes and anguish, frustration, and a sense of helplessness to her soul. The first night the series will focus on Women and Families and the second night is dedicated entirely to the plight of the Black Man in America.

I beg and p lead with you PLEASE , PLEASE, PLEASE watch and internalize what you see and hear; no matter HOW disturbing the information revealed. Feel free to pass this email on or go here for more information: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/


This is my response:

Not all black people nor all white people nor all brown people are perceived the same in America....nor do we all live the same life or have the same issues, values, etc.

We are as varied a people as any other group. We do not all share the same "black experience" in this country.

We share experiences based more on our socio-economic conditions than any racial or ethnic heritage.

This is a basis of the "Drop the Dash" campaign. It is trying to get "us" to see that we have the opportunity to be less a product of our birth environments than a product of our work and determination to overcome any obstacle thrown in our way.

There is no reason why we cannot be anything we choose....live anywhere we choose....or succeed at whatever we choose.We are republicans and democrats....conservatives and liberals...rich and poor....intelligent and dumb.....bourgeois and ghetto....and all the things in between.

We are Americans and its time we stop letting them - the media and politicians - group us all together like a breed of animal.

The saddest part is that WE buy into this bull and help promote it thinking we are doing "our people" a favor.

Our people need to understand that we all do not share the same experience in America anymore.

Once we get away from the thugs and ghetto, we mistakenly fear "forgetting where we come from" because some redneck cop may treat us all the same.Meanwhile, we condone the thugs-life, ghetto-fabulous baby-mamas, and multi-generational welfare mindset.

What happened to pulling ourselves up by our boot straps like our parents and grandparents raised us? When did WE drop the ball?We are our worse enemy.

We do more to keep ourselves down than any redneck with a badge could ever do against us.

When you watch the CNN special, make a note of everything that does NOT apply to your life.

If we believe our race can still hold us down in America, it will. But it is ourselves that is holding us down....not "The Man"!

I look forward to the special and I truly hope they have all aspects of our race/ethnicity reflected...conservative and liberal and moderate.

New blog for Drop the Dash!

After much prodding by visitors to my website www.dropthedash.com and participants in the Amazon.com non-fiction forum 'Should all Americans "drop the dash" and remove ethnic prefixes to our nationality? ', I have FINALLY setup my own blog.

Here, I will post my thoughts, other reader's contributions, and pertinent news that relates to our promoting one America full of Americans!

be back soon...