There has been a lot of research lately that indicates southeast Asians who lived in Australia may have come to what are now the Americas as long as 13,500 years ago, well before the people from northeast Asia.
We didn't watch the Super Bowl (and that movie theater we were in was amazingly empty), but I heard about the ads. It seems to a lot of folks the halftime show and the ads overshadowed the game. But I heard about the Coke ad above and just Youtubed it. Impressive. I am not a big fan of sugary drinks (aside from lemonade, when it's really hot, and you've been doing yard work, and your shirt is sticking to your back, and sweat is dripping into your eyes... Then I could drink a dangerous amount. But I digress). But I appreciated this advertisement. It doesn't make me want to drink an ice cold Coke. But it makes me proud to live in a country where we are so diverse and now, for so many Americans, we are coming to grips with our diversity. We are celebrating our differences. We are slowly moving in a direction of racial harmony, social justice, impartiality, open and honest discourse. Oddly, this advertisement made me feel patriotic.
Just 50 years ago, the Old South was as segregated as it could be. Elementary school classrooms were just becoming integrated. And from the stories my friends and neighbors tell me... it wasn't easy. The grandfather of one of my third grade students was among the very first African Americans to enter the University of South Carolina's graduate school. That was in 1963. Look how far we've come.
While racism, homophobia, sexism and intolerance of all kinds still exists, you can't deny that we are moving into a more pluralistic society. Today, my third grade class is beautifully integrated. We are not color blind, and there are some issues that come up about getting along with each other. But they have nothing to do with race. Black, white, brown, mixed race - you should see our class picture.
Seeing the beautiful ad above did it's job for me (not the buying Coke job, the feel good about America job). But don't you know it had to outrage some people, people who think that if you're not speaking "American", you are unAmerican.
Let's go to Glen Beck for his take...
And I said, "Why did you need to divide us politically? Because that's all this ad is. It's in your face, and if you don't like it, you're a racist. If you do like it, you're for immigration. You're for progress. That's all it is: to divide people."
Who is trying to divide people? Surely not Glen Beck.
*Couldn't make out that song they were singing. I only speak English.
*So was Coca-Cola saying America is beautiful because new immigrants don't learn to speak English?
*Coca Cola is the official soft drink of illegals crossing the border.
Thus tweeted Todd Starnes from FOX " "News" ".
So people who speak a language other than English are "illegals"?
If we cannot be proud enough as a country to sing "American the Beautiful" in English in a commercial during the Super Bowl, by a company as American as they come -- doggone we are on the road to perdition. This was a truly disturbing commercial for me... This the view of Former GOP Rep. Allen West, another Fox " "News" " contributor.
per·di·tion
[per-dish-uh
n] Show IPAAllen West thinks America is going to HELL because Coke played an ad with a patriotic song performed in some of the many languages spoken in our country?
I don't think these folks are stupid. They all make a ton of money doing what they do.
However... on second thought, maybe are they just plain dull. Don't Glen Beck, Todd Starnes and Allen West realize that their ancestors were immigrants, that all of our common ancestors come from Africa? Do they not know any Americans for whom English is not their primary language? Are they not friends with any gay people? Do they really not realize that we are a multicultural society where the straight-white-male isn't the only perspective?
Or maybe they are just scared. America is changing. White men aren't the only ones with power now. And if their goal is to maintain that grip on power, they must feel pretty defeated.
If their published views on cultural diversity weren't so ignorant, I'd feel sorry for these guys. In the meantime, their old road is rapidly aging.
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
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