Mulligan Stew

America has been called the Great Melting Pot for generations. But that analogy is wrong. We are not a melting pot, but a Mulligan Stew. Mulligan stew is a kind of dish said to have been prepared by hobos in camps in the early 1900s. Usually, it includes meat, potatoes, vegetables, and whatever else can be found. The hobo who put it together was known as the "mulligan mixer".

This is a very good analogy of the culture of the United States. We tend to want all people to conform to a set ideal of what an American should be and eat, but instead we find that each group takes the best from what America gives and returns the favor with their best.

As each immigrant group as entered the nation, the nation grew and expanded. Each group added another flavor to the stew.

The base of the American Mulligan Stew is simple:

1 large dash of liberty.
1 heaping handful of freedom.
1 Constitution.

Each immigrant group then added to these ingredients. They brought their faiths, their drive for a better life, their cultures and foods. Thus the Stew was formed and set to simmering.

There were times when the stew seemed to dissolve. When a group's flavor was not admitted to the pot. Those were lean times for the stew, its flavor was flat and unappetizing. When the nation corrected the mistake, the flavor became alive.

This stew isn't assimilation, but recognition. It is allowing each group their distinctive flavor while the rest of us join in the feast. That is why Pizza, Tacos and Bagels are as American as Apple Pie.

American culture has benefited from legal immigration with a society based on the fundamentals of freedom. It is our Freedoms that set our stew apart from other nations' stews. It is why immigrants from each nation of the world come to America to join in the feast.

But we cannot allow rampant immigration either. We do not have the resources for the whole world to live here. We cannot allow people to flaunt the law in our faces and demand a place at the table when they haven't followed the laws in the first place. We cannot allow unrestricted immigration into our nation. We have to set limits.

Immigrants coming into this nation must conform to the basic recipe of the nation's stew. They must want to obey our laws, live in harmony with others and rejoice in our freedoms. They cannot say they want a bigger share of the stew pot, a special consideration for their culture, their flavor.

Legal immigration is the foundation of the flavors of our national stew. It is the spice of the nation's soul. To encourage illegal immigration of any group would be to upset the spice of the basic recipe. Illegal immigration upsets the balance of the nation. It gives one group of immigrants more rights then other groups and changes the flavor of our society. It goes against the basic fundamentals of the nation in obeying the laws of the land. And it encourages more people to flaunt the law and cross over the borders.

Amnesty for illegal immigrants is a bad idea. It will not raise the wages of workers, it will not raise the standards of education, it will not add to the American Mulligan Stew. It will encourage more and more people to just come to the US with the hope and knowledge that they too will eventually be given amnesty.

The time has come to say to the world that we will not allow an tidal wave of people to enter the US and flaunt our laws and culture. We have set limits, and those limits on immigration must be adhered to. American culture would be poorer if it wasn't for immigrants and their cultures. And our Mulligan Stew would be bland and flavorless without the input from other cultures.