The Heartland: Is this the future that we want?

This article appeared in our local paper on Sunday, July 4th. That is what got me a bit mad about it. Published on the 4th of July. Before anyone out there attacks me, hear me out. I am for LEGAL immigration. Our system is broken and we must enforce the laws we currently have on the books. I think ALL immigration should be curtailed until we can be sure that we are able to control who and when people immigrate into the United States. Please note in the article to follow some immigrants requested a MUSLIM ONLY area in the local cemetary. If some people want their own cemetary, let they buy their own land and build one. If they demand special food in the shcools, let them open their own schools and run it themselves, making sure it complies with all other schools in the district. Make sure all the students learn english first, and start assimilating into the  society we have here in the states. "Learn the language and assimilate." If all immigrants did this, our country would be much better off. Instead we have places like Dearbron, Michigan which I now call Dearboristan for obvious reasons. They do not have to give up everything but they really should be adapting and assimilating into America, not trying to change it into Ameristan or wherever they immigrated from. Successful immigants have become part of the American tapestry and adpoted our way of life. Those who want to change our country into an Islamic enclave should not be allowed to stay here. That goes for ALL who want to come to America. Quit trying to change this country and us. Most of us are not interested. Diversity, political correctness and mutilculturalism have wreaked havoc in Europe and England. The same is happening here and it must be stopped now.

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A snapshot of the future in America’s heartland
By David Klepper

Like their predecessors, immigrants bring their own cultures. In May, Somali residents ruffled some feathers in Garden City after they requested a Muslim-only section in the city cemetery for religious reasons. “This is our home now,” said Abdulkadir Mohamed, a Somali Muslim and translator at the Tyson plant who moved here in 2006. “But we need a place for us in the cemetery.”

While most in town are handling the religious differences well, the request touched off a debate that exposed some holes in the city’s seemingly strong ethnic tapestry.

“We’ve been too politically correct for too long,” said Leonard Hitz, a former Marine, retired banker and self-described cowboy poet. “If you want to come to this country and be an American, you’re welcome. But learn the language and assimilate.”

For a growing number of Americans, home is far-west Kansas in a city of 28,000, a world away from native Mogadishu, Mexico City and Myanmar.

It’s where women in burqas stroll down a Norman Rockwell Main Street that is festooned with Fourth of July banners, and where a Buddhist temple sits alongside grocery stores selling Mexican soft drinks and 50-pound bags of jasmine rice.

“This is my home. I want to become American,” said Abshiro Warsame, a Somali woman who works the late shift at the nearby Tyson beef packing plant in Holcomb.

Warsame came to the U.S. seven years ago, after her husband was murdered. An American flag hangs in her small, shared flat. In her spare time, she studies English and Spanish.

By 2050, the Census Bureau predicts, the United States will have a new ethnic minority: non-Hispanic whites. Already, non-Hispanic whites are a minority in California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii, as well as in about 1 in 10 U.S. counties.

America’s future just seems to have arrived early here.

New census numbers show that non-Hispanic whites now account for just under 50 percent of Finney County’s 42,000 residents. Hispanic residents — who may be of any race — make up another 45 percent, with African-Americans, Asian-Americans and a variety of immigrants rounding out the rest.

The county is the latest in Kansas where non-Hispanic whites are the new minority.

According to projections, the 2010 U.S. Census will show non-Hispanic whites as the minority in as many as four Kansas counties: Finney, Seward, Grant and Ford, all in southwestern Kansas. Non-Hispanic whites for years have been a minority in Wyandotte County, which has significant African-American and Hispanic populations.

Heartland attraction

Immigration, of course, is among the reasons for the demographic shift. Across the nation, immigration is challenging communities. Schools are searching for more money to hire interpreters. Governments are struggling to integrate newcomers. Longtime residents are adapting to neighbors who look, cook and speak differently.

Some people are pushing back.

Arizona sparked a political firestorm earlier this year by passing a law to crack down on illegal immigration. Late last month, residents in Fremont, Neb., approved a law prohibiting businesses and landlords from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants.

But the changes may be inexorable. The non-Hispanic white population is aging and its birthrates falling. Hispanic birthrates are rising. So is legal immigration.

Meat-packing centers such as Garden City offer an attractive destination during a down economy, with plentiful jobs that require few skills and little training.

Like their predecessors, immigrants bring their own cultures. In May, Somali residents ruffled some feathers in Garden City after they requested a Muslim-only section in the city cemetery for religious reasons. “This is our home now,” said Abdulkadir Mohamed, a Somali Muslim and translator at the Tyson plant who moved here in 2006. “But we need a place for us in the cemetery.”

While most in town are handling the religious differences well, the request touched off a debate that exposed some holes in the city’s seemingly strong ethnic tapestry.

“We’ve been too politically correct for too long,” said Leonard Hitz, a former Marine, retired banker and self-described cowboy poet. “If you want to come to this country and be an American, you’re welcome. But learn the language and assimilate.”

While other rural communities see populations dwindle and economies decline as their young people move away, Garden City is growing.

“This community doesn’t look like it once did in the ’50s and ’60s,” said former Mayor Nancy Harness. “But you know, the communities that look the same way they did back then? They’re all dying. These people bring fresh blood. They bring children.”

Sometimes that means reaching across a religious divide. Islam requires adherents to pray five times daily. To accommodate new Muslim workers, Tyson set up separate prayer rooms for men and women. The company also supplied prayer rugs, each outfitted with a compass to allow Muslims to pray toward Mecca.

The rooms fill up with workers from Myanmar, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

“If we didn’t have this, we could not work here,” said Somali immigrant Farah Hanaf, 26. “It shows that they accept us.”

Immigration posed some of the toughest challenges to Garden City’s schools. Imagine the challenge of teaching 3,000 schoolchildren who speak a language other than English. The district, which has 7,400 pupils, had to hire more English language teachers. Even the cafeteria menu was changed to offer familiar foods.

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