Who stirs our national melting pot?

My grandmother was a marvelous cook. Eating at her home was a gastronomic delight. For a young grandson, it was simply a wonderful treat. Many years later, I would love to duplicate or have anyone replicate her incredible meals. So, why not just get out her recipe book? Well, unfortunately, Grandma did not use a recipe book. She just added her ingredients until the dish was ‘just so.’ Those necessary ingredients populated a list she kept neatly tucked away in her mind, a mental recipe book that she alone could access.

Our nation’s ‘melting pot’ is a lot like my grandmother’s cooking. All the ingredients for a marvelous concoction may be present, but without someone to decide what is ‘just so,’ it is unlikely the result will be satisfactory. Any fool can throw varied ingredients into a kettle and mix. The Shakespearean witches in Macbeth stirred a cauldron of toil and trouble. I fear a modern-day ‘crew’ of witches is doing much the same.

One thing Grandma would not have done was retain an ingredient that lessened the dish’s taste. She would not have put that ingredient in her mental pantry for future use. In the past, we insisted, as a nation, that immigrants wishing to be part of our citizenry would swear an oath of allegiance to this nation. They were highly encouraged to learn the language and embrace the culture of their new home. Now we not only integrate individuals who despise this country; we elect them to Congress. One major political party encourages and incentivizes this untastely behavior.

Grandma’s creations were a process. Her recipes evolved through experimentation. Some things improved a dish, and some failed the test. If someone suggested an ingredient that she found beneficial, she did not care if the suggestion came from an individual with orange or any other color hair. Expiration dates took care of ridding her of unpalatable condiments which had proved unworthy of a place in her repertoire.

Her process often involved ingredients and techniques not meant for the final tableside presentation. The flame that cooked the dish would not sit well on a diner’s palate. The bay leaf, used to add flavor, was not meant to be consumed. Through the years, this process created a potpourri of mealtime wonders.

Our great nation has had some unpleasantness involved in its creation. Slavery and racism, eventually discarded, were part of the forging process which has created the finest country in the history of the world. They should no longer be viewed as part of our present-day existence. Wars, some of them ill-advised, were fought to retain our national fabric.

An obsession with unpleasant or unfortunate events in our history is the provenance of that earlier-mentioned political party. Their leaders are obsessed with reminding us of all the unsavory events and conventions involved in creating this masterpiece of a nation. They would replicate or perpetuate former biases and hatreds to acquire votes and, thus, power.

My grandmother did not show a film of the chicken you were about to consume being killed and butchered. She did not require you to place your hand on the hot stove to demonstrate the heat necessary to cook the meal. She knew we were aware of the processes involved.

We must elect national leaders who desire to restore our national melting pot to ‘just so’ status. We, collectively, have a pretty good idea of what is needed in that pot to create a tasty dish and not a toxic stew. No progressive kitchen has ever put a decent meal on the table. No hater has ever created a lovable dish.

We need to pay close attention to the ‘recipes’ that aspiring leaders recommend. Fortunately, congressional terms expire, and progressive and hateful old ‘crews’ become extinct. When those ‘crew’ members don’t get re-elected and thus lose the ability to have their way, they will call us racists and attempt to place other derogatory labels on us. We know better. We must rid our national kitchen of their unappetizing formulas and replace them with a more suitable recipe. We have a national pot to melt until and all good citizens, just like Grandma, can once again say it’s ‘just so.’

Bill Hansmann is a dentist and dental educator with over fifty years in the profession. He continues to teach and write political blogs and semi-mediocre novels while living with his wife and cats in Florida.

Image: Public Domain