America: A Nation of Ignorance?

I take the bus quite frequently to my job in downtown Pittsburgh, not only for the convenience for not having to spend 20 minutes looking for an available parking garage, but to save money. The bus route I use takes me past the universities in Pittsburgh (CMU, UPitt, Carlow), so naturally many international students are on the bus with me.

It's strange to me how often I see typical Americans staring at someone speaking another language on the bus. I don't just mean a glimpse, I mean down right rude glaring. I mean if looks could kill or make you want to just get off the bus, those looks would do that. It's not just the older population that does this either, it's the kids that are with them. Ah...parenting at its best right there. The ignorant and judgmental teaching ignorance and prejudice. When I see that, I must say that I get irate, so I stare back at them, even though I'm not the one they are glaring at. 

Now, I recently came to Pennsylvania from Texas, so I'm used to hearing all sorts of foreign languages. Not to mention, my mother is a first generation Mexican-American and we lived in a border town in Texas. I grew up around foreign languages being spoken all of the time. It's no big deal to me.

Does the average American forget that we are nation of immigrants? I find it very ironic when I hear small-minded people tell others who are "not American"to go back to their country. If that's the case, we should all go back to where our ancestors came from...some only being one generation in the past...like me.

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir, but it just irks the heck out of me that there are clueless and ignorant people around here. I guess I take it more to heart because I work directly with immigrants, refugees, and asylees and I see the struggles they and their families have to go through: the discrimination, the learning of a whole new culture and language, the process of trying to integrate in a foreign society. Now don't get me wrong, I also see the good people in this world and their attitudes and efforts to help and treat everyone the way that they want to be treated. I just wish everyone had hearts, minds, and attitudes like that.

All I know is that I'm going to do what I can to educate society about the facts about immigrants and immigration so we can hopefully eliminate the myths about these topics. Let's face it, our country wouldn't exist if it weren't for immigrants and immigration.