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Melting Pot or Mixed Salad… America’s Food Fight.

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Watch your head!

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I warned ya.

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So… as you might have surmised, my friends and I are having a bit of a food fight.

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There’s nothing that makes you feel quite as good as nailing a buddy in the back of

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the head with a rack of lamb.

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Of course, we’re fortunate.

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We live in a day and age when we can afford to waste food for a little… entertainment.

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Some of my ancestors weren’t so lucky.

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Back when my forefathers started coming to this country…

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…there was still a lot of disagreement over the whole “equal rights” issue.

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It wasn’t just blacks who were discriminated against…

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Irish, Polish, Jewish… the list goes on.

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It was like America was an exclusive club,

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and the majority of the population was trespassing on private grounds.

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I can think of a number of reasons we might have been so shunned.

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For one thing, people were afraid of alien invasion.

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Nah, not those guys.

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People were just afraid of an attack from a foreign country, and they felt they couldn’t

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trust anyone with the hint of an accent. Plus, our cultures are quite different, and

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Americans have always tended to steer clear of what they don’t understand.

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Which I suppose is why so many of them opt out of taking a Calculus class in college.

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About the time my grandmom and grandpop came over to the States…

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…things were even better for Black Americans than they were for us Irish folk, if you can

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wrap your melon around that idea.

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They could at least get some menial work…

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…but there were more “No Irish Need Apply” signs hanging about than you can shake a potato at.

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My family… and many others… were forced into tenements when they arrived.

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This bottom-of-the-line housing wasn’t just dingy and cold… it was unsanitary and unsafe.

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Much more dangerous than throwing around a bit of bacon and cabbage, I’ll tell ya that much.

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The immigrant population grew in a hurry… and with no nice places for them to live…

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…the conditions in major cities turned into some major slums.

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You thought East St. Louis was bad? With all the poverty, crime grew as well…

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…but it wasn’t just because people were bad.

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Many of them were starving and trying to feed their families.

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If you tie a chicken in a coop for long enough, sooner or later

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he’s going to try to bite your leg clean off.

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As my grandpop used to say.

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We like to refer to this country as a Melting Pot or Mixed Salad…

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…a place where people of all ethnicities and backgrounds

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can come together and live as equals.

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But it wasn’t always that way, and… in fact… still isn’t today in many ways.

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For example, now that the authorities are breaking up this little food fight of ours…

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…they’re not treating us all that wonderfully.

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But at least we’re not getting kicked back across a border.

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Now there’s some pie on your face.

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