The Soccer Capitol Of The Americas: Los Angeles, Mexico.
How does anyone listen to this story and think there’s nothing to worry about here? How does anyone hear this and think it’s healthy for America?
It was imperfectly odd. It was strangely unsettling. It was uniquely American.
On a balmy early Saturday summer evening, the U.S soccer team played for a prestigious championship in a U.S. stadium … and was smothered in boos.
Its fans were vastly outnumbered. Its goalkeeper was bathed in a chanted obscenity. Even its national anthem was filled with the blowing of air horns and bouncing of beach balls.
Most of these hostile visitors didn’t live in another country. Most, in fact, were not visitors at all, many of them being U.S. residents whose lives are here but whose sporting souls remain elsewhere.
Welcome to another unveiling of that social portrait known as a U.S.-Mexico soccer match, streaked as always in deep colors of red, white, blue, green … and gray.
…”Obviously … the support that Mexico has on the night like tonight makes it a home game for them,” said U.S. Coach Bob Bradley, choosing his words carefully. “It’s part of something we have to deal with on the night.”
Goalkeeper Tim Howard was still upset after the U.S. lost the Gold Cup final, but his strongest reaction had nothing to do with the four goals Mexico slotted in his net.
After El Tri’s 4-2 victory at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., Howard blasted CONCACAF officials for conducting the title ceremony in Spanish.
“CONCACAF should be ashamed of themselves,” Howard said. “I think it was a [expletive] disgrace that the entire postmatch ceremony was in Spanish. You can bet your ass that if we were in Mexico City, it wouldn’t be all in English.
One of the key reasons the Roman Empire fell was because for the first time, it allowed large groups of immigrants to live within its territory without forcing them to disperse, give up their culture, and fully become Roman.
We’re doing exactly the same thing.
We have millions of people in this country who barely speak the language, whose first loyalty is to another nation, and whose attitude towards this nation in indifferent at best and hostile at worst. How bizarre is it that we have millions of Mexicans fleeing Mexico because it’s a violent, poverty-ridden backwater — and yet they want to bring their language and culture here to a nation that’s more functional than the country they were born in — ever was or ever will be? Why do so many Americans act as if it’s a grave insult to ask people who want to live here to learn the language, obey the laws, and be loyal to the country?
Yet when you try to talk realistically about these issues and the potential harm it can cause to the country if it’s not addressed, people are terrified to deal with it, so they say, “You hate Hispanics!” If you’re Hispanic, you love this country, and you want to be here, you should find this just as troubling as everyone else. The more the southwestern United States becomes like Mexico, the worse off everyone’s going to be, including the Mexican immigrants.