America is NOT a Melting Pot

America is not a melting pot. Ever since we were kids we've heard the saying, "America is a big 'melting pot'," well I've got news for you it's not. Politicians, parents, teachers and many others will use this analogy to say that we've all come from different places but we melt together to make America. Well it simply isn't true.

America is not a melting pot we are all our original identities, our nationalities, our customs, our languages, our Gods, our hopes, our dreams; they have not melded into a single conglomeration that we is deemed "American". Each individual person comes from a background that is just as valid as the other. Each person has a hope, a dream, an identity that is just as valid as another. "We the People" are not the same person, we are people each with our own history our own story.

America is not a melting pot we do not have to be tried by fire, be brazen by a heat, a friction, a turmoil, it isn't true. In the past wars have been fought, debates taken, struggles given, there has been "heat" but it is not a requirement of the American experience. The American identity has been formed in peace as well as war, through dialogue aside from violence, through love instead of fear. America has been held to a fire but we have also remained independent finding our identity through peaceful transitions of power, through common experiences, through love, laughter, neighborhood and state. Fire is not a necessary component of the American experience we come together without heat.

America is not a melting pot, we are not a fixed number of ingredients, we can always add more. Our country isn't a fixed recipe that is stagnant, a recipe that cannot be modified and adapted. America bends and breathes, grows and changes, accepts any ingredient on the list and grows or shrinks as needed to accommodate. Our identity isn't bound by a fixed cauldron that has its limits we are an unlimited feast only bound by our dreams and hopes for a better tomorrow.

America is not a melting pot, if we are anything we are a "salad". We are a mixture of ingredients that maintain their own identity but are better together. We are not tied to a dressing of patriotism, we are not bound to a bad ingredient, we are not held to one type but are arranged in a cornucopia of diversity and familiarity, of exploration and security. We are individuals, we are many different parts but one country. Our bowl runs over with hope, with love, with abundances.

We are a country with much, we "should not build a wall but a bigger table".

Tomorrow is election day here in Missouri, I encourage you to vote, be a part of our salad make your identity heard. Make your voice a part of the American experience. Be a part without fire, without anger, without dismay. Make your voice heard with peace, with hope, with encouragement. Help us build a bigger table, don't build a wall.