Yesterday at ZeroIntelligence.net I posted a story about black students at Harvard. Seems that immigrant blacks and mulattos are taking advantage of affirmative action programs that some people want reserved for descendants of slaves.

There is a goodly bit of commenting on Affirmative Action as a general concept and one comment by Canadian reader Don Popowich sums it up so well it deserves to be called out on its own merits.

Enough already!!! There are no African Americans, or Ukrainian Americans, or Irish Americans, or Italian Americans,or any other kind of hyphenated Americans....or at least there shouldn't be.

As a Canadian, what I admired about America was that America was a melting pot. Although, as individuals, you were proud of your heritage, YOU WERE WERE AMERICANS FIRST.

Yes. There were prejudices in past, and many members of your society faced discrimination and were treated unfairly, but, as a country you worked towards, and eventually righted many of those wrongs.

Some would argue it took too long and not all wrongs have been addressed, and that may be so, but, as a country you addressed the challenges and you worked towards bringing equality to all.

But not anymore. Now some Americans are more equal than others.

Why? Why is prejudice acceptable today if is aimed a segment of your society who has practiced prejudice in past...but not acceptable if aimed at others in your society? Either prejudice is right or it is wrong. It can't be both.

The liberals in your country will argue, as they have, that affirmative action programs are necessary and good for your nation because they are righting the wrongs of past generations.

GARBAGE!!! What they do is increase animosity between those that benefit from those programs and those that are penalized by those programs. One segment of society is being treated differently than others. Equality, one of the main tenets of your constitution, becomes meaningless. Position, or color, or religious beliefs, or sexual preferences, or a multitude of other special situations becomes the measurement. If you're not a member of a special interest group too bad. "Go to the back of the bus."

You are discriminated against. THAT DOESN'T HELP YOUR COUNTRY. IT HARMS IT and can DESTROY IT.

Canada is a prime example of that. Because of favoratism, (translate to discrimination or prejudice) of one segment of society over another, our country almost split apart in the mid-nineties. That feeling still exists, AND MANY WILL ARGUE IT HAS INCREASED, because our government has passed laws that treat some members of society differently (more equal) than others. Our country hasn't been destroyed (yet) but it could still happen. The platform of one of the major parties in our parliament is the separation our country. A new party has also been formed that has separation as its goal.

One of the ministers of our government (similar to a senator in your government) said during the last parliament, "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CANADIAN. WE ARE ALL FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE." In other words, don't think of yourself as Canadian. Your origins are what's important.

The shocking thing about that statement is not that it was said, although that is shocking in itself coming from a major minister in our country, but that nobody; not the prime minister(equivalent to your president); not the opposition; not the press, made any comment refuting the statement.

Do you want that for your country? Do you want a country that has no identity? I hope not, HOWEVER, if you allow your legislators to convert your nation into a bunch of hypnenated factions who have allegiance to their country of origin no matter how many generations removed they are from that nation, you are promoting the beginning of the destruction of the greatest country on earth.

History shows slavery as being a black mark against your country. Whether or not you believe slavery should have been abolished (I believe it should have been) the fact is, in the USA, that is reality. That is not the case in many other parts of the world.

If one truly interested in bettering the world, forget about hypenating nationalities and instituting programs that increase hatred amongst various members of American society. Instead travel to those areas of the world where your help is desperately needed.