Berlin — WHAT is America’s largest national ethnic group? If you said English, Italian or Mexican, you’re wrong. Today some 46 million Americans can claim German ancestry. The difference is, very few of them do.
Indeed, aside from Oktoberfest, German culture has largely disappeared from the American landscape. What happened?
At the turn of the last century, Germans were the predominant ethnic group in the United States — some eight million people, out of a population of 76 million. New York City had one of the world’s largest German-speaking populations, trailing only Berlin and Vienna, with about a quarter of its 3.4 million people conversing auf Deutsch. Entire communities, spreading from northern Wisconsin to rural Texas, consisted almost exclusively of German immigrants and their children.
As they spread through the country, they founded church denominations, singing societies, even whole industries — pre-Prohibition brewing was dominated by Germans, whose names live on in brands like Pabst, Busch and Miller. Their numbers shaped the media — there were 488 German-language daily and weekly newspapers around 1900 keeping the language and culture alive — and politics: Midwestern German-Americans were a backbone of the early Republican Party.
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The enormous number of German-Americans was also a factor in keeping the United States out of World War I for so long — activists lobbied against intervening on the Allies’ side, while politicians worried about losing a sizable voting bloc.
Partly for that reason, when the United States did enter the war, German-Americans came under intense, and often violent, scrutiny, especially after the revelation of an ill-conceived German plan for Mexico to invade the United States.
There had long been doubts about the loyalty of German-Americans, especially in the myriad pockets of the Midwest where they were particularly dominant. Many had hoped to stave off assimilation by clinging to their language and dual loyalties — but that commitment to their culture suddenly became a vulnerability.
In what is a largely forgotten chapter of American history, during the roughly 18 months of American involvement in the war, people with German roots were falsely accused of being spies or saboteurs; hundreds were interned or convicted of sedition on trumped-up charges, or for offenses as trivial as making critical comments about the war. More than 30 were killed by vigilantes and anti-German mobs; hundreds of others were beaten or tarred and feathered.
Even the German music of Beethoven and Brahms, which had been assumed to be immune to the hysteria, came under attack. “It is the music of conquest, the music of the storm, of disorder and devastation,” wrote The Los Angeles Times in June 1918. “It is a combination of the howl of the cave man and the roaring of the north winds.” Sheet music, along with books by German authors, was burned in public spectacles.
Not surprisingly, those who could hid their Germanic roots; some switched their names; many others canceled their subscriptions to German newspapers, which virtually disappeared. Whatever vestige of German America remained after the 1910s was wiped out by similar pressures during World War II, not to mention the shame that came with German identity after it.
My grandfather Joseph Kirschbaum lived through this disruption. Born in New York to German immigrant parents in 1891, he didn’t start learning English until he went to school, and continued to speak German at home, with friends and in the shops and restaurants he would frequent with his parents. And yet, later in life, he claimed he couldn’t remember any of it.
In some parts of the United States, there might be appeals by politicians to win over the Hispanic-American vote, the Italian-American vote, the Jewish-American vote, the African-American vote or the Irish-American vote. But you will be hard-pressed to hear anyone — not even the speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, who has never tried to make any hay out of his German roots — canvassing for the support of the German-American vote.
Still, while German-American culture might be extinct, German-Americans have continued to make a mark on the country, from Neil Armstrong, the astronaut, to Robert B. Zoellick, a former president of the World Bank. Steinway pianos were first made by a German immigrant named Heinrich Steinweg (who became Henry Steinway). Chrysler was established by Walter P. Chrysler, whose family was of German descent, and Boeing was founded by William E. Boeing, the son of a German immigrant.
Yet as the centennial of World War I passes and the 25th anniversary of German unification nears, there are some tender shoots of a renascent German-American identity. A German-American congressional caucus was created in 2010 and now has 93 members. The popularity of craft beer has led to a resurgence in German-style Biergartens, while sports figures like the soccer coach Jürgen Klinsmann and the N.B.A. all-star Dirk Nowitzki celebrate their German identity.
It may be that an identity lost can never be regained. But why not try? It would be good for everyone, reminding millions of Americans that they too are the products of an immigrant culture, which not long ago was forced into silence by fear and intolerance.
堂堂正正做人，給我栽贓沒門！-“間諜門”的罩門
(2015-09-19 18:05:20)下一個
老美接連撤銷對兩名美籍華裔科學家的間諜指控，但受害人噩夢雖醒，驚魂難定。一時間白領華裔，人人自危。
坦白地說，作為歪果地盤上的歪果仁，白領華裔的形象幾乎已經定格：趨老外、避同胞；和老外嗬嗬幹笑，和同胞冷眼比酷；對歪門邪道不置可否、為自己利益無所不用。
正因為自己不能潔身自好，所以被人抓住小辮子大做文章就完全取決於老板的臉色心情。
就法律行業來說，入行時雇主和員工一般都會醜話說在前麵，各種保密協議、甚至哪裏有攝像頭都會直接告訴你。至於電腦係統的工作環境：無論是雲端工作狀態、還是本地工作狀態，你基本上都是被一手掌控的，說不說都無所謂。所以，就算是休息時間，我也絕對不會查看私人郵箱，嗬嗬~~~
至於跟公司高層打交道、尤其是在風聲鶴唳的時候，那就要格外小心。比如指名讓你參加保密規定的考核，有且隻有你。我的做法是：考到滿分，然後就部門管理中違反保密原則的事例、依規定向上通報，並詢問：既然事關工作，為何同team的其他人員不必接受考核？敢這麽做的人，也是篤定破釜沉舟、決一死戰的，沒guts的就算了吧！
被高層約談，並告知會議保密。我臨時改成爽約（人還在辦公室，你有權改變主意），但答應以郵件溝通，然後客客氣氣地征求對方意見，要求自己存檔備份，以防萬一，隻要對方認可，你就有上方寶劍了!
還有很多，混混是否該留著出書？
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/67231/201509/175469.html
引言:
盜憎主人（dào zēng zhǔ rén），出自《左傳·成公十五年》：“盜憎主人，民惡其上。”比喻邪惡的人怨恨正直的人。
解釋
盜賊憎恨失主。比喻邪惡的人怨恨正直的人。
解析
春秋時，晉國大夫伯宗（晉大夫孫伯糾之子）為人正直，在朝常直言不諱，妻子常勸他說：“盜憎主人，民惡其上，好直言，必及於難。”後來伯宗果然因為結怨過多而被殺。
“盜憎主人”是說盜賊憎恨被他盜竊、搶劫的主人，後來就比喻壞人怨恨正直的人，無道恨有道，惡恨善，醜恨美，壞人恨好人。
“盜憎主人”、“直言取禍”這兩個成語即出自伯宗妻子之口。
示例
今乃陰竊異端之說，而公排之，以蓋其跡，不介盜憎主人之意乎？——宋·朱熹·《答·程允夫》
擴展閱讀：
[原文]
初，伯宗每朝，其妻必戒之曰：“‘盜憎主人，民惡其上。’子好直言，必及於難。”
[譯文]
當初，伯宗每次朝見，他的妻子一定勸戒他說：“盜賊憎恨主人，百姓討厭統治者，您喜歡說直話，必然遭到禍難。”
漂泊當知身是客，一晌貪籍，囹圄方知嫌隙在。
(2015-09-13 19:39:14)下一個
美國司法部撤銷了對美國天普大學教授郗小星的“間諜”指控。新聞的用詞十分諷刺： dropped all charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen（撤銷了對郗博士，一個美國公民，的所有指控）。據報道，郗小星是1989年到美、然後入籍的naturalized citizen， 那又怎麽樣？
《紐約時報》的新聞報道直言這個案例中的aggressive espionage investigations因素。可歎的是，對比新聞中的郗小星言談，以及他的律師的言論，拋開專業性不談，作為受害當事人，郗小星言辭唯諾躲閃，避重就輕: “I don't expect them to understand every thing......they shouldn't do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”而他的律師則單刀直入：“If he was Canadian-American or French-American, or he was from the U.K., would this have ever even got on the government’s radar? I don’t think so,” Mr. Zeidenberg said.”（如果他是美籍加拿大人、美籍法國人、或是來自英國的，他有可能被政府的雷達掃到嗎？我不這麽認為）。
李敖大師近期在微博中寫道：
“「左傳」記伯宗上朝前，老婆對他警告：「盜憎主人」「子好直言，必及於難」。果然伯宗難逃一死。伯宗之死，在他置身強盜窩中，主客不分。李敖和強盜卻分得很清楚：李敖狡猾，以客自居；強盜也狡猾，以客相待。李敖知道未來的中國才是他的，盜憎客人，他無所謂：夢裡自知身是客，中國夢呀！”
作為僑居海外的中國人，我說：“漂泊當知身是客，一晌貪籍，囹圄方知嫌隙在。“
http://www.cqzguo.com/cygs/2697.html