From the 1940´s
Interesante videosobre la libertad el que vemos aquí. El actor que personifica al que grita las consignas racistas: Ernest Borgnine. Al final: suckers
—Now friends. I´m just an average American. But I´m an American American. And some of the things I see in this Country of ours make my blood boil. Now I ask you, if we allow these things to go on, what´s going to become of us real Americans?
—I´ve heard this kind of talk before but I never expected to hear it in America.
—I don´t know, makes pretty good sense to me.
—And I tell you, friends, we´ll never be able to call this country our own until it´s a country without. Without what?
—Yeah, without what?
—Without Negroes, without alien foreigners, without Catholics, without Freemasons. These are your enemies. These are the people who are trying to get over our country. Now you know them. You know what they stand for and it´s up to you and me to fight them
–I was born in Hungary but now I’m an American citizen. And I have seen what this kind of talk can do. I saw it in Berlin.
–What were you doing there?
–I was a professor at the university. I heard the same words we had heard today. But I was a fool then. I thought Nazis were crazy people, stupid fanatics. But unfortunately it was not so. You see, they knew they were not strong enough to conquer a unified country, so they split Germany into small groups. They used prejudice as a practical weapon to cripple the nation.
—We must never let ourselves be divided by race or color or religion, because in this country we all belong to minority groups. Your right to belong to these minorities is a precious thing. You have a right to be what you are and say what you think because here we have personal Freedom. We have liberty. And these are not just fancy words. This is a practical and priceless way of living. But we must work it. We must guard everyone´s liberty or we can lose our own. If we allow any minority to lose its freedom by persecution or by prejudice we are threatening are own freedom. And this is not simply an idea. This is good, hard, common sense. You see, here in America it´s not a question whether we tolerate minorities. America is minorities. And that means you and me. So let´s not be suckers. We must not allow the freedom or dignity of any man to be threatened by any act or word. Let´s be selfish about it. Let´s forget about We and They. Let´s think about Us.
Para saber
The largest Catholic populations:
Boston 36%
New York City 36%
Pittsburgh 36%
Vocabulario
Suckers: (Informal) a person easily cheated, deceived, or imposed upon.
Artículos relacionados
Pre-Code Hollywood, censorship in the USA
De la web
What Are the Most Catholic Cities in US?, information about Catholics in the USA, from VOA News
Ernest Borgnine alguna vez dijo: … de todas las cosas que encuentro mal en EEU, la primera sería “libérate de los políticos”. Yo le agregaría especialmente de los corruptos
