Melting pot (letter)

by Kevin Forrest

News Weekly, October 3, 2009
Sir,

Senator Cory Bernardi's excellent article, "Integration, the missing ingredient of immigration" (News Weekly, September 5, 2009), was full of fact and truth.

America became a great nation, not only with its rich resources, but also thanks to the success of its melting pot. The melting pot was where, over many generations, we saw the inter-marriage of different cultures, each of them bringing with it its own inherent skills.

Integration was cemented, when black Americans were brought into the fold. This was symbolised in the 1967 movie, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. This successful integration was due in no small part to the efforts of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

In Australia, we are experiencing the growing pains of multiculturalism. I believe that with the passing of many, many generations, integration will be successful and Australia will become an even greater nation than it is now. Love is the most powerful force and Cupid will do his job.

For Australia, the symbol of successful integration will be when we all sit at the same dinner table, inclusive of our own indigenous people and Islam.

However, in order to come to the table, it will be up to the Muslim leaders to rein in the evil, vile extreme terrorism of their own fundamentalists - a brand of terrorism carried out with intolerance and hatred towards everything Western, including Western values.

In Australia, the melting pot will be successful, but, unless Muslims can find their own Martin Luther King, they could become an isolated minority in a great nation.

Kevin Forrest,
Gladstone Park, Vic.