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，给我栽赃没门！-“间谍门”的罩门
(2015-09-19 18:05:20)下一个
老美接连撤销对两名美籍华裔科学家的间谍指控，但受害人噩梦虽醒，惊魂难定。一时间白领华裔，人人自危。
坦白地说，作为歪果地盘上的歪果仁，白领华裔的形象几乎已经定格：趋老外、避同胞；和老外呵呵干笑，和同胞冷眼比酷；对歪门邪道不置可否、为自己利益无所不用。
正因为自己不能洁身自好，所以被人抓住小辫子大做文章就完全取决于老板的脸色心情。
就法律行业来说，入行时雇主和员工一般都会丑话说在前面，各种保密协议、甚至哪里有摄像头都会直接告诉你。至于电脑系统的工作环境：无论是云端工作状态、还是本地工作状态，你基本上都是被一手掌控的，说不说都无所谓。所以，就算是休息时间，我也绝对不会查看私人邮箱，呵呵~~~
至于跟公司高层打交道、尤其是在风声鹤唳的时候，那就要格外小心。比如指名让你参加保密规定的考核，有且只有你。我的做法是：考到满分，然后就部门管理中违反保密原则的事例、依规定向上通报，并询问：既然事关工作，为何同team的其他人员不必接受考核？敢这么做的人，也是笃定破釜沉舟、决一死战的，没guts的就算了吧！
被高层约谈，并告知会议保密。我临时改成爽约（人还在办公室，你有权改变主意），但答应以邮件沟通，然后客客气气地征求对方意见，要求自己存档备份，以防万一，只要对方认可，你就有上方宝剑了!
还有很多，混混是否该留着出书？
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/myblog/67231/201509/175469.html
引言:
盗憎主人（dào zēng zhǔ rén），出自《左传·成公十五年》：“盗憎主人，民恶其上。”比喻邪恶的人怨恨正直的人。
解释
盗贼憎恨失主。比喻邪恶的人怨恨正直的人。
解析
春秋时，晋国大夫伯宗（晋大夫孙伯纠之子）为人正直，在朝常直言不讳，妻子常劝他说：“盗憎主人，民恶其上，好直言，必及于难。”后来伯宗果然因为结怨过多而被杀。
“盗憎主人”是说盗贼憎恨被他盗窃、抢劫的主人，后来就比喻坏人怨恨正直的人，无道恨有道，恶恨善，丑恨美，坏人恨好人。
“盗憎主人”、“直言取祸”这两个成语即出自伯宗妻子之口。
示例
今乃阴窃异端之说，而公排之，以盖其迹，不介盗憎主人之意乎？——宋·朱熹·《答·程允夫》
扩展阅读：
[原文]
初，伯宗每朝，其妻必戒之曰：“‘盗憎主人，民恶其上。’子好直言，必及于难。”
[译文]
当初，伯宗每次朝见，他的妻子一定劝戒他说：“盗贼憎恨主人，百姓讨厌统治者，您喜欢说直话，必然遭到祸难。”
漂泊当知身是客，一晌贪籍，囹圄方知嫌隙在。
(2015-09-13 19:39:14)下一个
美国司法部撤销了对美国天普大学教授郗小星的“间谍”指控。新闻的用词十分讽刺： dropped all charges against Dr. Xi, an American citizen（撤销了对郗博士，一个美国公民，的所有指控）。据报道，郗小星是1989年到美、然后入籍的naturalized citizen， 那又怎么样？
《纽约时报》的新闻报道直言这个案例中的aggressive espionage investigations因素。可叹的是，对比新闻中的郗小星言谈，以及他的律师的言论，抛开专业性不谈，作为受害当事人，郗小星言辞唯诺躲闪，避重就轻: “I don't expect them to understand every thing......they shouldn't do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”而他的律师则单刀直入：“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、美籍法国人、或是来自英国的，他有可能被政府的雷达扫到吗？我不这么认为）。
李敖大师近期在微博中写道：
“「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！”
作为侨居海外的中国人，我说：“漂泊当知身是客，一晌贪籍，囹圄方知嫌隙在。“
http://www.cqzguo.com/cygs/2697.html