How about we just call ourselves American. All we need to do is look at our northern neighbor to see the effect of English Canadian vs. French Canadian. Many other (bloody) examples throughout the world and throughout history show the error trying to be a hyphenated person. For the record, I am an American whose ancestors lived in Germany, England, Scotland, Italy (and possibly Ireland). All of them choose to come to America. In all of the earliest records that we can find and in all family traditions, they referred to themselves as Americans (not as hyphenated Americans). In fact, they seemed to feel that it was a slur on their character and their acceptance into society if someone else referred to them as a hyphen. They were all proud of their heritage (as am I), but they all chose to be Americans. We should retain that pride in where we came from, but also be proud of where we are and where we are going. Its bad enough that our country's leading politician is trying to break us up into little groups vying for federal handouts and looking with hostility at everyone else without the friendly family of genealogy helping him out. Rather than tying up the rootsweb list with replies and flames, I'd welcome comments to me privately, Sincerely, Mark Moeser MMoeser237@aol.com