Dear Editor:

If the Borg eventually invade earth, they may find our Republican party their willing allies.

One of the Maine GOP’s planks, “We support the assimilation of legal immigrants into Maine society” ought to trouble all freedom loving Americans. What is troubling about this particular plank is that the GOP wishes to place the government arbiter of what is acceptable in our culture. In effect, it makes the people subject to the government rather than the government being the servant of the people.

Although this particular section is aimed at “legal” immigrants, investing in our government the authority to define culture is an affront to everyone’s individual liberty and freedom.

Adaptation or practice of a culture is and should be an individual choice. In this assimilation plank the GOP is proposing that our government imposes cultural norms. Does the GOP presume to know exactly what defines our culture? Within Maine itself we have a persistent Acadian culture, a vibrant Muslim community, and even a growing appreciation of hip-hop among our youth.

This appreciation of different cultures is at the heart of not only our personal freedoms, but also how cultures grow and evolve. For example; over the past few generations we have welcomed Cubans fleeing the same sort of oppression that Central Americans are fleeing. They have settled in southern Florida, are bi-lingual and have largely fused with the existing culture. Cultural fusion is what gives free people the ability to adapt new cultural elements to changing circumstances.

Governments have tried imposing cultural norms on their citizens, often with disastrous results. Cultural assimilation did not work for Hitler, Mao Zedong or Pol Pot and it will not work for Republicans who believe that the heavy hand of government should dictate what American culture should be. Culture evolves, resistance is futile.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay