It's been a while since I've been on this forum but I'm a bit bored so I thought I'd check out some sites I've not visited in a bit. It's interesting to see how long my thread has dragged on for!
I won't respond to any individual comments but there seems to have been quite a lot of posting from a certain McHan so here's a general reply:
Let me start off with a few disclaimers. Firstly, while I won't go into any political views, I have no problem with the American people in general. Indeed, I have numerous American friends and some of my favourite music originates from across the pond. I'm even sipping on a nice cold, not especially exciting, but decidedly drinkable bottle of Bud. Next, at no point did I question anybody's right to research and be proud of their roots, in fact good on you and others for doing so. However, we seem to be stuck on the point of Scottish enthicity and nationality. Let me respond to this with a note about Scottish politics that might help.
Another disclaimer here by the way, I'm a card carrying SNP member. One of the most progressive things about the new SNP Government (and I'll reluctantly give the previous Exec some credit for this too) is that Scotland is a very inclusive nation. Yes, we have problems with racism like everywhere does, but on the whole, those emigrating to Scotland have integrated very well (although it's true that as a nation we are not nearly as ethnically diverse as say Birmingham, London or New York). Anyway, my point. The SNP Government's policies regarding independence are very inclusive when it comes to potential citizenship. This is civic, not ethic nationalism we're talking about and Sumal the asian chap who owns a convenience store down the street from me would be just as welcome to claim a Scottish passport as I would. While I'm using party policy as example, this is something that is applicable now to Scottish society however. Although I'm not pretending that it's a perfectly integrated utopia as I mentioned, my point is that while we don't have our own sovereign national identity yet, Scottishness is more about the people who share this small part of Europe getting on with each other and the wider world, celebrating its good points, and improving the bad, rather than who your great-great-grandparents were.
And as I said, while I respect your effort and pride regarding your heritage, your family ceased to be involved with us as a nation a long time ago, just as mine did when they left Ireland, Germany and Lithuania (and that was only about 80/90 years ago. You have every right to learn about and celebrate your Scottish heritage however we've moved on from the days when ethnicity was everything. It fades and dilutes with age, and even after all the problems it caused back in the 30s, the world is still facing problems because of it.
As you may know, we're a little further behind when it comes to sectarianism but let's leave that for another discussion
