The insulated American?

America seems to be turning more and more insular. The glory days of the American "melting pot" seem to be over.
Nowadays, any group in America can connect with other, like minded individuals without having to mingle or assimilate into the greater American experience.
If you're an evangelical Christian, you can raise your family in such an insular Christian environment, home school your kids or send them to Christian schools, and even Christian colleges, so that such people grow up never learning about evolution and believing myths like the universe and Earth are only 10,000 years old.
If you're a Spanish speaker, you can watch Spanish only TV or listen to Spanish only radio, vote in Spanish, hang out with Spanish speaking friends, and never have to really having any necessity to learn English.
If you're Muslim in an American city with a large enough Muslim population, you can send your kids to Muslim schools and opt out of an assimilated experience.
From my perspective, as a 1st generation immigrant and naturalized US citizen, I can appreciate the need for anyone who wants to hang on to elements of his or her own native culture. I can also appreciate the benefits of assimilating and gaining from experience of other cultures, ideas, and people.
Unfortunately, I see too much entrenchment in America today with many immigrant, cultural, and religious groups "rounding the wagons" within rather than looking outward. It's time we value assimilation rather than insularization in modern day America - from all groups, even white evangelical Christians, Muslims, monolingual Hispanics, and monolingual English speakers
.