LETTER:Un-Americans

Professor Richard N. Swift
Sunday 09 July 1995 23:02 BST
Comments

From Professor Richard N. Swift

Sir: Appropriately enough, on (American) Independence Day, 4 July, your reporter, Tim Glover, referred to Pete Sampras as "the American with the un-American name". There are no "un-American names". As Franklin Roosevelt said over 50 years ago, "we [Americans] are a nation of immigrants", and many of us are proud of that fact. Americans are defined by their citizenship, not their names. Presumably, even British sports writers who have embraced Greg Rusedski will come to understand that, properly speaking, there are no "un-British" names either.

Yours sincerely,

Richard N. Swift

(Professor Emeritus of Politics

New York University)

London, W11

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in