I’m generally not the type of person who likes to say “I told you so.”

Hell, who am I kidding? I’m exactly the type of person who enjoys saying, “I told you so.” Over a quarter of a century ago, as a much younger and immature man, I made some comments about America’s “beloved” city of New York.

“The biggest thing I don’t like about New York are the foreigners,” I said, “You can go an entire block in Times Square and not hear anyone speaking English…”

My age has more than doubled since I made those comments. Although I might have expressed those thoughts more elegantly then, my perspective hasn’t changed at all.

During my 20s and early 30s, I spent a lot of time in New York—both during the baseball season and in the off-season. I’m a very observant person and always aware of my surroundings, particularly when things may present a problem or just rub me the wrong way. My experiences have made me a big “stereotyper.” People will often try to talk me out of that, citing the “unfairness” of stereotypes and arguing that “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” To which I reply, “Oh, yes, you can; that’s why books have covers.” They try to tell us something about the book. Likewise, stereotypes are there for a reason; they don’t just create themselves. 

Twenty-five years ago, I stereotyped an entire city as it relates not only to its immigrant population, but more specifically, to its then-growing illegal immigrant population. I fully understand that, apart from those of us who are full-blooded Native Americans, all of us are descendants of someone who once made a long journey over land or water to get here. Being an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants is not, in itself, the problem. The question is, and always has been, what immigrants do when they get here. Why did they come here, and what do they expect to contribute? The answers to these questions, then as today, explain why I and so many other Americans have a problem with our country’s immigration policies.

My comments from more than two decades ago about New York and its massive immigrant population were simply honest observations. They were reflections on what immigrants in that city are expected to do, or should I say not do, while living in this great nation of ours. Noting that “you can go an entire block in Times Square and not hear anyone speaking English” is not an indictment of foreign languages; it’s an indictment of the lack of effort on the part of so many to assimilate after having voted with their feet to come join the American community and our culture.

During my baseball career, I lived abroad in Puerto Rico and Venezuela for about 18 months combined, while playing winter baseball. During my time in those places, I did my best to speak Spanish and assimilate myself to the local culture, even knowing I would be returning to the U.S. in just a matter of months. I find it highly disrespectful to assume one need not bother to do that—even on an extended visit. It is doubly insulting when one has no plan to return to one’s home country.

This lack of assimilation—or, frankly, in most cases, the complete lack of any willingness or desire to assimilate—is at the heart of the problem most Americans have with immigration today. In many cities across America, entire communities are reshaped by the foreign-born inhabitants who have taken root without adopting American culture. Schools, churches, restaurants, shops, street signs, and even radio stations are all designed to recreate foreign lands within our borders. Inhabitants in these places do little to attempt to endear themselves to the nation and the culture that has taken them in. Instead, they are trying to recreate a place that is clearly inferior—or there would have been no reason for them to leave it in the first place! This behavior is not only idiotic; it is downright disrespectful.

However tactless I was then, my observations about what was happening to New York City because of the rise of a foreign immigrant population were not incorrect. As I watched coverage of last week’s election of Zohran Mamdani to the New York City mayoralty, I couldn’t help but think once again, “I told you so.” New York was losing its ability to maintain even a slight resemblance to American culture a quarter-century earlier. As I knew it would happen then, so it is currently happening now.

While watching the election returns, I read some stats that made me shake my head. The stats referenced only Queens, but they are as follows: Population of Queens: 2.5 million; Population of Queens born outside the United States: 48 percent; Number of languages spoken in Queens: 160. This doesn’t sound like a borough of New York. It sounds like the Tower of Babylon.

New York City, supposedly the financial capital of the world and bedrock of the United States, is now nothing more than a fractured mess of scurrying individuals all pursuing their own separate self-interest. Nothing and no one there seems committed to anything to do with the fabric of America, becoming “American,” or truly realizing all that this great nation has to offer.

Without committing oneself to the intention of adhering to American culture and the American way of life, there is no possibility of being a real part of the many things this great country has to offer. There is also not much of a chance of those things continuing. Hell, one can’t even talk to one’s neighbor anymore.