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Investigative reporter, author and former federal agent Chuck Hustmyre has seen the ugly side of life, from A to Z. Here he gets the last word on politics, crime, local government and pop culture.

You know what hacks me off? Hyphens. The kind people put between the name of some other country or continent and the word "American," i.e., Mexican-American, Italian-American, African-American, Irish-American.

Now I know St. Patrick's Day is coming up and for that one day we're all Irish, but even then, no one wears a T-shirt or a button that says "Kiss me I'm Irish-American."

Theodore Roosevelt said it best:

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. A hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts "native" before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin ... would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish-Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian-Americans or Italian-Americans ...

Some of the hyphenated American terms aren't even accurate, they're just meaningless PC gobbledygook. Think about it, what is a native-American? What is an African-American? I was born in this country, so by definition I'm a native-American. I know a naturalized U.S. citizen from South Africa, yet he's as white as cottage cheese.

Barack Obama has a decent shot at becoming the next president of the United States. If he wins, wouldn't it be better for the country, if he was referred to as the "American president" instead of the "African-American president."

Isn't the latter term an oxymoron? If not, would he then be president of Africa and America? Because of the Norman Conquest in 1066, is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown really the French-British prime minister?

George Washington didn't call himself the "English-American president," and John F. Kennedy was president of the United States, not president of Irish-America.

Most people come to this country to make a better life for themselves and their families. Wouldn't it be nice if all of them, and all of us who were born here, embraced America instead of trying to divide it?

At the end of his speech on hyphenated Americanism, Theodore Roosevelt said, "All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, no matter in what way we may worship our Creator, must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a united America for the elimination of race and religious prejudice."

Unfortunately, our hyphens keep getting in the way.

What do you say?

Chuck out.

Share your tips and opinions with Chuck at chuckhustmyre@gmail.com.