I, for one, am completely against an official language.
Language and culture are forever linked. I don't see anybody trying to make
English the
official language of the Chinatowns and Little Italy's of America. I'd hate to
live in a country
without any ethnic culture. I happen to like the sound of other languages.
Actually, I think we'd all be better off if we required all kids to learn
spanish.
What's the downside of that? We'd have smarter kids, we'd preserve culture and
we'd catch
up to the European countries where virtually everybody speaks 2 to 3 languages
( English
is spoken virtually everywhere in Europe.)
Speaking of English being spoken in Europe, once upon a time I was in East
Germany and
we were lost. One of our roadies got out of our bus and went up to an 80 year
old lady,
and got in her face and said "Yo, you speak American" and when she didn't
respond, this
jerk of a guy yelled at her for not understanding.
I saw that same thing repeated quite a few times in my travels, and I find it
disgusting.
There is a subtle arrogance that comes with being an American sometimes that
somehow
causes people to think that the world should conform to their way of thinking,
and if they
don't somehow they are "idiots" etc.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "dfsavgny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, Gary Wien <lightgrw@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I have nothing against that (and personally
> > love Spanish food); however, I do think America would be better off
> > having an official language as I do see many problems for the country
> > in the next 5-10 years and I don't see the assimilation or desire to
> > be part of the "melting pot" that previous immigration waves showed.
> > This immigration wave is very different. If you don't believe that,
> > please show me a part of America where my German ancestors still
> > speak solely German. I doubt there is such a place.
> >
>
> Learn now, "minorities" are the new majority. Just like the Anglos,
> didn't like the German influx, and together they hated the Irish, then
> all three started to hate Jews, Italians and other darker Europeans,
> us "Americans" are adopting the same attitude to the Latinos. I saw
> the movie Bobby the other night. A Mexican hotel worker replies to an
> Anglo who accuses him of crossing the border illegally, that Mexicans
> didn't cross the border, but the border crossed them. Seems to me that
> the Southwest was theirs first.
>
> America belongs to the world. It has from the beginning and always
> will (should).
>
> "Give me your tired, your poor,
> Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
> The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
> Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
> I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
>
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