This is America…speak English!

You know, this illegal immigration thing has a lot of people fired up…here’s some just on my personal bloglist.

Conservababes: Right from New Fallujah has a particularly nasty rant.

Justice for All? links to an article by economist Thomas Sowell.

Michelle Malkin always has a lot to say, illegal immigration is one of her pet issues to begin with.

NewsBusters blogger Matthew Sheffield looks at the influence Spanish-language media carried.

Timmer at Righting America is looking for the backhoe to start building the fence.

The American Princess weighs in with her take.

The Goldwater is back in town and he must have picked up a good strain of attitude while he was away. Now, THIS is a “new tone.”

Bobby Eberle at The Loft critiques the Congressional responses to the issue.

Now it’s my turn.

The key word to me is “illegal.” Yes, I realize that practically all of us were descended from immigrants at one time or another, even native Americans who supposedly came over from Asia when there was a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. And I’m sure not everyone who we count as our ancestors went through Ellis Island, some were likely stowaways who managed to elude detection. Of course, many who live in the area are generations removed from people who had no choice in the matter as they were brought over as property to be sold in the slave trade. Regardless, we’re living in the here and now and I’m at least a third-generation American. I speak and write passable English, and I’m proud in a stubborn sort of way that I made it through 13 years of public school and four years of college never having learned a foreign language.

So imagine my surprise when I moved here, over a thousand miles from the Mexican border, and see bilingual signage in the stores and find there’s a Spanish-language radio station on the dial. It turns out we have a large Spanish-speaking population here, mostly from Mexico. They came here to “take the jobs Americans won’t do” in the chicken plants. But they also mow the lawns, hang the drywall, and do other manual labor work in the area. Now those jobs I have seen Americans do where I come from.

I don’t want to be one who denies a person who wants to come to America the opportunity to do so. BUT, the huge difference between the immigrants who protested in Los Angeles and elsewhere the last several days, and the immigrants from Germany and Poland who happen to be my forefathers is that my ancestors tried to assimilate themselves as best they could and become American citizens. Both then and now, newcomers to America worked hard at low-echelon jobs to create a better life for their families – but my ancestors most likely came over legally, and the last thought on their minds was trying to recreate the conditions of their native lands. They wanted to be American first, last, and always.

The time has long since come to start taking care of this problem. Unfortunately, most of the solutions being proposed have the appearance of condoning the criminal activity that brought many immigrants here in the first place. I have seen some commentary about how those on the Mayflower and other colonists didn’t have a visa or green card to enter the country either, but I’d venture to guess that the statute of limitations on harassing their method of entry is well past.

The protests of the last few days have proven one thing: the Balkanization of our country has taken root. It was seeded by bilingual education in the schools, watered by a lack of caring by politicians of all stripes who sought the immigrant vote (whether they were citizens or not), and fertilized by the advent of multiculturalism where American is just the back end of the hyphenated phrase and certainly not the important or worthy end. Now, like that last dandelion in the field, the one where you just can’t pull the root out of the ground and the Roundup just isn’t working, we’re stuck with that stubborn weed.

I’m not alone in my view. The polls suggest that a majority of Americans want immigration reform. But as usual, the politicians inside the Beltway don’t seem to hear the voice of the common folks. The only thing that may make then listen is a shakeup come November. To finish my analogy, it may take a shovel and a little bit of sweat, but a change in November might just get the rooted weed of Balkanization out from among our amber waves of grain.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

4 thoughts on “This is America…speak English!”

  1. Ok, no more talk.. it’s time for action.

    Would someone please organize a protest, or form some sort of action group to make this happen. Why is that illegals in this country are able to organize protests (betcha they didn’t get a proper permit for it), yet those of us who are paying for their new lives are complacantly sitting by.

    Is life in Mexico bad, from what I know, yes. BUT Just like in IRAQ, that is not out problem. Until the people of mexico & central and south america stand up to their corrupt govenments and say enough is enough… I have no piety for them. It is not the US’s job to fix all the problems of the world.

    Is the minute man project the only way to show your distaste for the current state of affairs. Orginze a protest. I’ll be there proudly holding an US Flag (something that was LACKING in the invading armies protests that I have seen).

    Action!

  2. Michael, very well-written and articulated. I can’t tell you how annoyed I get when I have to press “1” to hear information in English when I call 411 on my cell phone. Or when I have to select “English” at my ATM. Are we soon going to have to choose between Spanish, Arabic, and Polish here in Detroit? How far will it go, indeed!

    The even more annoying part is the PC crowd calls me a racist and “intolerant” when I complain about it. I’m not a racist. I’m not intolerant. I respect other nationalities and their cultures. That’s not the point!

    I’m simply proud to be an English-speaking American and expect that my fellow Americans – no matter where you originally came from – speak English and be proud to be Americans, too.

    Thanks for the link!
    DP

  3. “BUT, the huge difference between the immigrants who protested in Los Angeles and elsewhere the last several days, and the immigrants from Germany and Poland who happen to be my forefathers is that my ancestors tried to assimilate themselves as best they could and become American citizens. Both then and now, newcomers to America worked hard at low-echelon jobs to create a better life for their families – but my ancestors most likely came over legally, and the last thought on their minds was trying to recreate the conditions of their native lands. They wanted to be American first, last, and always.”

    –>Actually, Germans didn’t try to assimilate – they constituted the biggest non-English language group in America until anti-German sentiment after WWII.

    English doesn’t make you American, common values and principles do. Are you thinking something gets lost in translation? The strong version of linguistic relativity is no longer tenable…

    “Bilingualism has cognitive benefits:
    Psychologists have found that bilingualism is correlated with greater mental flexibility, perhaps because command of two symbolic systems provides more than one way to approach a problem. To realize such advantages, however, it appears to be necessary to achieve substantial proficiency in both languages, or “balanced bilingualism” (Hakuta, 1986). Numerous studies have reported that, for limited-English-proficient (LEP) students, cultivating skills in the native tongue leads to superior academic achievement over the long term (e.g., Portes and Hao, 1998).”

    -http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/HL.htm

    Your argument is completely racialized. The problem is not illegal or immigrant –> It’s hispanic. Spanish language use is growing fast in large part because existing populations (here for generations legally) are growing. Times change dude.

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