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| Hispanics threaten U.S. melting pot. |
| 2006-05-04 |
| Immigrants must learn English or country will suffer in long run American, El Salvadorian and Mexican flags filled the air as hundreds of immigrants gathered in Washington on Monday to protest U.S. immigration policy. Published: Thursday, May 04, 2006 NEW YORK - If there's one thing the United States should have learned from Canada's official bilingualism, it's that inserting two languages into the fabric of the national identity is a mistake. While there were strong historical imperatives for putting French on an equal footing with English federally, most pure laine French-speakers still don't consider themselves Canadian. In the United States, a similar division will become entrenched if Washington continues to allow the growth of regions or economic sectors where Hispanic immigrants can thrive in Spanish only. So George W. Bush, the U.S. President, was on the right track last week when he insisted the U.S. national anthem should be sung in English only. As is often the case with Mr. Bush, he didn't explain himself properly. And so his critics are gleefully pointing out he sang The Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish at stops at Hispanic festivals during his presidential campaign. Others have shown that the lyrics, penned by Francis Scott Key as a poem in 1814, have been translated into several other tongues, including German, Latin and Yiddish. Even the U.S. State Department carries a Spanish translation on its Web site. But in a week when the 40 million-strong Hispanic community demonstrated its economic and political power through huge marches, Mr. Bush rightly could not be seen giving any endorsement to redefining such a central national symbol. Since the United States established itself as an English-speaking country, never has an immigrant group so threatened the "melting pot" concept. In his book Empires of the Word, Nicholas Ostler argues English became the dominant language of the United States in large part because English-speaking colonists were far more likely to arrive in families than colonists from other parts of Europe. Consequently, their numbers grew more rapidly than, say, those of the French, whose fur-trading coureurs de bois typified the single men who spread into new lands, but couldn't consolidate them. Not only have Hispanics arrived with large families, they are immigrating at a time when the political correctness of the far left is succeeding in redefining the U.S.'s traditional nation-building principles. It was once an accepted norm that immigration should satisfy the needs of the host country, whether they be to replenish an overall shortage of numbers or fill jobs in certain fields. In the U.S. melting pot, immigrants were expected to assimilate. An essential part of this involved learning English so they could participate fully in the American Dream. Maintaining traditions was welcome, but not, as President Woodrow Wilson told new citizens in 1915, by "seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind." But today the pressures of political correctness are so powerful anyone who speaks out against establishment norms is given legitimacy. In the current immigration debate, the marches showed rights to redirect the United States should be extended not only to those who entered the country legally, but also to the estimated 12 million who arrived illegally. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #13 3dc, I actually heard some stat on Boortz that a good proportion of third gen Mexicans were on welfare because they knew the system, had no fear of deportation & no ambition to work in contrast to their grand parents. I can't remember the exact number but it was over 40%. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-05-04 22:19 |
| #12 The basic problem is this: 1) There is a market for cheap labor that can be treated like slaves. These are the Mexicans and others. 2) There is also a market for expensive labor that can be treate like slaves. These are the H2-Visa holders. So... if you legalize either of these groups then it is hard to abuse them. Once it is hard to abuse them they will lose these jobs. Then two things happen. 1) They live in Barrios, Slums etc.. until they are able to crawl out kicking and screaming... and the majority go on welfare for a long while. 2) The employeers who used to abuse them look for new labor they can abuse. That labor flocks to the US and the whole cycle repeats. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-05-04 21:31 |
| #11 And Texas is unto Texas And New Jersey is getting VERY crowded. |
| Posted by: jim#6 2006-05-04 21:16 |
| #10 Mr. Wife's father was taught completely in Polish until the sixth grade. His was the last year, though (born in 1936). His four younger brothers were taught exclusively in English. A bit of culture shock within the family, it was. All immigrant groups huddle together for cultural and linguistic familiarity. It's generally the children that learn to speak English well. The true stereotype is of the child translating for Mama at the grocery store and the bank. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-04 21:09 |
| #9 Mexicans vary tremendously depending on where they settle down in the US. In LA they are often ghetto-ized, with resultant problems more related to poverty than integration. In Phoenix, they heavily integrate and are absorbed with great speed, quickly becoming middle class. In the majority-Mexican county in Arkansas where everyone works for Tyson, it is like little Mexico, with no integration at all. And Texas is unto Texas. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-05-04 17:32 |
| #8 Hispanics are also learning English at least as quickly as any other immigrant group Yep, that's why I see four or more channels on Dish or Direct TV that are purely Spanish. Like I see just as many other ethnic channels, right? Just like when I walk into Walmart or Sears and hear the commericals or read the signs in multiple other languages. Oh wait, maybe just one other. Do they do the same, but in French in their stores up near the Canadian frontier with Quebec? Last time I saw those tourist from Canada they did a darn good version of English this side of the border. |
| Posted by: Ebbotle Slineling3258 2006-05-04 17:20 |
| #7 The danger facing the U.S. comes not from the imigrants (who in general are pursuing the American Dream). It comes from LLL "trustafarians" who hate everything America stands for. If you look at pictures of the marches, the anti US slogans were carried by American leftists who (unfortunately) are American citizens. In fact, I would trade the folks from ANSWER for a like number of Mexican immigrants. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2006-05-04 16:30 |
| #6 PC allows not for a "Melting Pot" but for a "Salad Bowl". Reality is that a certain degree of colonization is being effected here on the border. Everybody in power down in these parts (Arizona) is studiously looking the other way while the Mexicanization of the culture takes place in a not so glacial manner. I see nothing to stop this trend given that evening questioning the issue labels one a racist. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2006-05-04 15:39 |
| #5 Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN Are we "SLOW LEARNERS" or what? Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-04 14:56 |
| #4 Hispanics are also learning English at least as quickly as any other immigrant group. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-05-04 14:49 |
| #3 I've always thought that an amendment making English the national language should be added to this (illegal) immigration "reform" program. Let's see how much these folks really want to assimilate and be part of America. Think it'll happen? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-05-04 14:44 |
| #2 Interestingly enough, Hispanics oppose bilingual education by higher margins than the general population. Think Jose Sixpck might know something his self-appointed "leaders" don't? |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-05-04 14:43 |
| #1 Amazing how millions of Slavs and Chinese were able to integrate into the American culture without bi-lingualism or multi-culturalism. Guess the leaders of the Hispanic interest groups are admitting to far lesser abilities among their population. |
| Posted by: Cruque Clong1423 2006-05-04 14:14 |