Posted on 08/25/2006 12:29:14 PM PDT by AppleButter
Mr. Wayne LaPierre Executive Vice President National Rifle Association 11250 Waples Mill Road Fairfax VA 22030-9400
Dear Mr. LaPierre:
As an NRA member of many years, I was surprised and disturbed to learn that the NRA now has a Spanish language website (www.nraespanol.org).
I thought the NRA stood for patriotism and the defense of our nation and our way of life. Why, then, are you encouraging the balkanization of our citizens into English-speaking and Spanish-speaking camps?
If people were born in the United States, surely they would have learned enough English to use the main NRA website by the time they were old enough to legally own a firearm.
If people are naturalized citizens, they would have had to have shown themselves to be proficient in English in order to gain citizenship.
I can only assume, therefore, that you are aiming your Spanish-language website to resident and illegal aliens. This bothers me, since these people are not full participants in the American political system and may have restrictions on their ownership of firearms.
I hope you will reconsider the appropriateness of hosting a Spanish-language website that only furthers divisions in our country and panders to foreigners who are not part of the political body.
The NRA has been going international for some time, I just seen Wayne's debate in England not too long ago. Your jumping to assumptions here thinking this is some multicultural jibe. There are also plenty of LEGAL immigrants here who do know english at a basic level but understand legalities a lot better in spanish. More likely though, it's to help people in other countries understand what we're doing here, Americans aren't the only people in the world with the right to bear arms and the NRA is the best at what they do so activist in other nations just might want to take a look at their site.
Don't bet on a French language section though :)
I respectfully disagree. If the NRA has time to get their message out in 16 different languages, so much the better. Educating people to the importance of the individual right to firearms ownership overrides any concern about immigration issues, pandering to illegals, etc.
Well, now. There are lots of US citizens who speak English well enough to get by, but do a lot better in Spanish. In addition, there is Puerto Rico, where everyone is a citizen of the USA, even though Spanish is the default language.
The NRA is not in the immigration business. It is in the business of helping insure that our 2nd Amendment rights are not infringed.
I'm sure there are real issues you might turn your attention to. This is not one of them. Apparently the NRA finds it worthwhile to address citizens for whom Spanish is better understood than English.
So does the White House.
MineralMan, I am in agreement with you... you have to reach out to people in ways they understand.
The NRA was instrumental in trashing the gun grabbers try down in Brazil.
That was a Portuguese campaign.
The UN is coming, we need to engage the fight in all languages.
"MineralMan, I am in agreement with you... you have to reach out to people in ways they understand."
Yes. Sadly, for a lot of people, any use of a language other than English automatically gets them angry. Having grown up in a citrus-growing area in California, I never studied Spanish, but learned it rather well on the schoolyard, since about 40% of the kids at my grammar school spoke Spanish as their first language.
I'm 61 years old now. My parents and siblings still live in that town. One of my classmates is the long-time mayor there. His last name is Hernandez. The police chief is a classmate of my sister's. His last name is Reyes. Both spoke Spanish mostly, back when they were in grammar school. Both served in our armed forces during Vietnam. The town is full of people who I grew up with, speaking Spanish. They're business owners, teachers, firemen, and just plain hard-working U.S. citizens now. Back in the first grade, they spoke Spanish mostly. So the rest of us learned to speak Spanish so we could talk to our classmates. They learned English pretty fast, too.
The NRA is spreading its message, however it can. Too bad some folks can't see past their own limited knowledge.
Spanish is as vital to me now on the jobsite, as much as it was 40 years ago working cattle out by Pecos.
Mira!Vibora.
BT
What age does the 2nd Amendment specify?
"Spanish is as vital to me now on the jobsite, as much as it was 40 years ago working cattle out by Pecos."
"Mira! Vibora."
They need on in Portuguese for the people of Brazil as well. Chinese or French wouldn't be bad, either.
And here's where I must respectfully disagree with you. While I would hate to have to choose, I'd rather live in a First World America without guns than a Third World America with guns. Of course, once the political elites have turned America into a Third World country they'll take away our guns anyway. So the way to protect your 2nd Amendment rights is to keep America's Anglo-Saxon culture that values independence, self-reliance and the rule of law. Once you lose that, all your personal rights go down the drain.
The UN is coming, we need to engage the fight in all languages.
And in all calibers, if they come too far.
The 2nd Amendment doesn't say anything about age one way or the other, but here in Maryland the law does. I believe it's 18 for long guns and 21 for handguns & "assault rifles." (But don't quote me.)
I disagree. The NRA has a World Wide Website. As in it can be reached from anywhere in the world the government doesn't conspire with Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google to keep the people from it. The more languages the NRA can afford to support, the bigger their worldwide audience is. Those people never even have to come to America to read what the NRA has to say about freedom. If we could export the values that made us great in whatever language they read, those people coming here might be able to fit in and not turn the country into a 3rd world hellhole.
Andar con lobos, aprender aullar.
(HOL)Howling out loud
"Andar con lobos, aprender aullar."
Si, como no.
I agree with you. I understand AppleButter's feelings. We need to fight the war in all languages because that's the conditions we have been given. I'm a Life Member of the NRA and we have to get the message out. God Bless America.
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