Posted on 05/29/2005 8:57:11 AM PDT by Ramonan
Between Michael Bloomberg's campaign advertising launch and more nutty stuff coming from the City Council, New Yorkers can be forgiven for wondering, Que pasa?
Mayor Mike kicked off his re-election campaign a few days back with a hearty "Hola!" campaign ad en espanol.
Then, last week, Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) introduced a bill that mandates translation of all official city business into at least six languages: Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian and Spanish.
That followed the council's earlier bone-headed idea: the "Education Equity Act," which would require translation services for the city school system in nine different languages — including Bengali and Urdu.
Bloomberg's Education Department disapproves of the "Education Equity Act," which would cost upward of $20 million to implement.
Of course, Gioia's plan would also cost more millions that the city doesn't have — but why should he care?
Then again, this is about more than money.
Despite the overall diversity of New York, English is the predominant language of the city and the nation.
That fact is something that the mayor, of all people, should emphasize.
Yet, what message is sent when his first re-election ad is in Spanish?
There's nothing wrong with having a multilingual campaign.
But the mayor should set an example of at least launching his campaign in what is still the primary tongue.
The overall goal is for immigrants to learn English, as that's the best way for them to become fully educated, assimilated and ultimately successful within the society.
Instead, city leaders are sending very different signals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Then, last week, Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) introduced a bill that mandates translation of all official city business into at least six languages: Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian and Spanish.
This move was predictable. The multi-culturalist America-haters are starting the push now to de-Anglicize our public life...
They'll be successful, too. In Boston the term "minority" has been replaced with "person of color" because now European-Americans are the minority. The multi-culti's (even the white ones) don't feel Caucasians are entitled to jack-squat from the state.
He's not called Bloominidiot for no reason.
Besides he isn't even a RINO - he's a life long democrat who could only get on the ballot 4 years ago by switching parties and only became Mayor because he was able to outspend everyone else.
This time around New Yorkers should vote for a true New Yorker and vote Libertarian - AUDREY SILK for Mayor.
Bloomberg is an idiot when coming to illegal immigration. He's desperate because he's not going to get the votes from the traditional republican base.
It's a mystery to me how any rational person (who loves this country) could believe that turning the public square into a linguistic cacophony would be a good thing. Has the lesson of the Tower of Babel been widely forgotten?
This is just wrong. I have nothing against immigrants using their own languages in their daily lives, but if they come here, they should make an effort to understand and speak English. Most nations in the world have official languages, I don't understand what is so wrong about our having one.
I think there is a court order, that we ignore all Biblical teaching. </sarcasm>
A while back there was an article wherein the New York Public Library bragged that they had the largest selection of Korean-language books in America. Hello? The only Korean-language books our public libraries should have are Korean-English dictionaries. One wonders, how does Plutarch, Shakespeare, Locke or any of the other great Western works sound in Korean, or Spanish, or ???? for that matter.
I am constantly on my local library about their growing Spanish-language book collection - and now the video section is beginning to reflect that infection also. Time to ratchet up the heat. The problem is, decisions like this are made in Las Vegas. The fight goes on although sometimes I feel it is a rear-guard action.
If I were a "minority", I would be offended by the change to "person of color"---didn't black people hate the term "colored people" back in the 60's?
As far as this alternate language talk---it should STOP, NOW!!!
In fact, it is incidents like this that SHOULD create enough of an uproar with Americans, that we tell our local, state, and national politicians that under NO circumstances should we expand the list of languages that should be "added" for translation...
It should be a Federal law that only English will be used in taxpayer funded schools, voting, and any other government places and/or forms....
The vast majority of New York's immigrants are legal. However, I think Bloomberg is wasting money. In the past it was not uncommon to come across immigrants who had been here for decades and still didn't speak English, even second generation families spoke no English. My co-worker’s grandmother who was born here still spoke only German when she died at the age of 89 last year. You'll be hard pressed to find an immigrant who has been here for decades and still doesn't speak English nowadays. I don't know if a second generation immigrant who doesn't speak English even exists anymore. As a country, we are doing a good job of assimilating immigrants. This is just a publicity stunt on Bloomberg's part.
while sitting in a Waffle House in Atlanta, I witnessed a discussion (directions, I believe) between a German, a Russian, and a Mexican.
They spoke ENGLISH.
This is America. English is the langauge here.
'nuff sed.
Unfortunately if you mention anything remotely Biblical in the public square you get the ACLU stuffed up your ass.
Notice I said BIBLICAL. I'm going to scour the Koran for incidents like the tower of Babel and apply that so the ACLU won't sue me.
I'm already gearing up for Christmas retardedness from these clowns. They even took out the Easter Bunny!
The Tower of Babel (as I'm sure you know) has become a metaphor for the collapse of mutual understanding that accompanies a riotous multiplicity of tongues in the public square. We don't need to trace it back to its Biblical roots to grasp its soundness, it seems to me.
Oh yeah. Look at Quebec and secession. It's alot more than just a language thing driving that, but the language barrier is a HUGE part of it.
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