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Why is Senator Reid such a, well, weasel? Why does he insist on whining and complaining instead of acting like a man with some guts?

When my family came here from Italy in 1906 they were all anxious to learn English and they gave their kids English names. And there were no ESL courses at the local community college then 'cause there weren't any community colleges. They wanted to become AMERICANS not ITALIANS.

Senator Reid, it would be wise for you, sir, to gain some perspective about our nation and its history.

I strongly endorse your sentiments. When my people arrived here from the Russian Empire, the first thing that was forbidden was speaking Russian with the children, regardless if they were born there or here and English became, as best as possible, the household language. Only the “Mustache Joes” spoke together in Russian, Polish, or Turkic when they played cards and the Babuski (grandmothers) when they played Mah Zhong.

My people, like yours and everyone else who immigrated to this wonderful country came here to enjoy the liberties that are guaranteed under the Constitution and to be able to achieve whatever they could achieve as Americans. Never have I ever heard any foreign-born relative call himself or herself a Russian-American, for to do so meant to them that they were second-class citizens, not real Americans.

My wife and mother-in-law are naturalized Americans who had to go through years of waiting and strenuous testing to get both their “green card” and citizenship, but they too do not consider themselves German-Americans and they react unkindly to anyone who calls them that.

What I think is the real issue in this case of a “national language” is not immigration, it is assimilation. Regardless if the immigrants are Latino, Haitian, German, Swiss, Vietnamese, or Russian, they came here to become Americans, so American (English) should be the language we all speak when we are in a business or governmental environment.