BTW, I have a picture of another monster that kills children, do you think that they only come in brown?
Posted on 07/09/2002 10:43:24 AM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Language debate only serves to divide
Jim Revels
In the almost eight unforgettable months since the United States suffered its largest loss of life to terrorists in a single attack, patriotism and unity have emerged as dominating results.
While patriotism is expected to wane in coming months, efforts to end divisiveness and spawn unity must continue. One of the most divisive trends today is the endless language debate that seems to follow the political season just as night follows day.
My wife is a proud naturalized citizen. She obtained citizenship the old-fashioned way: she earned it by complying with all established requirements. She took the time to obtain the required English language skills that so many El Pasoans ignore today.
The citizenship test is now administered in Spanish for those unable or unwilling to learn our common language. In no other country can a person become a citizen without demonstrating basic official language skills.
In France, employment is not possible without French language skills. In the United States, there are millions of people living and working who possess no ability to communicate in English. This failure surely contributes to accidents and reduced productivity.
Driver's license tests administered in languages other than English also contribute to accidents. While traveling more than 60,000 miles across this country in the past 10 years, I have yet to find highway signs in any language other than English. I often wonder how the language-impaired manage to find their way.
Here in El Paso, there are thousands of residents who have lived for years without developing English language proficiency. One disturbing reason can be traced to politics. Politicians see an opportunity in sustaining divisiveness created by language impairment and rhetoric.
This is an election year. The electronic telecommunication industry is already watching their profits increase from political advertising. Channel 7, KVIA-TV, made laudable history recently by refusing to broadcast political advertising in Spanish. After lawyers got involved, the decision was reversed. Now, citizens who have earned the right to make informed decisions about candidates must rely on sub-titles. I see this as sanctioned disenfranchisement. I cannot understand how this advances unity and communication.
The time has come for this nation to either adopt an official language or face an uncertain future where language pollution will increase divisiveness. The determined homicide bombers who used commercial aircraft as guided missiles to attack the United States sought to fuel divisiveness. Instead, the nation united in a war against terrorism, that continues today.
What terrorists were unable to do, politicians are managing to achieve: divide this great nation to prevent coordinated anti-terrorist actions around the world. A common language in any nation is as important as a common currency. In Europe, a common currency is more important than a common language, even though English has been adopted as the language of business for nations in the European Union.
If Europe can envision the benefits spawned by a single language and currency, surely the United States can be as insightful. United we stand in victory, divided we surrender in defeat.
Jim Revels, a retired Army colonel who lives in East El Paso, writes often for the El Paso Times. http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/opinion/columnists/20020430-193700.shtml
I'M a "professional victim-of-the-month"?
I can't hold a candle to you all...
WAHHHH, WAHHHHH...the bad Mexicans are speaking Spanish!!!
WAAHHHHHHHHHHH....
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Libertaran freeloaders demand the best this country has to offer without paying for it.
This is hardly about Spaniards or Costa Ricans, I suspect. Seems to me that it's about the troublesome, invasive, pesky, "you stole our land" screaming, and aggressive "migrant (make that colonist) sending" nations. Can you guess which ones they are?
The "rights" appear to be all one-way ---the illegals have a right to come here without following the laws, they have the right to keep their language and culture, when that doesn't work out so well, they have the right to taxpayer money to support them. Americans seem to have no rights in this matter.
There are very few native born New Mexicans left who are unable to speak English and what there are remaining are up in years. US born New Mexicans speak English quite well, the people you find in New Mexico below 70 years of age who speak no English are people who came from Mexico.
"Like Gomez, more than a third of El Pasoans have little or no English skills, according to the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey data released last week.
Nearly four in 10 El Paso County residents who were surveyed said Spanish was their dominant language, while a similar proportion said they communicated in two or more languages. One in five said English was his or her dominant language.
About one-fourth of El Paso County's population was born outside the United States, compared with 14 percent across the state and 11 percent across the nation, according to the Census 2000 Supplemental Survey.
http://www.borderlandnews.com/Census/1125language.shtml
Why is it that every nutcase wants to disrespect us by wanting tocome here, but believes that we suck? If we suck then how come they want to come to the country that we built??? Why don't they stay in their toilet of a country that THEY built???
Read what you posted...4 in 10 said that Spanish was their dominant language.
My parent's would answer the very same way, it doesn't mean that they don't speak English, they speak it quite well, but Spanish is their dominant language nevertheless.
Then another 4 in ten or so admitted to communicating in two or more languages. Again, it doesn't mean that they don't speak English.
Only 1 in 5 said that English was their dominant language.
By "dominant language" they probably mean the language that they dream, and think in. That takes a long time to happen.
I don't see where you proved your point here.
You equate the situation in Korea...the Korean Army and a communist regime to a bunch of dirt-poor farmers?
You mean one of these "dirt poor farmers", Luis?
Boisean pleads guilty to killing child -- She 'was crying, and I lost control, and I hit her'
Edition Date: 07-09-2002
Luis M. Mejia of Boise pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder for the April beating death of his girlfriend´s 2-year-old daughter.
Speaking through an interpreter, Mejia told the court he threw the girl to the ground and beat her when she would not stop crying.
She "was crying, and I lost control, and I hit her," he said.
Fourth District Judge Deborah Bail will sentence Mejia, who could receive up to life in prison, on Sept. 30. His guilty plea resulted from negotiations with prosecutors, who had charged Mejia with first-degree murder, which could have earned him the death penalty.
Lorena Herrera died April 2 at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center. Medical reports said the toddler died from blunt trauma to the abdomen, which caused internal bleeding. The girl´s mother, Elizabeth Herrera, Mejia´s girlfriend, arrived at the family´s apartment minutes after the beating and called 911.
Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Jean Fisher said she offered Mejia the plea bargain because it would eliminate the need for Mejia´s 5-year-old son, who witnessed the beating, to testify. And, with the state of Idaho´s death penalty in question because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, she said Mejia might not have received death if convicted.
D.C. Carr, Mejia´s public defender, said the agreement was good for his client because the lesser charge means Mejia would not get the death penalty.
Hey Luis.... this happens to be one of your lovely illegal alien buddies. Notice how the press doesn't mention that little tidbit, but the Boise Police do? The military needs to be on the border, and the Border Patrol in the interior removing your "dirt poor farmer" buddies, Luis. It's the prudent thing to do.
Yep, and I and Luis whole heartedly agree as a matter of policy. But not via denying citizenship to qualifying legal residents, and not via denying entry to legal immigrants because they cannot yet speak English. At least that is my view. As to illegals, we are hypocrits. But however messy what we are doing, it is my view that this will not represent the end of American Anglo Saxon culture as we know it, at least the parts we most treasure. I simply have more confidence in the resiliance of the ideas that animate it to worry much, plus the demographic points that I keep harping on.
BTW, I have a picture of another monster that kills children, do you think that they only come in brown?
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