Sorry to hear about the signs in spanish AND THE BILINGUALISM TAKING OVER IN s.c. - wE IN cALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN BITCHING ABOUT IT FOR YEARS. - (oops - capslock) Politicians don't want to touch it because it means votes. The traitors in this nation are those who have been elected and hired into power and do nothing to stop this invasion. - Paul -
I will point out one little bitty bit of history here from my neck of the woods. Back at the dawn of the 20th century, Cincinnati, Ohio was dominated by German immigrants. An area of town north of the canal was designated "Over the Rhine" (and retains the name, though not the Germans, to this day) due to the heavy concentration of Germans. Most elementary schools were taught in German, and half of Cincinnati's newspapers were German language. Many street names were German, as well. This only changed with the onset of the US deployment for WWI.
I'm not advocating in favor of the current drive for dual languages. But before we say it's never been this way, make sure we got our facts right.
The US is a nation of immigrants, legal immigrants, most of whom showed up speaking only their native tongue. English itself is a product of several other languages; you can find German and Spanish words reproduced almost exactly in English. But the German immigrants, to use Rob's example, also made the effort to learn the language of their adopted country, even if their speech retained the flavor of their origins. There are examples all over the US of immigrant influence (New Braunfels, Texas being one that springs immediately to my mind).
I have no quibble with any of that. But the drive to require our society to become bilingual, the assertion that Hispanics are going to "take back" Southern California (oh come on now, you care -- admit it -- even if it means not being able to hand off some of the oddest characters in the western world), and the hijacking of our national anthem -- that I won't sit quiet for.
Edited to correct a mild oops about the town in Texas -- I had the wrong place named first. Sorry about that.
Edited By Siteowner
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