[Grovenet] ear mark this!

[David Morelli]

On Feb 13, 2008, at 12:57 PM, Jeff Howden wrote:
> I call shenanigans.  Your example is preposterous.  We already have  
> a *common* language that's the de facto for things of  
> "importance".  That same *common* language has worked quite well  
> thus far for all the things you're suggesting we need an official  
> language for.  I fail to see what the need is to make it official.
>
> Jeff

There is a push to create a competitor for the role of "common  
language".  For example, at present, there are many jobs within our  
school district that I cannot apply for because I don't speak the  
competitor language, even though the job does not involve teaching  
any language.  The euphemism is "bilingual language skill" even  
though it really means "speaks Spanish".  Bilingual speakers of  
Chinese, German, or Farsi need not apply.  With one or two years of  
English immersion, all children in the school systems should be  
facile in English.  If the children are future citizens, they will be  
capable of benefiting from and contributing to this country.  And if  
they are the children of migrants, they can bring the United States  
language and culture back to their homes.

The 200+ year history of English as the de facto standard is closely  
tied to the 200+ year history of domination by male, white, Anglo- 
Saxon government which spoke it's chosen language, and the adoption  
by immigrants of the ruling power's language.  We have made a shift,  
starting in the 1960's from that paradigm.  In those forty some years  
we have determined that women and men from other groups have  
something positive to offer the government of this nation.  So, the  
question that remains for me, "shall we remain one nation - the  
United States - or shall we become a Confederation of states, each  
with its own language and culture?"

When Americans moved into Texas and California and took land grants  
they swore allegiance to the central government of Mexico.  However,  
they kept their English language and customs.  Eventually they moved  
to reconnect with their homeland by taking those areas from Mexico.   
Would they have done so, if they truly considered themselves to be  
"Mexicans"?  I doubt it.  I believe that, even though they were  
living in Mexico, they never ceased to think of them selves as  
"Americans".

Just because Spain got a two hundred year head start on stealing land  
and enslaving people in the South West doesn't mean that we are  
obligated to give those states to the government descended from the  
Spanish colony of Mexico.  I think we can learn from the lessons of  
history.  If we do not assimilate those who come into our  
communities, our communities will change to become like the places  
they left.  That appears true for the future of Forest Grove vis-a- 
vis our new residents, and true for the United States vis-a-vis our  
new immigrants.

This would be design question, what future do you envision for the  
United States?  Shall we be an economic colony of the next super  
power?  Shall we be a "Balkanized" region?  Shall we be an economic  
backwater?  Shall we use military power to enforce unity?  Shall we  
benefit from the thoughts of all of the citizens of this land?

There are many possible futures for our society.  We will find some  
response to peak oil, global warming, international terrorism,  
limited resources, population pressures, etc.  To that end, I would  
like to enlist as many of our citizens as possible, especially the  
next generation.  I would like them to be part of this community, not  
just *in* the community.  The push to share English as the common  
language may be viewed as a "European centric" attitude, and in some  
cases it certainly is just that.  But, Spanish is the language of the  
Iberian peninsula and the Conquistadors, not the Americas.  Spanish  
is the language of European colonial domination of large tracts of  
the Western Hemisphere.  As such, it is no better, nor worse, as a  
common tongue than English.  English is simply the language that is  
shared by the majority of the residents of this nation.

David