Rightwinger You should wake up and smell the Roses. Your BOY is a looser!

Tell that to the majority of people who voted him a second term. I dunno, Gene, but I think maybe you're the one who likes boys. Heh, heh, heh.....

If this topic was anywhere NEAR a discussion about your personal Satan, maybe your --lightyears off-topic-- input might have been welcome. Alas, it is not. And so, it is not. Have something to say about the article or what came after? Say it and join in. If not, beat it.
Quit trying to make a discussion about apples into a discussion about pears.

"You're ignoring (again) the fact that a large majority of people in this country do, in fact, consider English to be the national language. We do hold some truths to be self-evident, Baker."

Then put it up for a vote. Then, when the majority wants it to become Esperanto, they can do that too. That's not what you want, though. You want to declare us English-speaking via heritage and culture. You know that eventually you'll be in the minority, that's the undertone of all these "They're gonna move in and ruin our country" posts.

So, cement it now, right? That way, it doesn't matter how many different cultures move in, how big of a majority they are, and how small a minority your particular culture may end up, everyone has to bow to your will. What's important isn't what people want to speak, it's what people are SUPPOSED to speak.

Your self-evident "truth" concerning a national language isn't any more compelling than the "truth" of abortion or gay marriage as a right. It just seems true to you, and the alternative seems wrong, so you declare it wrong.

Democracy isn't about who got here first. If it was, Spanish would be on the menu LONG before English in Florida and California, and several other states, too. You claim that because English speakers have been the majority for the first x number of years, English has to be the national language from now on. Not hardly, not if you give a damn about real democracy and freedom.

As I said elsewhere, if we want to start hacking sections out of the bill of rights tomorrow, we have the constitutional power to do so. You're livig in a dream world if you think we can't make the "national" language anything we want, or forgo such a silly thing in the first place.

Your self-evident "truth" concerning a national language isn't any more compelling than the "truth" of abortion or gay marriage as a right.

I haven't got much time at the moment; heading to work (sigh). I'll start with the quote above.

I know what you're saying, but abortion wasn't legistlated or decided by the people in a vote. It was imposed on us by a liberal Supreme Court which decided on its own that it should be a right. Gay marriage is the same.....most of us couldn't care less about it and don't really want it, but will probably end up with it anyway.
A "national language", though, logically, is what the majority of people were, have been and are speaking. Presently, that's English.
Like Tova, I have no problem with people who want to come here and speak their own language among themselves. That's the way it's always been.
But, when they know they'll have to interact with people who don't speak their language, they should somehow learn at least some of the one the majority speaks (the way it's always been), rather than impudently insisting that the people in the country they're going to accomodate them and learn theirs.

You seem to hate and resent the fact that we imposed our ways and means on the immigrants who, in fact, themsleves wanted those ways and means imposed. America's greatest strength lies in it's "melting pot" mentality. People are more than welcome to (legally) come here and become Americans. That has always meant learning English along with our laws and history. Multiculturalism is a fantasy. Look at the cultural chaos Europe is going through right now. That's from, among other reasons, a fevered adherance to the ideal of multiculturalism.

"E Pluribus Unum"----"From Many, One". It's worked so far.

When/if the Spanish-speaking peoples do take over, and it becomes our "new" national language, we'll have to deal with it.
Right now, though, we're still an overwhelmingly English-speaking nation, and I, and many others, think it's only fair of others who come here from elsewhere to learn to speak to me, rather than the other way around.

As I look through the posts of this exchange, Baker, I'm strangely reminded of a Sunday Edition "Dilbert" cartoon I read some time ago:

The Evil, Pointy-Haired Boss was smiling benignly, just finishing up a meeting with the words "....and that's why Change is always good! Any questions?"

Wally asks "Okay, who wants this one?"

Dilbert raises his hand and says, "I'll take it."

"Yes, Dilbert?" asks the Evil, Pointy-Haired Boss, smiling benignly.

Dilbert asks, "If Change is always a good thing, why don't you double our salaries, extend the weekends and increase our vacation time?"

The Evil, Pointy-Haired Boss sagely replies, "That Change would not be good for the Shareholders."

"Then why don't you work for free? That Change would be good for the shareholders," Dilbert suggests.

Much hilarity ensues over the next few panels, as Dilbert shoots holes in the Evil, Pointy-Haired Boss's theory. In response, the Boss grows ever more frustrated and angry until, in the last panel, when Dilbert asks:

"....or are you ready to agree that not all Change is good?"

The Evil Pointy-Haired Boss shouts: "Stop using your confounded logic!"



The problem is, which of us is the Evil, Pointy-Haired Boss?

You guys want to head off that change and make sure it follows the path that seems most comfortable to you, and more difficult for others who aren't as well-positioned as you.

Gosh. Must be nice to be so understanding and mellow. So caring and loving. Have the wounds in your side, hands and feet healed yet?
As I've reiterated, time and again, if they want to come here, fine. Just learn the language, is all I ask. Not so much in the great scheme of things.

Oh, forget it. My "Dilbert" post was an attempt to end this discussion with a little humor, because it got a little intense there for a bit. But because someone disagreed with a point you hold especially dear, I guess no humor can be injected.
Well, that's okay....I'm just a lowly, culture-less American doofus anyway, with no language of my own. I guess I'll just bow to your greatness and give it up.

The majority agrees with me, anyway. That's what matters most.

"Just learn the language, is all I ask. Not so much in the great scheme of things."

Until you are asked to learn a language, and then we get a long list of reasons it is difficult. WHen you are a poor person in Mexico just trying to feed your family, multiply those problems exponentially.

"The majority agrees with me, anyway. That's what matters most."

We'll see if it matters when the majority doesn't, which is what this "destroying America" pre-emptive action attitude is really about.