Language and Freedom

Re: [spiers] Language and Freedom

I couldn't agree with you more on this. This is one of those recycled non-issues
that seems to reappear in the spotlight every several years. You may recall that
California, among other states, voted to make English its official language a
while back. To what end? Nada! It doesn't change anything.

Here are a couple items plucked from the SF Chronicle that add to the point.
First is a Letter to the Editor, followed by a link to an article:




---------------------------------

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Our native tongues
Editor -- Hearing the news that the Senate has voted 63-34 to make English our
official language, I can only reply, "Bravo!" This is no time to be blasé.
Speaking English needs to become a cause celebre. English should become de
rigueur in every U.S. school. The Senate deserves our kudos for going
mano-a-mano with this bete noire. The best way to address the angst of
non-assimilation is to deliver a legislative coup de grace that renders every
foreign language absolutely verboten. Now that singing our national anthem in
a foreign tongue has become a criminal faux pas, shall we address that other
great threat to American unity -- the Catholic Church, which persists in the use
of Latin. I'm sure the senators would agree that, henceforth, Mass should be
celebrated in English -- God's language -- and we should crack down on such
linguistic fellow-travelers as pharmacists, doctors and scholars. If they don't
like it, let them move to Latin America. GAR SMITH Berkeley

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Loving the mother tongue

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/05/23/EDG\
DOIJL2H1.DTL


John Spiers wrote:
Folks,

As the govt-controlled press presents "Mexicans" as USA's main problem, to
change the topic
from Iraq before the election. I heard a radio personality talking about some
movement to
make English mandatory in USA, or whatever.

It occurs to me there is a correlation between polyglot and freedom. The freer
the country,
the more languages are spoken. For example, Hong Kong is probably the freest
place on
earth, and it has two official languages, Chinese and English, although they
speak Cantonese,
not Chinese. After that, just about every other language from around the world
is spoken by
residents of hong kong, collectively.

The oldest free country, Switzerland has three official languages: German,
French and Italian,
and just about everyone everyone also speaks English. Canada has a couple of
official
languages. Singapore has several generally spoken languages, and of course the
Vatican has
probably the most languages spoken, although the official language, Latin, is a
dead
language!

Head on down the list and the freer the country, the more languages commonly
spoken. I
see no real threat that English will become the official language in USA,
because as soon as
the elections are over the topic will be Iraq again, and "Mexicans" will
disappear as a topic as
fast as "homelessness" disappeared when Clinton became president.

John


Compete on Design!

www.johnspiers.com

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