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Anyone who has read this column over the last six years is aware of my opinion of our current president. For over four straight years, I would have one of his misquotes at the end of my column called “The Shrub Speaks”. I don’t do it as often anymore because instead of being funny most have become, well scary.
I never thought I would say it, but our Commander In Chief said something in his “Address To The Nation” a couple of weeks ago that I agree with. I can’t even believe that I just wrote that, but it’s true. Of course, I didn’t buy into everything he was attempting to sell in his speech. He was, as usual, all over the place trying to please everyone. As anyone with any sense knows that never works, and more times than not, you end up not pleasing anyone.
Based on the overall response to this little verbal journey, he did please more than usual. Given his current approval ratings, or should I say disapproval ratings, he must have given off a heavy sigh of relief.
Where I agreed with him came in the section of his speech where he was outlining his proposed immigration policy. Most of it I was aware of through press reports over the last few months, but like many who read this column, during his speech, I was focusing on one aspect of what he said. Instead of “selective reading” I was engaging in “selective listening”.
I was in this selecting listening mode when he got to the part outlining what immigrants, both new and illegal, would have to agree to do should they want to remain and become a citizen. His proposals if you are illegal and you have roots in this country are to: 1) Pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, 2) Pay your taxes, 3) Have worked in a job for a number of years, and 4) LEARN ENGLISH! If you meet these four conditions you can get in line behind all of the people who played by the rules and followed the laws when entering this country.
Damn Dubya, I have to admit I’m with you on this one, especially number four. I never thought I would ever say that, and if you were only saying these things to appease me you did a good job, but you have to act on it. Otherwise you are only paying me lip service.
In the same speech he went on to say “The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society and embrace our common identity as Americans. Americans are bound together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly and the ability to SPEAK AND WRITE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America.” Good Lord, he said it again.
I’ve been saying that for years, but then again I’m not the President of the United States and can’t talk to the entire nation at the drop of a hat. Dubya, I don’t know which of your speech writers wrote that for you, but give that boy or girl a raise. If you were able to run again I would vote for you. Just kidding Dubya. One good thing doesn’t erase six years worth of bad.
If you can make this thing fly it would go a long way towards building up those sagging approval ratings. You have a long road a hoe because one of the key things you said was “helping newcomers assimilate into our society” and for the most part the newcomers don’t want to do it. The English barrier is a major part of the equation.
You see, instead of taking even one step towards assimilation and learning the language of the country they want to live in, they surround themselves with people from the country they fled. Instead of embracing the community they move into, they do everything to change that community into a mirror image of their homeland. If you love the place that you came from so much then why are you here? If you want to be here, show us by your actions that you want to be part of this country, not part of an exclusionary microcosm of where you came from.
Once a foothold in the community is established via population growth of any given culture, and businesses set up catering to that culture, the need for assimilation vanishes. If you surround yourself with nothing but people who speak your language and businesses that cater to all of your needs without the need to learn English, why bother?
It has a lot to do with the younger generation of immigrants who think they are doing their parents and grandparents a favor by speaking nothing but their native tongue to them. Just like what is referred to as an “enabler” in the arenas of alcohol, drug, and food addiction, these younger generations are not motivating the older generation to assimilate. All this does is increase racial tensions and stereotypes that would be eased if even an attempt were made to learn English.
If Dubya and the DC boys and girls really want to help motivate our “newcomers” to learn how to speak English the very first thing they should do is eliminate all non-English signage. If it weren’t so easy for them to go about their daily business, maybe it would compel them to adopt the national language of their new chosen country. I also think it would go far to weeding out the ones who are not so much wanting to be Americans as they are wanting to exploit all of the social services available.
The signage aspect unfortunately goes beyond just making it easy for “newcomers” not needing to learn English. In some cases it causes an anti assimilation sentiment among the established residents of the communities that they gravitate to. Especially when the English on the signage is so minimal that you have no idea as to what the business is. When that happens, the original residents feel as though their business is not wanted and that if they were to enter the establishment they would not be welcome or be able to communicate with the proprietors.
This in turn leads to resentment of the “newcomer” immigrants which of course leads to heightened racial tensions. I have even been told about businesses in this area, that while service was not flat out refused, customers were ignored by immigrant business owners to the point where they finally left. This sends a message to the original community that their business is indeed not welcomed or wanted.
I know that this signage issue has been challenged and debated many times in the past. Every time it is brought up, the ACLU jumps up and down and every ethnic civil rights group grabs a sign and threatens to boycott something. “We won’t buy cheese anymore unless you do what we say”. This of course drives a bigger divide between everyone involved and gets us nowhere.
If Dubya wants this plan to work, and I hope it does, he will have to go that one extra step in order to push the “newcomers” into finding the “key” that he spoke of to unlocking America. It will benefit us all if we can communicate and learn to experience each other’s cultures, instead of being afraid of entering a restaurant because you don’t know what kind of food they are serving or if they are indeed a restaurant.
It is a vicious cycle that we have let go on for far too long and now it has come full circle right back to bite us in the ass. Just like the problem we are experiencing with the high price of gas. We ignored looking at alternative forms of energy until it was too late and now we are at the mercy of the Middle East and the gas companies. Both will take a long time to fix. But we are Americans and we never give up or stop believing that the problem can be solved.
Can you say, “That’s the American Way”?
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