For all the kvetching we do, it's time we showcased something positive here for a change.
A recent local news story brought attention to the plight of some elderly gardeners in Hazelwood. The men have had a vegetable garden for over 40 years on a plot of land near their homes. On Sunday, they discovered that vandals had trashed the garden, destroying many of the 400 tomato plants & almost all of the 300 pepper plants they've painstakingly cultivated since early this year.
Thanks to the publicity of the newspaper story, the outpouring of volunteers & donations has touched everyone that's heard the tale, most importantly the victims.
The men have received anonymous cash donations & calls from people who want to volunteer time, money or materials to help rebuild the garden. The newspaper was also inundated with phone calls & emails from readers that wanted to help.
In yesterday's follow-up story, the victims could not stress their gratitude enough. They believe that maybe this bad thing happened to make them realize & appreciate the extent of goodness & kindness that exists in the world. That's a remarkable lesson to be learned from something so awful.
Additionally, they're discouraging donations of any sort & instead asking people to give that money to time to a charity. This is a story from which we can all learn. It's the kind of thing that reassures your faith in mankind & makes you proud of your neighbors. We should all be so lucky as to make this kind of difference in someone else's life.
Disillusioned idealist needs a place to rant. Complaints welcome but only if accompanied by intelligent suggestions for potential solutions.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Friday, July 7, 2006
Waaah! Waaah!
Today we'll be examining some letters to the editor from various local papers. While many of the letters that make it to print are intelligent & rational, some leave much to be desired.
There's the occasional letter from a spoiled brat, decrying some imagined hardship that would be a blessing to most others. At times, we see an offbeat rant illustrating some perceived wrong that exists only in the writer's mind. Still others are thinly veiled whining & it's not hard to imagine the writer as a typical sourpuss that is never happy with anything.
We try hard to not pick on any local paper more than others but since there's only two major papers & one of them is a theinly veiled vehicle for a crazy rich guy's political & social rhetoric, that seriously limits our options. We're trying hard to expand our horizens so that we can pick on other media outlets, we promise.
This is our forum to rebut the public opinion & expound upon our own beliefs. You may not always like what we have to say, but it will always make you think. Click on the headlines to read the original letters being referenced here & you'll probably have to scroll down to find them.
Mechanical Ignorance
(Cool War Stuff)
This letter is from a recent transplant to the Polish Hill section of the city & the author is outraged that a Stealth Bomber flew over her home. She goes on about not glorifying war but I really don't see the connection. The government is going to make fancy jets whether the public supports it or not. Whether or not we're at war, no matter what public opinion of current military actions may be, these planes will be manufactured at taxpayer's expense.
That being said, we may as well enjoy them. Both the Regatta & Wings Over Pittsburgh are billed as family events & planes are cool. Little kids love them. Big kids love them. Adults study them, collect them & travel great lengths to see them in action or on the ground.
They are engineering marvels & testaments to our nation's technological & manufacturing prowess. That's nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it something to decry.
By the same token, should we ban car & boat shows until gas prices come down? After all, America's love of gas guzzlers makes us dependent upon our enemies, creates pollution, wastes valuable natural resources & the constant demand threatens environmental treasures.
Perhaps we should ban the All Star Game since the MLB is the only major sporting commission that refuses to punish blatant & overt drug abuse among it's superstars. Maybe we should put a moratorium on country music concerts until the war ends, as many of these stars are outspoken supporters of the current administration.
We don't support the war in Iraq (although we do support our troops). We don't promote glorification of war or US involvement in most foreign skirmishes. However, we do enjoy big cool machines, like construction equipment, trains, trucks, autos & planes.
We grew up waiting for the awesome flyovers, which are the best part of the Regatta since the hot air balloon races stopped. Stop seeing Boogeymen in everything, lady, there's no connection!
Firecrackers, Townhouses & Death, Oh My!
(Firecracker Dangers)
This letter is perfect for two reasons: First, the writer is completely overreacting. She should make that passion work for her in some constructive manner. For instance, her life must be pretty good if hearing a single firecracker can warrant this kind of righteous indignation. Perhaps that passion could best be spent graciously thanking higher powers for a life so charmed that only absolute minutaie can be identified as a problem.
Second, this letter is written in such a dramatic fashion that we can only imagine a tortured bohemian chick rending her clothes & twisting in agony on a darkened stage under a pinpoint spotlight while wailing this message. Read your own letter, lady -- it was just one firecracker! That shouldn't, in good conscience, warrant 4+ paragraphs.
And I may be wrong, but technically I don't think a firecracker could burn down an entire neighborhood. A firework maybe, but not a firecracker.
Segregation or Choice?
(Disturbing Trend)
This letter bemoans the segregation of housing in Pittsburgh. As we grew up here & are intimately acquainted with the city & most of it's suburbs, we find this letter to be vague & pointless. Pittsburgh is losing population all of the time. It's been going on for decades & we're always shrinking, never growing.
It's not just white people leaving the area, nor does it have anything to do with race. People of all socioeconomic classes are leaving for better opportunities. Many educated young professionals that grew up here pursue their adult lives elsewhere. Many less-educated residents have left to pursue blue-collar opportunities in larger cities. I know people with college degrees that are doing better as valets & waitresses in Miami, LA & Vegas than they did as white-collar professionals in Western PA. Trade workers can be very successful in the Carolinas, for instance & these areas are now rife with Steelers bars & entire communities of ex-Pittsburghers.
The letter says the city is losing white residents in large numbers while the suburbs lose few whites. Many city residents are college students that aren't originally from this area so they graduate & leave. The writer is trying to present an image of white-flight, alluding that white residents are fleeing to the suburbs leaving minorities in the city. This isn't so. It's not as though the suburbs are seeing an increase in white residents directly proportional to the city's losses.
The letter mentions nothing about minority numbers in the suburbs but they've been growing for years & continue to grow. Of course, mentioning that would undercut his claims of segregation so he had to leave that fact out entirely. (Hopefully, they are less likely to flee the area than city dwellers, just like their white suburban neighbors because we really need to stop losing people).
If you want to buy a specific house but the realtor won't return calls because you're not of a certain race, that's segregation & someone should step in to help. But if you want to buy a specific house & just can't afford it, that's not racism so look to some other, more affordable neighborhood.
You can claim cultural limitations, ethnic inequity in our society & play every race card in the book but it doesn't matter. There are other people with no race card to play that want that house & can't have it, just like you. I guarantee it.
The writer also ignores an important fact: Perhaps minorities choose to live in communities that share their culture & don't want to live in a generic environment. Many ethnic groups are proud of their heritage & celebrate it in various ways (churches, schools, neighborhood organizations & businesses). So minority residents may prefer to live among people with values, beliefs & histories similar to their own.
That often means that most residents will have the same skin color, too. If culture is a big part of your life, you're not going to move out of "your" neighborhood to live in some homogenized area with no cultural identity.
The government needs to guarantee fair housing. There are laws so there'll always be people breaking them, thus requiring enforcement. However, people should be able to live where they prefer without anyone trying to move them. Maybe this guy from the Fair Housing agency wants to homogenize every single neighborhood but that isn't in anyone's best interests. If people value their racial or ethnic identities & choose to live in a community that celebrates that identity, there's nothing wrong with that. It's their right & choice to do so.
If that community actively drives out people different from themselves, it's a problem. But if they welcome everyone equally & just happen to attract those similar to themselves, how is that wrong? The point of fair housing is not to make every neighborhood a generic mix of all peoples. It's to ensure that no discrimination is at work & let people make their own choices in an open market.
There's the occasional letter from a spoiled brat, decrying some imagined hardship that would be a blessing to most others. At times, we see an offbeat rant illustrating some perceived wrong that exists only in the writer's mind. Still others are thinly veiled whining & it's not hard to imagine the writer as a typical sourpuss that is never happy with anything.
We try hard to not pick on any local paper more than others but since there's only two major papers & one of them is a theinly veiled vehicle for a crazy rich guy's political & social rhetoric, that seriously limits our options. We're trying hard to expand our horizens so that we can pick on other media outlets, we promise.
This is our forum to rebut the public opinion & expound upon our own beliefs. You may not always like what we have to say, but it will always make you think. Click on the headlines to read the original letters being referenced here & you'll probably have to scroll down to find them.
Mechanical Ignorance
(Cool War Stuff)
This letter is from a recent transplant to the Polish Hill section of the city & the author is outraged that a Stealth Bomber flew over her home. She goes on about not glorifying war but I really don't see the connection. The government is going to make fancy jets whether the public supports it or not. Whether or not we're at war, no matter what public opinion of current military actions may be, these planes will be manufactured at taxpayer's expense.
That being said, we may as well enjoy them. Both the Regatta & Wings Over Pittsburgh are billed as family events & planes are cool. Little kids love them. Big kids love them. Adults study them, collect them & travel great lengths to see them in action or on the ground.
They are engineering marvels & testaments to our nation's technological & manufacturing prowess. That's nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it something to decry.
By the same token, should we ban car & boat shows until gas prices come down? After all, America's love of gas guzzlers makes us dependent upon our enemies, creates pollution, wastes valuable natural resources & the constant demand threatens environmental treasures.
Perhaps we should ban the All Star Game since the MLB is the only major sporting commission that refuses to punish blatant & overt drug abuse among it's superstars. Maybe we should put a moratorium on country music concerts until the war ends, as many of these stars are outspoken supporters of the current administration.
We don't support the war in Iraq (although we do support our troops). We don't promote glorification of war or US involvement in most foreign skirmishes. However, we do enjoy big cool machines, like construction equipment, trains, trucks, autos & planes.
We grew up waiting for the awesome flyovers, which are the best part of the Regatta since the hot air balloon races stopped. Stop seeing Boogeymen in everything, lady, there's no connection!
Firecrackers, Townhouses & Death, Oh My!
(Firecracker Dangers)
This letter is perfect for two reasons: First, the writer is completely overreacting. She should make that passion work for her in some constructive manner. For instance, her life must be pretty good if hearing a single firecracker can warrant this kind of righteous indignation. Perhaps that passion could best be spent graciously thanking higher powers for a life so charmed that only absolute minutaie can be identified as a problem.
Second, this letter is written in such a dramatic fashion that we can only imagine a tortured bohemian chick rending her clothes & twisting in agony on a darkened stage under a pinpoint spotlight while wailing this message. Read your own letter, lady -- it was just one firecracker! That shouldn't, in good conscience, warrant 4+ paragraphs.
And I may be wrong, but technically I don't think a firecracker could burn down an entire neighborhood. A firework maybe, but not a firecracker.
Segregation or Choice?
(Disturbing Trend)
This letter bemoans the segregation of housing in Pittsburgh. As we grew up here & are intimately acquainted with the city & most of it's suburbs, we find this letter to be vague & pointless. Pittsburgh is losing population all of the time. It's been going on for decades & we're always shrinking, never growing.
It's not just white people leaving the area, nor does it have anything to do with race. People of all socioeconomic classes are leaving for better opportunities. Many educated young professionals that grew up here pursue their adult lives elsewhere. Many less-educated residents have left to pursue blue-collar opportunities in larger cities. I know people with college degrees that are doing better as valets & waitresses in Miami, LA & Vegas than they did as white-collar professionals in Western PA. Trade workers can be very successful in the Carolinas, for instance & these areas are now rife with Steelers bars & entire communities of ex-Pittsburghers.
The letter says the city is losing white residents in large numbers while the suburbs lose few whites. Many city residents are college students that aren't originally from this area so they graduate & leave. The writer is trying to present an image of white-flight, alluding that white residents are fleeing to the suburbs leaving minorities in the city. This isn't so. It's not as though the suburbs are seeing an increase in white residents directly proportional to the city's losses.
The letter mentions nothing about minority numbers in the suburbs but they've been growing for years & continue to grow. Of course, mentioning that would undercut his claims of segregation so he had to leave that fact out entirely. (Hopefully, they are less likely to flee the area than city dwellers, just like their white suburban neighbors because we really need to stop losing people).
If you want to buy a specific house but the realtor won't return calls because you're not of a certain race, that's segregation & someone should step in to help. But if you want to buy a specific house & just can't afford it, that's not racism so look to some other, more affordable neighborhood.
You can claim cultural limitations, ethnic inequity in our society & play every race card in the book but it doesn't matter. There are other people with no race card to play that want that house & can't have it, just like you. I guarantee it.
The writer also ignores an important fact: Perhaps minorities choose to live in communities that share their culture & don't want to live in a generic environment. Many ethnic groups are proud of their heritage & celebrate it in various ways (churches, schools, neighborhood organizations & businesses). So minority residents may prefer to live among people with values, beliefs & histories similar to their own.
That often means that most residents will have the same skin color, too. If culture is a big part of your life, you're not going to move out of "your" neighborhood to live in some homogenized area with no cultural identity.
The government needs to guarantee fair housing. There are laws so there'll always be people breaking them, thus requiring enforcement. However, people should be able to live where they prefer without anyone trying to move them. Maybe this guy from the Fair Housing agency wants to homogenize every single neighborhood but that isn't in anyone's best interests. If people value their racial or ethnic identities & choose to live in a community that celebrates that identity, there's nothing wrong with that. It's their right & choice to do so.
If that community actively drives out people different from themselves, it's a problem. But if they welcome everyone equally & just happen to attract those similar to themselves, how is that wrong? The point of fair housing is not to make every neighborhood a generic mix of all peoples. It's to ensure that no discrimination is at work & let people make their own choices in an open market.
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Respect Our Farmers
It seems to me that being a farmer is a pretty thankless job in many ways. It's hard work, it's not very lucrative & there are many obstacles outside of your control to worry about, like weather. We need farmers & the fruits of their labor. They should be respected, valued & appreciated in our society because they feed us.
But it seems that farmers are frequently getting shafted by local government regulations that favor sprawl. In the greater Pittsburgh area, there are frequent news stories about local farmers being unduly restricted or even driven out of business.
All too often, the stories are the same: Someone sells an old family farm to a developer who wants to build a lot of houses on postage-stamp sized lots to create a big, ugly subdivision.
With the archaic property tax scheme in PA, municipalities welcome sprawl with open arms, no matter how unsightly. Sometimes they even court it because more houses in the tax base equals more money in the coffers.
The developer then rapes the land of all it's charm, bulldozing stately forests to build a bunch of houses that all look exactly the same. Then they plant a little bit of grass & a few trees around because, hey everyone loves nature, right?
Soon, people with no imagination pay a lot of money to buy a house that looks just like all of the others, is too close to all the others & has no privacy. Then they all sign a code of conduct, effectively agreeing to the predetermined color scheme of the plan, prohibiting the hanging of laundry & forbidding such atrocities as swingsets.
Apparently, you want to project the illusion that you throw away clothes after wearing & simply buy new ones. You want the world to think that your children are entirely too refined to spend time swinging or acting like children.
Then they all move in to Stepford Villa & realize that there is a farm nearby. And you can see the farm & those cows are even more aesthetically horrendous than a jungle gym!
And then you realize that animals smell. And then you realize that you can actually hear the horses whinny or the whir of a tractor cutting hay. This is unbearable. It’s a thousand times worse than the Wilson’s new gutter – which is sage when they know damn well that they are only allowed to have pebble clay.
So what do you do? It’s a small community & you probably know the powers that be. Your kids play nobody-loses soccer together or you may even be on some commission or other yourself. Next thing you know, the township has passed some ridiculous new law that puts the farmer out of business so that the residents of Stepford Villa don’t ever have to see those cows or hear their moos again.
Finally, there may be an end in sight of this poor treatment of farmers. The PG reports that the PA Attorney General is calling out these practices & stepping up to protect farmers. It’s about time because farming is the #1 industry in PA & it’s something we can’t do without. Beyond the fact that this is just plain wrong & stupid, jobs depend on it & we need food to survive. So the residents of Stepford Villa may hate their neighbors but they’d be damn hungry without them so they should learn to appreciate them.
But it seems that farmers are frequently getting shafted by local government regulations that favor sprawl. In the greater Pittsburgh area, there are frequent news stories about local farmers being unduly restricted or even driven out of business.
All too often, the stories are the same: Someone sells an old family farm to a developer who wants to build a lot of houses on postage-stamp sized lots to create a big, ugly subdivision.
With the archaic property tax scheme in PA, municipalities welcome sprawl with open arms, no matter how unsightly. Sometimes they even court it because more houses in the tax base equals more money in the coffers.
The developer then rapes the land of all it's charm, bulldozing stately forests to build a bunch of houses that all look exactly the same. Then they plant a little bit of grass & a few trees around because, hey everyone loves nature, right?
Soon, people with no imagination pay a lot of money to buy a house that looks just like all of the others, is too close to all the others & has no privacy. Then they all sign a code of conduct, effectively agreeing to the predetermined color scheme of the plan, prohibiting the hanging of laundry & forbidding such atrocities as swingsets.
Apparently, you want to project the illusion that you throw away clothes after wearing & simply buy new ones. You want the world to think that your children are entirely too refined to spend time swinging or acting like children.
Then they all move in to Stepford Villa & realize that there is a farm nearby. And you can see the farm & those cows are even more aesthetically horrendous than a jungle gym!
And then you realize that animals smell. And then you realize that you can actually hear the horses whinny or the whir of a tractor cutting hay. This is unbearable. It’s a thousand times worse than the Wilson’s new gutter – which is sage when they know damn well that they are only allowed to have pebble clay.
So what do you do? It’s a small community & you probably know the powers that be. Your kids play nobody-loses soccer together or you may even be on some commission or other yourself. Next thing you know, the township has passed some ridiculous new law that puts the farmer out of business so that the residents of Stepford Villa don’t ever have to see those cows or hear their moos again.
Finally, there may be an end in sight of this poor treatment of farmers. The PG reports that the PA Attorney General is calling out these practices & stepping up to protect farmers. It’s about time because farming is the #1 industry in PA & it’s something we can’t do without. Beyond the fact that this is just plain wrong & stupid, jobs depend on it & we need food to survive. So the residents of Stepford Villa may hate their neighbors but they’d be damn hungry without them so they should learn to appreciate them.
Cheesesteak Controversy
There's been a recent media storm surrounding Geno's Steaks, a small family-owned business in South Philly. The owner of the restaurant demands customers order in English & employees patiently help non-English speaking patrons through the process.
They don’t refuse to serve people, nor do they turn anyone away. What they're actually doing is performing a public service. If all businesses followed Geno's lead, immigrants would have ample opportunity to learn by doing, at no cost & in practical situations. What a great way to learn. It’s accessible to everyone, the lessons are useful, it’s free, easy & everyone can do it. It's a fantastic idea.
But the politically-correct bastion of American media is crucifying this place & can’t criticize the owner enough. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first ran a story about Geno’s on 6/9/06. Hispanic organizations & the Philly tourist bureau are up in arms over the policy, calling it racist & xenophobic & bemoaning that the nation will think it’s indicative of all cheesesteak makers in Philly. (That’s a particularly strange concern, but this whole thing has me shaking my head.)
This traditionally Italian neighborhood is now seeing an influx of Hispanic & Asian immigrants but only the Hispanic organizations are playing the race card. So either Asian immigrants speak English, don’t like cheesesteaks or appreciate the free lessons from their neighbors.
On 6/13, the PG ran a follow-up article because the Philly Commission on Human Relations plans to file complaints against Geno’s for “discouraging patronage by non-English speaking customers because of their national origin or ancestry”. I am not making this up. The same day, PG columnist Tony Norman spoke out about the issue in an extremely short-sided, unenlightened column entitled “Cheesesteaks with a side of bigotry”. Give me a break here.
A 6/22 PG editorial quotes the chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission as saying, "Even though this may not have been the intent of Geno's, the presence of the sign harkens back to a time when signs stating, 'no colored allowed,' 'Whites only,' 'no Jews,' or 'no Italians or Irish need apply,' often greeted patrons of public places."
Come on, people! It’s not the same thing at all. It’s not even in the same ballpark. Hell, it’s not even the same game! How can people be so completely clueless as to say this is wrong or bad or racist?
Fact: Many new immigrants don’t speak English.
Fact: It’s not easy for adults to learn a foreign language & it can be difficult to find the resources to do so. It’s a truly overwhelming undertaking.
Fact: Here we have a situation where the community is trying to help them in a simple, effective manner. How could that possibly be a problem?
This is only a “bad” thing if you don’t want immigrants to learn English. Learning the language of their new home is in their best interests in every possible way. Society can assist them & make this process easier. But by accommodating them in foreign tongues, you’re effectively keeping them in a subculture, out of the mainstream. You’re preventing their assimilation & creating a handicap.
The potential quality of life that could be achieved is severely limited if they refuse to learn English. If Americans were trying to prevent immigrants from learning English, we would be racists. But we’re trying to help them to do so & we’re still racists? I don’t think so.
This business owner should be commended for trying to help in the only way he is able. Instead, he’s being attacked. His critics are promoting separatism & special treatment of minorities. Such an agenda is divisive & isn’t in anyone’s best interests.
And how about a little consideration for the millions of non-Hispanic immigrants in America? Plastering our nation with Spanish subtitles isn’t doing Hispanics any good plus it has the added drawback of making everyone else feel that they are not the “preferred” immigrant.
Let's face it: If you want to move to a foreign country, learning to speak the language should be your primary concern & immediate goal. It's impractical, costly & ridiculous to expect an entire foreign nation to learn to speak your language. You should learn to speak theirs. Refusing to do so is an insult to the entire culture & if you have no respect for that culture, why would you want to live in that country?
People come to America from all over the world so it would be impossible for American businesses to accommodate everyone non-English speaker, there are just too many languages in the world. It’s certainly wouldn’t be right to accommodate one foreign language & ignore all others. That will make America a less attractive place to potential immigrants from non-Spanish speaking cultures.
Our forefathers learned English without welfare or social programs or anyone taking them by the hand & coddling them. They faced real discrimination, such as being refused service if they were Italian or Irish or Polish or whatever someone else didn’t like even though they spoke perfect English. Many of them were poor & lived in deplorable conditions that are now unknown in America. They struggled to feed their families, pay the rent, learn a new language & make a life for themselves against all odds in a country that didn't welcome them in the least.
So if it was good enough for millions of our ancestors, why is it suddenly too much to ask of new immigrants? More to the point, why is it too much to ask of Spanish-speaking immigrants but still expected of everyone else?
Tax dollars should not be spent making all levels of our government accessible to those who refuse to learn the English. Strapped funding for public safety, education & healthcare should not be further stretched for the benefit of those who refuse to help themselves. An old adage comes to mind, "Give a man a fish, feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish & feed him forever."
So stop handing out fish with that “press 2 for Spanish” prompt. Instead, follow Geno’s lead & teach these people to fish for themselves. It’s free, easy & a way every American can help to improve the quality of life for our newest citizens.
They don’t refuse to serve people, nor do they turn anyone away. What they're actually doing is performing a public service. If all businesses followed Geno's lead, immigrants would have ample opportunity to learn by doing, at no cost & in practical situations. What a great way to learn. It’s accessible to everyone, the lessons are useful, it’s free, easy & everyone can do it. It's a fantastic idea.
But the politically-correct bastion of American media is crucifying this place & can’t criticize the owner enough. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first ran a story about Geno’s on 6/9/06. Hispanic organizations & the Philly tourist bureau are up in arms over the policy, calling it racist & xenophobic & bemoaning that the nation will think it’s indicative of all cheesesteak makers in Philly. (That’s a particularly strange concern, but this whole thing has me shaking my head.)
This traditionally Italian neighborhood is now seeing an influx of Hispanic & Asian immigrants but only the Hispanic organizations are playing the race card. So either Asian immigrants speak English, don’t like cheesesteaks or appreciate the free lessons from their neighbors.
On 6/13, the PG ran a follow-up article because the Philly Commission on Human Relations plans to file complaints against Geno’s for “discouraging patronage by non-English speaking customers because of their national origin or ancestry”. I am not making this up. The same day, PG columnist Tony Norman spoke out about the issue in an extremely short-sided, unenlightened column entitled “Cheesesteaks with a side of bigotry”. Give me a break here.
A 6/22 PG editorial quotes the chairman of the PA Human Relations Commission as saying, "Even though this may not have been the intent of Geno's, the presence of the sign harkens back to a time when signs stating, 'no colored allowed,' 'Whites only,' 'no Jews,' or 'no Italians or Irish need apply,' often greeted patrons of public places."
Come on, people! It’s not the same thing at all. It’s not even in the same ballpark. Hell, it’s not even the same game! How can people be so completely clueless as to say this is wrong or bad or racist?
Fact: Many new immigrants don’t speak English.
Fact: It’s not easy for adults to learn a foreign language & it can be difficult to find the resources to do so. It’s a truly overwhelming undertaking.
Fact: Here we have a situation where the community is trying to help them in a simple, effective manner. How could that possibly be a problem?
This is only a “bad” thing if you don’t want immigrants to learn English. Learning the language of their new home is in their best interests in every possible way. Society can assist them & make this process easier. But by accommodating them in foreign tongues, you’re effectively keeping them in a subculture, out of the mainstream. You’re preventing their assimilation & creating a handicap.
The potential quality of life that could be achieved is severely limited if they refuse to learn English. If Americans were trying to prevent immigrants from learning English, we would be racists. But we’re trying to help them to do so & we’re still racists? I don’t think so.
This business owner should be commended for trying to help in the only way he is able. Instead, he’s being attacked. His critics are promoting separatism & special treatment of minorities. Such an agenda is divisive & isn’t in anyone’s best interests.
And how about a little consideration for the millions of non-Hispanic immigrants in America? Plastering our nation with Spanish subtitles isn’t doing Hispanics any good plus it has the added drawback of making everyone else feel that they are not the “preferred” immigrant.
Let's face it: If you want to move to a foreign country, learning to speak the language should be your primary concern & immediate goal. It's impractical, costly & ridiculous to expect an entire foreign nation to learn to speak your language. You should learn to speak theirs. Refusing to do so is an insult to the entire culture & if you have no respect for that culture, why would you want to live in that country?
People come to America from all over the world so it would be impossible for American businesses to accommodate everyone non-English speaker, there are just too many languages in the world. It’s certainly wouldn’t be right to accommodate one foreign language & ignore all others. That will make America a less attractive place to potential immigrants from non-Spanish speaking cultures.
Our forefathers learned English without welfare or social programs or anyone taking them by the hand & coddling them. They faced real discrimination, such as being refused service if they were Italian or Irish or Polish or whatever someone else didn’t like even though they spoke perfect English. Many of them were poor & lived in deplorable conditions that are now unknown in America. They struggled to feed their families, pay the rent, learn a new language & make a life for themselves against all odds in a country that didn't welcome them in the least.
So if it was good enough for millions of our ancestors, why is it suddenly too much to ask of new immigrants? More to the point, why is it too much to ask of Spanish-speaking immigrants but still expected of everyone else?
Tax dollars should not be spent making all levels of our government accessible to those who refuse to learn the English. Strapped funding for public safety, education & healthcare should not be further stretched for the benefit of those who refuse to help themselves. An old adage comes to mind, "Give a man a fish, feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish & feed him forever."
So stop handing out fish with that “press 2 for Spanish” prompt. Instead, follow Geno’s lead & teach these people to fish for themselves. It’s free, easy & a way every American can help to improve the quality of life for our newest citizens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)