Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Excuse me, do I live in the United States of America?
So my wife and kids were in the office of a well know government agency that shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. When I got home from work I asked her how her appointment went and she said that it was okay. She then proceeded to tell me how she was the only "white" person there and that the workers weren't the friendliest bunch (I know, I know, hard to imagine that government workers wouldn't be friendly!). She then proceeded to tell me how when she asked the workers some questions regarding the program, rather than explaining how the process works, they handed her a pamphlet to read. Well normally I guess that would be okay, except for one VERY LARGE problem this time...the pamphlet was in Spanish. When Chelsea saw this she asked the lady for one in English, and here is the kicker....they didn't make them in English!! Hello, what country am I in again? You are telling me that our own government, you know the one here in the United States of America, the one that has a national language known as English, doesn't even print the pamphlet in English! WOW! That is about all I can say. And people in this country don't think we have a immigration issue!? I was livid when I heard this and almost went to this place just to give them a piece of my mind, but then cooler heads prevailed and I let it go. But it still really bothers me that my wife couldn't get an English pamphlet from our own governmental agency. Ridiculous!
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You probably got my email on immigration and while I support immimgration this is one thing I cannot stand! We do live in the US and our official language is English. If you want to live here you better speak our language! I got Alexandria's passport in the mail this year and on the pamplet that came with it one side was in English and the other side was in Spanish in an AMERICAN passport. Why are we doing this? Why are we making it easier to live here and never learn English. All we're doing is making it harder for them to be successful and contribute to society and feel proud to be here. I don't get it.
And by "them" I mean non-english speakers.
I agree that it is frustrating but the problem is that the government hasn't declared that English is the official language of our country. I know hard to fathom. As a result they are required by law to print official government pamplets in several languages. So now you know where a big chunk of our tax dollars are going. Unbelievable but true!
I happen to know exactly what office you are talking about and yeah.... don't even get me started.
Anonymous, I did not know this. Then why don't we go ahead and add making English the National Language as part of the whole immigration debate!
Why don't they make English the official language? Your guess is as good as mine but it probably has something to do with whether or not it is "politically correct". We certainly wouldn't want to offend someone by not including their language now would we?
and thus we see the problems that come from being pc...
i always hear the best stories that originate in that office... i feel kindof left out cause i never got to go there!!
I think I have been to the same nameless agency because I have been given the same Spanish-only pamphlet. Glad to know it wasn't just me!
That makes me sick, and the thing that is so sad is that I am not really suprised it happend!
This is a very interesting post and I cannot resist the urge to comment. (This means that this comment may be lengthy) It is unfortunate that the government office that you were visiting was unable to serve your family. My readings indicate that these offices are required by law to keep official government instructional packets in a variety of languages, including English. Government “safety net” programs are generally underfunded and lacking in both staff and staff training. Chances are that they do have information printed in English at that office but the majority of the employees are unaware of its existence or location.
There are several reasons why English is not the official language of the United States.
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/30033prs20070607.html
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/11713pub20000908.html
The vast majority of the people living in this country are descendants of immigrants who entered this country over the last 225 years. First Generation immigrants are the least likely to learn English, however, the vast majority (95% +) of their children will learn to speak English fluently. My great great grandfather only spoke German and my wife’s great great grand father only spoke Japanese. Our nation provides equal rights and services to all people living within its boarders regardless of their race, nationality or language spoken. This is why we provide government documents in a multitude of languages = IRS forms, Passports applications, information about medical care, public safety, and a variety of other documents.
Printing this information in English only would deny many people who are legal immigrants and citizens of this nation the rights guaranteed to them by the constitution. Also, making this information available only in English would not help anyone to learn English or motivate them to do so. It would only increase frustrations, poverty, tax evasion (Most native English speakers have a hard enough time understanding the instructions on government forms in English) and crime.
It is interesting to note that Hispanics currently make up 9.5% of the active enlisted armed forces and 17.5% of the soldiers in the front lines. José Antonio Gutiérrez (A non-US citizen) was the second soldier to die fighting for the U.S. in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Approximately 20 percent of the surnames reported in CNN footage and web site bios of the fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are Latino. http://imdiversity.org/Villages/Hispanic/careers_workplace_employment/amoruso_latino_military.asp As of March, 2005, 142 non-citizen troops had died in Iraq and Afghanistan. These non citizen casualties represent 8% of the total, while non-citizens make up less than 3% of active duty military personnel. (35,000 non citizens on active duty in the US military)
http://mcc.org/us/co/stories/Military_Recruitment.pdf
Texas Hispanics are dyeing in Iraq at higher rates than any other group. Many of these soldiers who are fighting and dying for this country have family members here in the United States who do not speak English. Their families deserve access to all of the freedoms and social programs offered by this country; some of their family members undoubtedly represent a percentage of the faces that you see at those government offices.
Our government continues to increase military recruitment in the poorest of neighborhoods and the smallest of towns, enticing those desperate to get out of difficult living situations with a promise of a future. Since proper programs are not in place to educate our nations poorest, many poor minorities feel like military service is one of their only options.
Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations at Boston University, notes that the people who actually bear the burdens of service...have little to say in the making of policy....Could it be that the Iraq War bears at least some of the earmarks of being a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, conceived by well-heeled Washington insiders but fought by those least likely to reap the promised benefits of the American way of life?
My wife’s grandfather (a Japanese American) fought in World War 2 for this country while my wife’s other grandfather (too young to serve) and a large part of his family were alienated from society and held in an interment camp here in the United States. We must not alienate those who have immigrated here to our country (people who do and do not have family serving in our military) by making English the official language of the United States.
Another interesting link about English as the official U.S. language http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html
This seems more like a blog post than a comment. Still, I have several additional opinions and statements about this issue to share but I feel that I went a little overboard already. (Also, the opinions reflected by this comment are where written well after 2 am)
Quintin, first of all, I have to say welcome to the blog. It is nice that I actually get a comment on here from another male! Thank you for sharing your opinion on this and I enjoyed reading what you had to say. However, I must say that I disagree with about 85% of what you wrote.
You are right that this country is made up of immigrants and I'm sure that the second generation immigrants do pick up on the language a lot better than the first generation. But I don't think that just because people don't speak English we should provide everything for them in their native language. I am more than happy to have people come here, LEGALLY, and embrace the American culture and all that it stands for, including the English language. But to me, we should be helping these people to learn English rather than enabling them in their lack of desire to learn English. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be 100% fluent when they first get here, but if they want to permanently live here and especially if they are going to be utilizing my tax dollars for public aid, I think they should be able to speak English. When I served my mission in Brasil I didn't know Portuguese very well at the first, but rather than making it easy for me to not learn Portuguese by providing everything to me in English, I was forced to learn the language of the country that I was in if I wanted to communicate. It frustrates me to no end when I deal with people in dentistry at these medicaid clinics that have this mentality that it is their right to have someone there that speaks their language. By the way, most of these people are Spanish speakers. I actually haven't ran into one individual yet in Denver or here in San Antonio, where a native Japanese, German, Portuguese, French or any other language besides English expected to have someone be able to communicate with them in any language besides English.
Now about illegals in the millitary. I am very much opposed to people coming here illegally (if you hadn’t noticed). I am also very much opposed to illegal immigrants fighting in our US military. I hear this all the time that if someone can fight in our war then they should be able to be a legal US citizen, and I agree with that. Having said that though, I don't think there is anything wrong with the US recruiting from any specific demographic medium. You and I both know that probably the majority of the people that join the military do it because of the monetary incentive that is offered. That is the individuals personal decision and they are responsible for that, not anyone else. So the fact that there are several Hispanics in the war right now who have family here that don't speak English, just means that their family should adopt the culture, of which language is a big part, of the country that their sons and daughters are fighting for so they can better understand the sacrifice they are making. I am so thankful for every single person in the military that is willing to fight for our freedoms, and they deserve nothing but the best, but I still think they should speak English (give them free English classes before giving them the free rent, free food, free utilities, etc). By the way you mentioned that Hispanics make up 9.5% of the US military, so they are actually underrepresented since the most recent estimates put the population of Hispanics at about 14% of the total population. Also it is no wonder that many Hispanics in the war are from here in Texas since 49% of all Hispanics live in California or Texas (7.8 million just in Texas). (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/007173.html)
Well this has become a lot longer than I anticipated so I will leave it for now.
hey hombre- i just wish you would do this blog in spanish. slacker...
now what i really think. i admit it is frustrating, especially in the health care industry. however, i don't think there is an easy solution. should we take all the brochures off the rack if they aren't in english? should we send patients out the door if they don't speak english? i just don't know how we could enforce an english only society.
that being said, i think it very lame that there were no english brochures. also, the former gov of colorado, richard lamm, has written an excellent article and spoken about the importance of english being the national language. This site also has other articles on the subject: http://www.cairco.org/language/language.html
This is a good conversation. Heath I agree with many of your statements and feel my comments may have sounded more liberal than I intended. I strongly feel that our country needs better access to English education for the limited English speaker, but I do not feel that we should seperate non-English speakers from our Government and its social programs by making access to them English only. I support the recently passed Senate Amendment 1384 which recognizes English as the "common and unifying" language of the United States without restricting access to crucial federal information or declaring it the official language.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/amendment.xpd?session=110&amdt=s1384
That is so frustrating! I agree that there should be some forms in several different languages, but I also think that if you come to America to live you should learn english. Just like you should learn chinese if you want to live in China. Makes sense to me.
Great comments ya'll. I am not saying get rid of all the foreign language paraphernalia, but I do think that it can be severely cut back, and a much bigger emphasis should be placed on learning English if you really want to live here in the US.
I had a similar experience in another government office. I was waiting in line to turn some information in and by the time I got to the front I was informed I was in the spanish only line. I asked where the English only line was and she laughed. She didn't even try to help me. I felt the same way. We're in the USA people.
a little off topic, but interesting article in the salt lake tribune nonetheless, "LDS leaders ask for compassion in immigration reforms":
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8059575
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