To keep the promise of America, we must enforce the laws of America. We must also ensure that immigrants assimilate into our society and learn our customs and values -- including the English language.I, for one, will be voting for people who actually say something that is not reducible to a sound bite that Simple Simon the Pie Man could recite. Duh, enforce the laws of America is your job, Mr. President. Why don't you hold yourself to the same standard, Mr. Bush! Utill you can abide by the law yourself, perhaps we aught not take you on your word that it is something you believe in?
On the immigration issue, I think we are only strengthened by our diversity. This is a nation built on a foundation of immigrants. Speaking as a third generation American, I sure wish that my family continued to use our native language instead of chucking it for English. Then, I might have been fully bilingual, which in and of itself would be a positive trait in a shrinking global village. The notion that folks abandon their culture to adopt "ours," is really an ancient and antiquated idea that smacks of isolationism, not embracing the worlds’ cultures.
What is "our" culture anyway? Anyone who has been to El Paso Texas will note that families are divided by the river/rio. It seems rather unnatural to do that. What are borders for anyway?
3 comments:
Yup, poor Bushie has a tough one here. How to keep his buddies supplied with slave labor and at the same time mollify his racist base.
What is "our" culture anyway? Anyone who has been to El Paso Texas will note that families are divided by the river/rio. It seems rather unnatural to do that. What are borders for anyway?
OK...I have to chime on my hometown. When my family moved to El Paso in 1972, the city was 55% anglo and 45% latino. The divide between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez was stark. Now, with El Paso's population at 85% Latino, the city seems to be continuous, 1.75 million people bordering the Rio Grande on both sides for 75 miles.
Given that, there is a persuasive argument to be made that--culture-wise--either 1) The United States really stretches about 100 miles into Mexico or Mexico stretches to about Albuquerque. The "one country, one culture, one language" crowd I think would prefer the latter and to cut places like El Paso out of the US. God knows Texas has treated El Paso like a f*cking backwater for as long as I've known.
I appreciate your question, "What is OUR culture, anyway?" It's a topic I often ponder. Ideally, I love the idea of having a smorgasbord of cultural elements to learn about and enjoy; in reality, we all know too damned well what Bush and his ilk think Amurkan culture should be. White, white, Wonder Bread white, with about as much texture and flavor as that doughy, crappy bread product. They're a destructive virus, far deadlier than any bird flu pandemic, wreaking irreversible destruction on many many fragile cultural groups.
By the same token, there is a mirror group "Over There," bent on the same sort of damage.
Dang, wish I had super powers...
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