Me Ranting...

Below is me ranting about a subject that deeply offends me...if you don't want to hear me expressing my opinion...do not continue to read...


The other day my wife and I were cruising over to the other side of Orlando and saw a bumper sticker that we have seen a few times before or heard people make a similar statement and it always infuriates me. All of these (whether it is in the form of a bumper sticker, someone speaking it, joining a facebook group, etc.) all fall upon the same basis of the idea of "Learn English or leave."

Okay, seriously...how un-American can you be to make a statement like that? I do agree that if you're moving to a country that you should have an ability to communicate, but even if you can't, our country, that widely accepts everyone and embraces the diversity and uniqueness of various cultures should remember this is the principle that our country was founded upon. It gives me a horrible taste in my mouth when individuals have the audacity to put themselves above another individual or group of people simply because they cannot speak English.

I came from a small town in the mid-west that I can say, in general, this point of view is more often seen. It frustrates me because I can promise you that many times the individuals who are making this statement or aligning themselves with the point of view simply because it sounds patriotic or what the general population would believe. I have little patience for people who simply take a statement and simply accept it as truth. NEWS FLASH...JUST BECAUSE YOUR PASTOR SAID IT (OR READ IT FROM A FORWARD HE GOT AND DIDN'T TAKE 2 SECONDS TO CHECK THE CREDIBILITY OF IT) OR THE MEDIA SAYS SOMETHING...DOESN'T MAKE IT TRUE! We too often take other people's opinions or statements of others without investigating for ourselves what we really believe. Look at the outcry over Harry Potter books and how people freaked out about that...I bet you a good portion of the people who flipped out about the books hadn't even read a single page of the books. They wouldn't know Hogwarts or the "sorting hat" from the broom in their closet.

We're a diverse nation made up of people from all over the world. At the base of the Statue of Liberty, which greeted many of our ancestors as they came into this country, is inscribed a poem and one of the lines in the poem reads, ""Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Lady Liberty invites even the lowest on the social ladder to come into her arms...she doesn't end her statement saying "only if you speak English."

I read once that in somewhere around 20 years China will take over being the "largest English speaking country." I'm humbled by students on my dorm floor that speak 2, 3 and even 4 languages. I knew a man in college who stated he spoke close to 10 different languages.....it sounds like we as Americans better start working on learning a second language before we force our closed minded views on the rest of the world.