12.5% vs. 87.5%

Tonight's story is the latest in stupidity to arise out of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Victoria Cinna is the Director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance. (MIRA) She spent two days before Katrina hit landfall begging the Gulfport, MS tv stations to broadcast evacuation messages in Spanish. She knew that hundreds of Latinos lived along the gulf coast and many spoke little, if any english. The stations finally relented just hours before the storm hit. In her mind, this was completely unsatisfactory. I agree, but with stipulations. We'll get to that in a minute. First, i'll also address a related matter. FEMA apparently neglected to provide temporary emergency housing or shelter to Latinos it mistakenly presumed were undocumented. The Red Cross is also accused of requiring Latino hurricane survivors to show documents proving their legal status before they could recieve aid. This is a violation of the Red Crosses own policies. This is wrong on so many levels that I don't even know where to start. Let's just say that ANY victim of ANY hurricane seeking temporary emergency shelter and aid should get it, regardless of status. But for now, let's fry some bigger fish.

If I'm gonna go live in another country, permanent or temporary, rich or poor, young or old, documented or otherwise, I'm gonna learn a few phrases...be it along the way or once I get there. I'm gonna know the words for fire, i'll learn how to summon the police and how to cry rape or robbery or whatever is pertinent. Ms Cinna was pleading to put out the word over the television which says that these folk had access to them. Now, we all saw the national coverage that this hurricane got in the few days before landfall. I could be a deaf, arab speaking polynesian from central China and I still believe I could figure out what's going on on the TV. I'd at least know that SOMETHING was going on and find someone who could tell me what it was. But there is yet a bigger problem.

Go ahead, call me a racist, but this is America and we speak English here. The title of this entry suggests the 87.5% of us in America who speak English as a first language vs. some part of the 12.5% of America's latino population that doesn't. Throughout the southwest one will see highway signs and restaurant menus in English and Spanish. The announcements in the airports as well as the grocery stores are done in both languages. Indeed it is difficult to get a job as a teacher unless you are bilingual. This is the root of the problem. Lots of folks in this country are shooting for the whole bilingual thing on a national scale. They would like for the 87.5 percent of us to bend over for them. It's not enough to recognize Cinco de Mayo or even to have a Latino history month. They want us to be bilingual from front to back. Sorry, but I refuse and I protest. The more we give in to the demands of the latino community the more they get behind. Having a bilingual teacher in school can help the english as a second language students to understand certain things. I believe, however, that it does more harm than good. The students quickly learn to rely on the teacher speaking what they probably hear at home. In my current hometown(population - 52% latino), we have several spanish TV stations, radio stations and newspapers. Last year a high school student was on the frontpage of the local english language paper complaining that the annual aptitude test was only given in one language. Excuse me? He was actually bitching that he couldn't pass the science portion of the test because he didn't understand the technical terms in english. This, he told us, will surely keep him from his dream of going to law school. No, your inability to speak english will do that. By coddling these kids and not forcing them to learn english they get further and further behind the learning curve. The latino community apparently thinks that going bilingual on a national scale is the solution. I once was waiting to be assisted at a national chain store while two clerks were speaking to each other in spanish. I politely explained that it was rude to speak in a foreign language in front of a customer who didnt speak that language. After one (somewhat) politely explained to me that it was quicker and easier for the two of them to converse in their native language, I said "Well, welcome to America...been here long?" It was then quickly and tersly explained to me that she was born here. As was her mother. She's a citizen of the U.S. and damn proud of it, for crying out loud and how dare I!! And I replied, "Then English is your native language." I've had arguments with other latinos who were happy to inform me that America has no official language...perhaps it should be spanish. Well guess what....the International Association of Airline Pilots have an official language. So does the International Maritime Commission. It's not spanish. It's english and it's become the standard for a lot of things, worldwide. I traveled extensively with the military from eastern Europe to the middle east. Everywhere I went I could find someone who spoke english. Spanish, however, not so much. Except in Spain, of course.

If you can find me another country that bends over as much as we do to make illegal immigrants feel welcome, I'd sure like to know what it is. It's time we had english as an official language. Period. I'm all for education all around, but teaching in spanish is just setting these kids up for failure. A few months ago I watched a special on CNN about some NBA players who went to central Africa to give support and money to food, clean water, housing and education programs. What amazed me the most was not the money grubbing athletes actually being generous with some of their wealth. CNN interviewed a sixth grade local girl from a tiny village with a ramshackle schoolhouse run by volunteers in the peace corps. She spoke better english than anybody else on the program. It's not quality of education sometimes....it's the willingness to learn. Excuses and finger pointing seem to be the norm in America these days. I suspect the problem lies elsewhere.