I endorse this message

[bear]

Requiring English as the "Official Language" of the U.S. of A.? Whatever happened to freedom of speech. As a child of Cajun heritage I and others like me were persecuted by the English speaking majority here in South Louisiana who insulted and degraded us because we dared to speak differently than them. We were put on our knees in the corner in grade school if a French word slipped out and slapped on the hand if we wrote a French word. The French settled Louisiana long before the illiterate English survived the east coast. If you want an "Official Language" of America it should be French because we were here first. This Colonel Riley is a bigoted fool who didn't learn enough about our country's history or respect its freedoms. As a Vietnam Veteran I reject any so called officer's opinion as nothing more than BS.

[blowndodge]

although I agree on your logic, the French are the last people (country) that I would leave in the hands to defend democracy. Carefull of bashing people who express freedon of speech of which you claim to be a defender of. "Illiterate English" ???

I can list some really obscene French laws (with absurd history to go with it to boot) that I could ask you to explain but I don't care.

[bear]

GOTCHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bear]

Sometimes this place gets a little TOO serious!!!

Ummm...We bought Louisiana from France. We can change the language if we want to, right?

Not that I agree with what went on in schools there, and you rarely see that stuff in the schools here (which are highly bilingual) but yes Americans should learn English, and it should IMO be the official language.

I don't think we should force anybody to speak it if they don't want to, but OTOH I don't think we should allow them to do things like (for instance) drive if they can't read the street signs and traffic signs.

If you fly a plane internationally you need to speak English. It's the "Lingua Franca" (forgive me BD) of air traffic control.

Scientific conferences and scientific papers around the world are routinely in English.

I'm sure there are other examples. It's not a matter of Bigotry. It's a matter of efficiency.

[blowndodge]

Bear's just being a bozo....

Take his beer away!

[ridemslow]

You just don't know how true you are. I am personally offended by Illegal imigration. My wife is German, and when we went to get her visa to come to the states in 1978, we had been married almost 2 years. At the US Consulate in Frankfort, I had to wait in the lobby, while she taken into the office to make sure she could not only speak, but read and write English. Today, illegals come across the border, and are allowed to stay, not knowing one dam word of our language. It's an outrage.

[bear]

Hey, bozo as charged. We speek a lil cajun to bamboozle the tourists don't ya know! You left coast guys get up too late in the day to really work for a living anyway. By the time your feet hit the floor in the morning we've already drunk er dranked all the fresh coffee.

Originally Posted by Bear - Member 00013

Hey, bozo as charged. We speek a lil cajun to bamboozle the tourists don't ya know! You left coast guys get up too late in the day to really work for a living anyway. By the time your feet hit the floor in the morning we've already drunk er dranked all the fresh coffee.

+1

Originally Posted by ridemslow

You just don't know how true you are. I am personally offended by Illegal imigration.... Today, illegals come across the border, and are allowed to stay, not knowing one dam word of our language. It's an outrage.

I get into it with my wife about this all the time, because she is As American as Apple Pie, but her parents were Mexican. Yet when she was growing up they would NEVER speak Spanish at home, and forced all their kids to speak English. (How times have changed, huh?)

She teaches elementary school in a town where half the kids speak very little English & she had to go to school to learn Spanish so she could teach them to speak English. Yet she still can't understand why English should be required.

Fortunately for her, her parents understood this!

My ancestors came here from Ireland and Germany, but today I don't think a person on either side of the family speaks either Irish or German.

Several of us do, however, speak some Spanish because when we were in high school we were required to learn Spanish. Now, the law says they can hardly require the kids to learn even jive English.

Go figgure.......

[oledawg]

Originally Posted by ridemslow

You just don't know how true you are. I am personally offended by Illegal imigration. My wife is German, and when we went to get her visa to come to the states in 1978, we had been married almost 2 years. At the US Consulate in Frankfort, I had to wait in the lobby, while she taken into the office to make sure she could not only speak, but read and write English. Today, illegals come across the border, and are allowed to stay, not knowing one dam word of our language. It's an outrage.

:(" title="" border="0"/> You just pushed my button!
I'm not only sick of all these illegals coming in to serve the wealthy. They don't speak the language, they don't read or write
the language, and now we are having sign's,answering machines, Televisions, etc in their language. And who is paying for it? Why the taxpayer of course, and that means the rapidly dwindling middle class of course,as the wealthy have CPA's lawyer's & politicians to help them dodge taxes while they keep raking in "Billion's" . I'm so sick of all this phony bullsh*t that is being thrown about in the name oh humanity I could puke.
It's all about "MONEY & POWER" Period. ::)
And we can't seam to be able to do sh*t about it!
The two people running for the top office of Govt. in this country
do not seam to represent anyone I know, but yet there they are.

WHAT IS THE ANSWER? ::)
How about following existing Law,
FOR STARTERS! ;)

Politicians? Follow the law?

You gotta be joking buddy!

[cactusjack]

CQ, it's interesting that you mentioned your wife's parents insisted on speaking English. We have a friend whose parents were the same way. I don't think he can speak Spanish other than ordering at a restaurant today.

Since we moved to AZ in 1999, every paper my kids brought home from school had English on one side, Spanish on the other. I went to the attendance office to check my son in late one morning and there was a mother in there who was trying to talk to the clerk and the clerk didn't speak Spanish, they had to go find someone to translate for the mother. Kids drown in swimming pools here and the parents don't call 911 because they don't speak English (911 operators here speak Spanish) and they are afraid of being deported.

I am not a racist and have nothing at all against the Mexican people, but if they come to this country, they need to assimilate. They need to learn the language, follow the laws, pay taxes, etc. I'm sick of them waving the Mexican flag and protesting laws in the USA and the state of AZ. I'd feel the same if we had the same issues with the Swedish or French or Polish people, but at least where I live, the issues are with Mexicans. If the shoe was on the other foot, and I was in Mexico, I'd speak Spanish. I even took 4 years of it in school.

Every time I travel I-10 south of Phoenix, towards Tucson, I see vehicles pulled over and the border patrol sitting there. I'm about 150 miles from Mexico and it's a huge problem here.

As far as I'm concerned, they should militarize our border, not build some half-a**ed fence and hang some cameras on trees. Wake up folks, our rights are being stripped from us and our country is being taken over.

Love is Blindness


A little boy was in his room playing with himself, when his father walked in.

"Son! If you masturbate too much, you're gonna go blind!"

"Dad," the boy said, "I'm over here."




Thought I'd throw a little humor into this thread!!!