Testimonials

A member from Texas sent the correspondence below in response to a letter printed in the Laredo Times regarding a recent U.S. English advertisement.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to opine at the request of Ms. M. Sanchez on the above noted issue. 

There is nothing to infer from the message. It clearly states that they do not believe that the immigrants should not hold to their native languages, but that the government should not spend money providing services in multiple languages when that money could be better used to teach English. 

There are over 114 languages spoken in this country. Does Ms. Sanchez have an idea of the cost involved in such a project if every immigrant would demand equal treatment? 

I do respectfully request that Ms. Sanchez get "real" and realize that we are not a "little corner of the globe" but rather the most powerful and free nation in the world where we enjoy and protect our individual freedoms to such extent that to think that anyone can come and attempt to make us "remove" or "reject" (rechazar) any of these tenets, would be absurd. 

Let us follow the Taco Bell Philosophy and look outside the bun: We have a SPANISH communications media mix larger, richer, and more efficient than most of the Spanish speaking countries have. It disseminates films, the written word, the spoken word, and programs of heritage and historical themes. 

Every ATM in the country has instructions in Spanish. Does Ms Sanchez think one day someone will come and erase them? Or that someone will come and black out her favorite "novela" from her television? Of course not. 

We do have a common language and to a certain extent an official language since we have compulsory education and this is imparted in the English language, but this does not make us a less multi-cultural society. 

I agree that the English language is under attack. At our schools through a so-called bilingual education program, which was well conceived but it has deteriorated and now does nothing more than stigmatize, ghettoize, and perpetuate stereotypes; by bureaucrats and self appointed leaders of immigrant groups who hold positions and perpetuate their tenure precisely because of voters and rank and files' ignorance of the English language; by our courts with their pearls of jurisprudence? Pat Garret would have had a difficult time reading Billy the Kid his Miranda rights in Yiddish. (He was an immigrant from Brooklyn) 

By the way I am an immigrant.

P.C., Texas

<< Previous | Next >>