Letter #1
A series of letters I have sent to my local paper. Most of them have been published.
Recently I overheard someone say that in the future, to succeed in business in California, people will need to be able to speak Spanish. Why is that, I thought to myself? This is still the United States of America, and we still speak English in this country. Has it already been accepted that Spanish is our state or national language.
I think Teddy Roosevelt said it best when he said, "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country. " What's next, are we also going to be required to learn Hmong and Punjabi? California is like the Tower of Babel all over again, except instead of being scattered we are gathered together all in one place. Soon no one will be able to understand anything anyone else is saying. How is a country supposed to survive like that?
posted by neal @ 7:28 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I don't think it's a good thing, but I also cannot blame them. 85% of Mexico's agriculture used to be familiy farms - until NAFTA. Our subsidized corn and other produce sold for so little there, Big Ag was able to buy the land out from under families who had farmed for centuries. There, either they're slaves for Big Ag (and Monsanto's use of Roundup is causing birth defects, cancers and other trouble for those who DID stay), or they're penniless homeless. Here they can try for work at least, and even if we deport them, we don't starve them. You'd do the same thing.
The area I'm in is a farming area, and without migrant pickers, it would have failed long ago. What's the solution? Like with all the other trouble in the US now: disempower the corporations and the politicians who cater to them.
Ian
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