Tom Still has a great column on WisOpinion today reminding the wingnuts that if they ever bothered to leave their own country, they'd hear that the battle over English has already been won on economic grounds, without having to resort to xenophobia.
A recent piece in The Wall Street Journal quotes the State Department as saying that 27% of Americans have valid passports. Do the math. That means three-quarters of Americans don't have valid passports. In other words, they've never left North America at all, or at minimum, haven't done so in a long while. People who travel abroad even semi-regularly would never allow their passport to expire. That alone explains why so many Americans seem to have difficulty understanding why the world sees us as it does, but that's another post for another day.
These bogeyman images of Mexicans invading our country, refusing to learn English, and somehow sabotaging our sense of national unity is absolute balderdash. There are perfectly reasonable arguments to be made in support of more stringent immigration controls. Conservatives would be wise to employ those instead of resorting to fear-mongering. Just as Still points out so eloquently, the battle over English has already been fought - and won.
A recent piece in The Wall Street Journal quotes the State Department as saying that 27% of Americans have valid passports. Do the math. That means three-quarters of Americans don't have valid passports. In other words, they've never left North America at all, or at minimum, haven't done so in a long while. People who travel abroad even semi-regularly would never allow their passport to expire. That alone explains why so many Americans seem to have difficulty understanding why the world sees us as it does, but that's another post for another day.
These bogeyman images of Mexicans invading our country, refusing to learn English, and somehow sabotaging our sense of national unity is absolute balderdash. There are perfectly reasonable arguments to be made in support of more stringent immigration controls. Conservatives would be wise to employ those instead of resorting to fear-mongering. Just as Still points out so eloquently, the battle over English has already been fought - and won.
3 comments:
The majority of Americans don't leave North America because they can't afford to do so. We have to fly to go to a place that requires a passport, and middle class families usually can't afford that. On the flip side, asians and even europeans (who can travel throughout western europe easier these days but not eastern europe as much) border many more countries and are closer to travel by car or rail. It's geography. But I guess anyone who disagrees with you is xenophobic.
Further, I do agree with you that, as a practical matter, English is the language of international Commerce. I also think that as long as our schools (whether they are teaching natives, legal immigrants or illegal immigrants) teach in english it doesn't matter so much, practically speaking, if English is official in any capacity.
That being said, those that support english as an official language do so out of concerns about costs for government and social service providers. They believe it could ease communications and racial conflicts, unify us better as the people of America, simplify and expedite matters in education, government, business and other areas. I personally don't think that government can dictate what people speak as well as economic market conditions, but I don't stoop to imply those that have a different take are racists.
Again, why does everyone who disagrees with you on an issue get the title "wingnut"? Reasonable people disagree, but you seem to be the most intolerant "centrist" I have ever read.
Anon,
Thank you for your thoughtful response. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those espousing English First don't make lucid or coherent arguments. They sound like this. And truthfully, I don't have many qualms about suggesting that most of these people are English First simply because they don't like non-anglophone immigrants. Wingnut is as wingnut says. The folks on FR largely seem to use (poorly) the potentially legitimate arguments that you've laid out to conceal something far more base and insidious. Reasonable people do disagree, but most of the people beating their chests on this issue are not terribly reasonable.
Also, I sometimes wonder if those who advocate English über alles consider what the cost to government would be of providing free, comprehensive language training to all legal residents who wish to improve their English to the standards required. After all, anything short of that is an unfunded mandate on private citizens, and we know how good conservatives hate those, right?
Why is it conservatives want government to leave them alone on the one hand but on the other want to tell people what language they have to speak, who they can and cannot marry, whether their kids have to be in booster seats, whether they can use cell phones while they drive... I could go on, but you get my point.
On the cost of travel, middle class families afford enormous, gas-hoarding vehicles and oversized homes on ridiculously small lots in the suburbs. Without too much work, I arbitrarily chose two weekdays in October and found non-stop flights from Chicago to Paris for $680. Chicago to London for $700. If you're saving up for a vacation, those tickets aren't much more expensive than Chicago to Portland or Chicago to Albuquerque. With the way most Americans borrow money, I have difficulty accepting cost as a barrier to travel. Perhaps to African countries, Asia, or Australia, sure - but not Europe. Maybe it's just a matter of priorities, that many Americans don't value the experience of traveling abroad or worse, simply don't think it's important.
First and foremost, I would like to commend you for working "balderdash" into your post. That takes skill.
Second, it will be interesting to see those numbers on passports in a few years. You will soon be required to have a passport to go to Mexico and Canada. Those are both within driving distance for many in this country and it is often cheaper to fly to parts of Mexico or Canada than it is to fly from coast-to-coast in the U.S.
My bet? The numbers will be just about as low as they are now.
And finally... I had just been thinking about a foreign perspective on guns and now you've inspired me to comment. I have some very well-to-do family in England that would fall well on the right side of the spectrum (hate taxes, wants small government, Tony Blair just "takes from the rich and gives to the poor" - and I should add that they're hunters). They were recently in America and found themselves around a cop getting food at the same place as them. They were totally shocked and incredibly uncomfortable that he had a gun just sitting right there on his belt. Most cops in UK don't even carry guns. It's just interesting to try and understand the divergence of our two nations. How did we become so gun crazy while in the UK their cops don't even have guns? That's not exactly a slight difference. It is a wildly different culture for two otherwise wildly similar countries.
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