It amazes me that so many of the ‘protect the Constitution crowd’ so often prove themselves to have little understanding of the principles or history of the document and the Declaration of Independence.
"...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are..."
All men, all mankind. It is very clear.
This is not a new problem, its not a problem, it may be an inconvenience, but it has been around since the Pilgrims landed (a people who spoke a foreign tongue).
The language someone speaks is not relevant to their character, integrity, or ‘worthiness’.
The Constitution establishes some of these principles, and among these are the right of free speech.
At a time when our courts and politicians have decided that 'money' is speech, far to many people who have bought into the 'money is speech' abomination wish to further erode constitutional rights by advocating for limited, even restrictive speech for the common man.
The idea that a prerequisite to maintaining or obtaining citizenship, that entry into or deportation from this country, and the worth of someone are all dependent on what language they speak, is just another form of narrow-mindedness that demonstrate an absence of the basic principles that this country was founded on.
It is common sense that the Constitutional right to free speech would include whatever language you wish. The founders did not seek to establish a national language and for good reason.
Our most common language, and the language proposed as a national language, is not even 'American' its 'English'. It is by definition a foreign language, not a native language.
Are we going to outlaw the languages of Native-Americans? The use of Latin in Catholic Mass? The deaf the use of sign language? Are we attempting to silence LEGAL immigrants?
If a business owner can't understand a customer there will obviously be a problem completing service, but does that make the posting of a stupid sign, IN ENGLISH, necessary? Or is it just away of promoting hostility?
Appeals to false nationalism using the cheapest form of false patriotism is just another in a long line of deceptions meant to distract us from the man behind the curtain.
Chest thumping rabble-rousing calls for meaningless posturing in a continued attempt to create easily imagined non-existent threats to our way of life.
We have spent too much of our history fabricating or exaggerating threats from inner demons so as to distract us from real threats.
The boogieman has taken many forms: Native-Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, Unionist, hippies, Okies, Mormons, Jews, Catholics, witches, Japanese Americans, Suffragettes, World War I Veterans, Muslims, the Irish, Italians, Socialist, Community Organizers, First Ladies advocating for better nutrition, gays, the poor, the unemployed, single mothers, immigrants, hungry children, and tree hugging conservationist. So far the harm done by all these ‘threats’ combine does to equal the transgressions and oppression inflicted on any one of them.
Too much of our history has been spent attacking these boogie men while our infrastructure has decayed, meaningless and unnecessary wars have been waged, our jobs deported, our schools dismantled by privatization, wages and income decreased by the wealthy and corporate America, globalization.
Wake-up America. Travel to any country in the world and you will probably have little problem finding someone that speaks English, French, Spanish and maybe Chinese. America has one of the lowest rates of bi-lingual speakers. This is not a good thing. If your a parent and your not encouraging your children to speak a second language then you are not preparing them for adulthood. Following 9/11 we had a serious security problem because of a shortage of middle-eastern translators.
But, then again, lets make America Great Again by outlawing free speech. That'll work.
GlennDL
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