Why speak a second language? According to Newt Gingrich it’s not necessary if you are a resident of the United States. In fact speaking a language as base as say Spanish is like “living in the ghetto.” First off I think he might have said “barrio” since he was talking about Spanish, but since he only speaks English it’s clear why he made that oversight. Anyway, those Spanish speakers (and their ghetto language) he was referring to are a varied bunch. I’m sure that the wealthy Floridians who hailed from Cuba and now are a key factor in the economy there are shocked that the language they use daily is so base. I’m also certain that the ancestors of the Spanish who settled and thrived from coast to coast will be happy to know that Newt Gingrich finds their mother tongue inferior. I’m certain too, that the thousands of Mexican laborers that built Atlanta, GA (his home state) up for the ’96 summer Olympics appreciate his candor in letting them know where their fellow Georgian stands. In addition to the referral of Spanish as “ghetto” talk Newt Gingrich also had this to say-
"Citizenship requires passing a test on American history in English. If that's true, then we do not have to create ballots in any language except English," he said.
Yeah, so go ahead and run for President, Mr. Gingrich. We’ll look at our U.S. history books and see where you had a secret affair while accusing President Clinton of doing the same and then use our citizenship (whether it be by birth or naturalization) to keep you out of office, you hypocritical racist bastard. By the way, for the record the word “No” is the same in Spanish as it is in English.
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2 comments:
Ja ja ja, Newt se averguenza con cada palabra que dice!
Funny that Newt makes reference to American history, since he obviously has missed a crucial chapter in said history-- specifically, the Mexican War, in which an aggressive American attack force seeking "Manifest Destiny" launched a bloody, ultra-violent invasion of Mexico to get control of the mineral-rich Alta California region (now the US Southwest) that had been settled, with numerous cities founded, by Latinos for centuries.
Funny, at the same time the Americans were brutalizing Mexicans, their British cousins were slaughtering millions of their own "darkies" in India and in Australia. (Though it's funny how those haughty Britons got their tails kicked by those very-brown Afghans in the same decade-- not only defeated the British but wiped out an entire British army in Central Asia.) Guess the 1840's were the season for those fair Anglo-Saxon peoples to put the smackdown on all those pesky, uppity brown peoples all over the place.
Anyway, a key part of the original arrangement between the invading "gringos" and the Mexicans-- to avoid an outright civil war between the two peoples-- was that Spanish would be respected at the same level English was for *public uses*, i.e. in the governing bodies and in halls of education and public discussion.
IOW, Spanish was no longer foreign to the USA, it was an integral part of the nation's identity and would remain so. With the Mexican War and annexation of Fla, Spanish is a language of the USA, period-- it's as much a part of the nation's identity as the Declaration of Independence and Presidents' Day.
Bigots like Gingrich like to forget this, but they need to be reminded-- Spanish preceded English by hundreds of years in a large portion of what's now the United States of America. It's one of the original languages to which English itself was a guest, and it must be respected as one, and in the public sphere as much as in the private one. Anyone who wants to be a professional or have a public job in those regions, has to be familiar with it.
In fact, it should be used as a language of essential instruction in the earliest school years, so that kids grow up using it-- in the playground as much as in the classroom. That way, students will have the opportunity to learn other languages that truly are foreign, later on-- which is essential to compete in the global marketplace.
yay!! Thank you for articulating that so beautifully!
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