May 24th, 2006
|
|
|
| But what public good is advanced by encouraging the participation of people who, by saying they require bilingual assistance, are saying they cannot understand the nation’s political conversation? By receiving such assistance they are receiving a disincentive to become proficient in English. |
| Declaring English the national language is a mere gesture. But by ending bilingual ballots, American law would perform its expressive function of buttressing, by codifying and vivifying, certain national assumptions and aspirations. Among those is this: The idea of citizenship becomes absurd when sundered from the ability to understand the nation’s civic conversation. |
|
|
According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity to reach the heavens. Because man had it in his heart to be like God, God stopped this project by confusing their languages so that each spoke a different language. As a result, they could no longer communicate with one another and the work was halted. The builders were then scattered to different parts of Earth. This story is used to explain the existence of many different languages and races.
|
|
|
| WBM: Why oh why do people who obviously cannot speak much more than their native english feel obligated to fear for those who refuse to abide by that particular ignorance? Because God was unsuccessful at Babel at thwarting mankind’s ingenuity, we are quite better off today wouldn’t you say? |
Posted in Cream of the Jest, Red-State America | By Willie Buck Merle