For a long time I've been a libertarian, maybe even so much as "Objectivist". Not that I object to everything, but that I agree with a lot that Ayn Rand writes about. (more on that in another blog).
I don't know why, but I have a hard time picking a side in the debate about an "official language" of America. ((I do believe that American English would be a difficult "official language" to manage based on the fact that it is the most flexible language and is literally changing every day.)) WARNING: this blog is not about Zenophobia or legal vs. illegal immigration.
On the one hand, I like freedom enough that I truly feel that no one should have the right to tell others what language to speak. Even further, would we ever want to punish people for speaking the wrong language? And what about dialects? What about English people speaking English? Or Aussies? I sure know I don't want anyone telling ME what to speak and by extension, I wouldn't tell anyone what to speak. Plus, I always kinda figure that the invisible hand of the capitalist market will make sure there's always a shopkeeper able to speak my language. ((this is an old debate, but a local LEGAL immigrant radio DJ named Bill Handel hade a new take: let 'em speak any language they want, but believe me, if they want to be doctors, lawyers, or scientists, they'll learn English, too))
On the other hand, America has successfully grown for centuries because all of the wonderful people coming here in the past have added their knowledge to our society, which requires that we be able to communicate. In the past, Immigrants have come to America in small enough waves that the society could absorb them while allowing them to integrate and also remain themselves. So maybe there should be an official language.
But recently I got the honor of spending an hour in a LA courthouse for supposedly driving 86 mph in a 55 Zone. ((Damn those 55 Zones!)) It was an hour in court because I spent 3 minutes in front of a judge and 55+ minutes listening to the same "instructions" in English and Spanish.
So by my estimate, NOT having an official language ((where else would you use it if you didn't use it in court?)) cost me about 27-30 minutes. By my calculations, that half hour is worth about 25 phantom bucks. ((Wherease the three minutes I spent NOT driving 55 mph turns out to be worth about $361.))
So I lost a half hour, my company lost $25 of my productivity, and the other 100+ court attendees lost some time, too.
But since I hate to lose and I hate to waste, I listened to the Spanish part of the tape, trying to turn this into a government subsidized Spanish lesson, decreasing my losses.
Furthermore, during the Spanish part, the guy next to me lamented that he was in court for missing a previous court date for a jay-walking ticket and now, all told, he was going to pay MORE for jay-walking than I did for NOT driving 55 mph. The dude was like 50+ and didn't know where he was going to get the money...
And perhaps that was the most valuable lesson I was able to get during that "no official language" timeout: that I'm glad I don't STILL make dumb-ass mistakes like I did when I was 20 ((like not going to court and turning a tiny fine into a big fine.))
So no matter what language I have to use, I'll keep trying to see the message put in front of me.
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6 comments:
Language is funny.
Even funnier is the idea that people would get bent out of shape over the concept of an "Official Language."
I think this way: I'm damn lucky to have been born in America. I'm damn lucky that mom and dad taught me American so I could get along here on my own. I'm damn lucky I have the mental capacity to adapt to situations with minor variances from my norm.
Some people aren't so lucky. I think that anything you have been given freely, anything you didn't earn, anything that the GRACE OF GOD has provided you, you should SHUT THE HELL UP about when other people struggle like hell to obtain.
If a person leaves their family, evades the law, and works like a dog to make their life, or the life of their village, better, and the only problem is that in that few hours each night between picking my lettuce and finding a flat spot to sleep on they don't dedicate themselves to learning MY language, then I should cut them some slack.
What happened to looking at the content of a man's character and not the color of his skin?
If you want to be a good person, don't begrudge people thier inadequacies. Help them out.
Sigh.
By the way -
nice use of embedded links in the original post.
Question:
Is this blog available to strangers? Will a search engine find it and will others be able to see it?
I think that the blog is available, not sure, isn't that what that public thing was about?
I just tried googling it, and was able to open it right up...
Truthfully, it's hard for me to decide where to come down on the current immigration frenzy. For many years I've said aloud "people who scratch their way here, risk life and limb to make a better life for themselves based only on working hard in a new land -- sounds like Americans to me."
But then I think of the concept of "Amnesty" and regularization and what bugs me about that is the fact that there are a lot of people trying to do this legally who don't get the benefits offered to those who weren't trying to do it right.
More than anything else, I am bothered by the REASON and the intentions that we have big politicians pushing us one directon or another. If "Big Business" truly is lobbying for cheap labor, then that is a shame. Yes, I know that's their responsibility to the shareholders to try to increase profits and aggresssively compete, but America USED TO think that competition needed to stop at the point where we broke laws or exploited people.
Seriously, if we are willing to break laws and look the other way so business can have a competitive edge, then why not have child labor? Why not dump toxic waste in fresh water? Why not pump noxious chemicals into the atmosphere? BECAUSE maybe that is good for profits, but not really good for the society we live in.
So I don't know if the argument for "cheap labor" is really what's driving the mystery push on this issue, but if it is, then that can't last too long without someone, somewhere, asking for a raise once they're Americanized.
It's hard to get upset about granting amnesty to people who should never have been criminals in the first place. Open our borders. Raise our speed limits. Lower our taxes. Let the random number generators sort it all out.
Hmmm... interesting string of comments. What I'm taking from that is 1) the discussion about language and how much time I wasted in court is nixed and 2) you want a lot of things to be more Libertarianish.
Okay, I guess that's one way to get me to go along with open borders and amnesty, is to really roll out a lot of freedoms as a package. I'll tell you right now that I think I'm one of the only people out there that says "Legalize It" without ever, not even once, having smoked pot.
So I'll get on board with the freedom express if it isn't just one switch that gets thrown, but rather a whole bunch of them at once.
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