Losing Our Culture
Millions of immigrants have come to America illegally and are living among us. Being forced to accommodate them is costing much more than the additional revenue needed to expand social services (see the previous link "Invasion"). The weight of their numbers is forcibly changing our culture.
Language is central to a nation's attributes, customs, and behaviors. Until recently, immigrants needed to learn English if they were to communicate with America's citizens. This urgency to learn English protected our one American culture, unifying America in the process.
The rules changed in the 1980s when millions of Spanish-only speaking people began to migrate to America illegally. Naturally, some business owners adopted the tactic of offering their services in Spanish to gain an advantage over their competition. Not to be outdone, other business owners were forced to do the same.
The smart but socially destructive business tactic of catering to Spanish-only speaking people is rapidly making America bilingual. In just the last few years, corporations large and small have begun asking customers to "Press one for English." More and more radio stations are broadcasting in Spanish, and cable companies are allocating dozens of channels for Spanish programming.
Besides curtailing content options for America's English speaking citizens, broadcasters are inadvertently encouraging the adoption of Spanish as a second language.
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It is no secret that our children have fallen behind the other industrialized nations in mastering mathematics and the sciences. Yet our publicly funded colleges and universities insist that students have three years of a foreign language requirement to qualify for a college degree. How is learning a foreign language going to make them more competitive in the world?
That America is not leading the world in academic performance after spending trillions of taxpayer dollars for decades is an abomination. Those in charge of preparing our children for the future have failed us, ultimately jeopardizing our nation's culture and lofty position in the world.
What changes have been made to correct this problem? Who has been fired? What message has been sent that demonstrates our unwillingness to accept such systematic failure.
The problem is that those in charge of making decisions on what to teach our children have not been held accountable for failing us for decades. They have somehow usurped authority to make such decisions unilaterally, while remaining above scrutiny and performance review.
To meet the college language requirement, high schools are forced to make students take three years of a foreign language. Ultimately, this policy results in our children spending 15% of high school learning to speak broken Spanish.
Do the math. Five classes per semester, two semesters per year, and four years results in a total of forty classes. Six classes of Spanish out of forty classes equates to 15% of high school.
Shouldn't our publically funded high schools instead be teaching additional courses in math and science, and how to write and speak better English? What will make our children more competitive in the world — learning to speak broken Spanish or taking additional courses in English, math, and the sciences?
The argument that learning Spanish will make us more competitive is fallacious. Spanish is not the language of any industrialized nation. Learning Chinese or Japanese would make more sense if "becoming competitive" were truly our motivation for teaching a foreign language.
Every nation on the fast track to becoming industrialized is promoting English as a second language. Why? What other nation advocates that their people should learn Spanish as a second language?
The reason we are forcing our children to learn broken Spanish is to accommodate illegal residents. Rather than force immigrants to adopt America's language and the systems that have made us the world's lone superpower, we are instead limiting the performance potential of our children.
Pocket electronic devices that translate over a dozen languages to English are now available. With the advent of this technology, the billions of dollars and hours spent each year to teach broken Spanish has become wasteful for all but those that hope to increase the Latin influence in America. Who is responsible for allowing them dilute our one American culture?
The United Nations recently decided to standardize on one language for a most important reason. That reason has been restated different ways repeatedly throughout history. Three familiar adages come to mind: (1) United we stand, divided we fall. (2) A house divided cannot stand. (3) Divide and conquer. In short, the United Nations standardized on one language to become stronger and more efficient. It knows that standardizing on one language will cut expenses while uniting members.
After deciding it would standardize on one language, the United Nations selected English as its official language for two reasons. First, English is the language of the most successful nations in the world. Second, everyone in the world is on the fast track to learn English. Yet, rather than follow the example demonstrated by the United Nations and the rest of the world, we are working hard to become divided on language, irrevocably changing our culture while weakening our nation.
Even so, one often overlooked argument for insisting that America endorse only English supersedes all others. If our Spanish-speaking friends don't learn English, they will be left behind and forever be relegated to performing menial tasks for the English-speaking majority.
The sad truth is that many people only care about low-cost labor and being able to communicate with their housekeepers, gardeners, and uneducated employees. Such motivation is condescending and not congruent with our history as a charitable and loving people that advocate a one-class society.
For the sake of our immigrant friends and neighbors, we can no longer allow political pressures to dissuade us from insisting that legal residents prepare to compete for key positions in management and the sciences. We want our Spanish-speaking friends to participate fully in the American Dream. We want the best for them — to succeed and achieve their full potential as Americans.
If we don't aggressively protect our one American culture, we will surely lose it. The Patriot Party will insure that every group living in America legally can achieve the American Dream. Simultaneously, we will insure that America leads the world in academic performance, and that our envied American culture is preserved.
