Video: Michelle talks English-only on “The Big Story”

The way to have a *REALLY* nasty outcome to this whole business of immigration, including violence to the point of bloodshed, is to keep framing the debate not as a debate, but rather like the slaver/anti-slavery conflict of the past, of like the immigrant assimilation struggles in this country in the past.

…we’ve been through all of this before, folks, and we don’t appear to have learned a thing.

The problem at present isn’t that folks aren’t being made to speak English, it’s that the English speakers are shouting at eachother and neither are listening. The problem is then hitting the plates of these new immigrants — and the ones *I* really feel sorry for are the *LEGAL* immigrants and folks from Spanish-speaking US possessions. These folksa are being made the *PROBLEM*, and the solution seems to be to bat them back and forth like badminton birdies or hot potatoes, but not to present any solutions.

Let me be frank: we, the citizens of this country *MUST* take this one by the horns. We’re seeing communties popping up from Maine to Texas — and not small communities by any means — of people whose status is being used as a vote-getter and a score-settler, and to that extent they have my sympathies. That said, they need to be ready to compromise…’cause the English-speaking natives and legal and illegal activists don’t seem to have that word in their vocabularies.

The watchword of the day seems to be “hyperbole”. Expect tomorrow’s watchword to be “brinksmanship”.

I think that the success of English-only ordinances with the corresponding constriction accompanying tough immigration stands demonstrates that *FIRST* citizens expect these new folks to at least *MAKE AN EFFORT*.

The American people are hot-headed, but they’re also slow to act when it comes to making rules for folks who live cheek-to-jowl with them. If you doubt the inherent fairness of the American people, consider that we’re even *HAVING* this debate (such as it is, over all of the name-calling). In many other countries, the state police would round ‘em up as soon as they presented problem-one to state.

They’re not dumb, and many would be glad to assimilate, if it was made clear that this is expected of them. As far as Mexicans are concerned, this really isn’t a big problem culturally…much less so than with Chinese illegals, for instance.

The problem is that there’s this brinksmanship-thaaaang going on, with anyone interpreting the call for compromise as a call for surrender. It’s all about juice, fully as much as such a deal would be among street gangs.

If we wish this to be a nation of street gangs, let’s thrown down. If not, if we want a more controlled and equitable solution to present itself, we need to knock off all of the horse-hockey and *LISTEN* as well as speak.

…lately, listening’s been in short supply even in as small a forum as this one. We need to tune out the shrill, one-note voices and get down to brass tacks.

Puritan1648 on November 17, 2006 at 8:55 PM