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Liberals don't want immigrants to learn English

turboturbo Member Posts: 820 ✭✭✭✭
edited April 2002 in General Discussion
I'm not trying to compete with Josey1, just venting after reading this article and doing what I can to expose these Liberals for what they are, Idiots and Morons.

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Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, April 9, 2002
WASHINGTON - The never-ending movement to create a Tower of Babel and downgrade English as the dominant language rolls across the United States like a giant mowing machine.
The latest battleground is Maryland, one of the most left-wing states in the nation.

Soon, all state agencies will be required to provide interpreters and to translate their documents into any language spoken by only 3 percent of the population served by that agency.

All of this has been happening just as the New York Times reported Sunday that, notwithstanding such efforts, "there are signs everywhere that English is triumphant both at home and abroad."

If that is true, there seems to be no end to the efforts of politicians to make it as difficult as possible for new immigrants to learn English. They do this by imposing policies that make it as convenient as possible to avoid learning the language of their adopted country.

About 20,000 immigrants arrive in Maryland each year, and 13 percent of Marylanders older than 5 speak a language other than English.

Political Pandering

If left-wing politicians can keep these people from developing English proficiency, it becomes all the more difficult for them to climb the economic ladder of opportunity. That in turn makes it easier for the pandering politician to sell his welfarist policies to the newest naturalized citizens who, he hopes, will reward him with their votes. It's pure politics.

Baltimore Sun writer Sarah Koenig says the legislation passed by committees in both houses of the Maryland Legislature would mean "Russians in Pikesville would be able to get medical information po-russky and Salvadorans in Silver Spring would be able to read about workers' compensation en espanol."

Gee, Why Should Nurses Read English?

The legislation requires professional agencies, such as the Board of Nursing, to assess whether their license applications must be completed in English and to report their findings to the General Assembly.

The sponsor of the bill, Delegate Rushhern L. Baker III, a Democrat, says passage "shows that our state understands the need to open itself up."

Both chambers passed the legislation Monday and send it to Gov. Parris Glendening, a left-wing Democrat who has indicated he will sign it into law.

Maryland's politics is dominated by its three most leftist jurisdictions: Montgomery and Prince George's counties in the Washington suburbs, and the city of Baltimore. The rest of the state, mostly rural or exurban, is moderate to conservative, but effectively disenfranchised from any meaningful input into state government by the tyranny of the majorities built up in just those three areas.

Consequently, the state has suffered national "loony left" publicity about efforts to ban Santa Claus and prohibit smoking in one's own home.

The cost of the new legislation? Say goodbye to $290,000 next year, and $2.9 million after five years. Jim Boulet Jr. of English First says those estimates are bound to be low.

Nearly all states do translations of some kind. The sweeping policy of Maryland will be the first of its kind. Some states (Boulet mentions New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Rhode Island) are officially committed to "English Plus."

Big Government Gets Bigger

The Hartford Courant reports that a modified version of the policy in Connecticut has forced that state to hire 27 full-time Spanish-speaking interpreters. On top of that, the state spent nearly $320,000 for interpretation in the last fiscal year.

What good did it do?

A divorce case took several weeks "because the translators had problems simultaneously interpreting" an "uncommon" Asian dialect. "It took three tries in court and slow[ed] down the proceedings tremendously," according to the Courant.

The state of Washington estimates that it will spend $24 million over two years for oral interpretation. With an estimated 26,000 encounters a month (or 624,000 encounters in two years), the average cost of providing oral interpretation is $38.46 an encounter.

As the legislature was heading toward adjournment Monday, Boulet was urging his members in Maryland to do what they could to block this bad bill, to no avail.

His Damage Never Ends

Last month, NewsMax.com reported that one of Bill Clinton's last acts in office was to sign Executive Order 13166, intended "to improve access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities for persons who, as a result of national origin, are limited in their proficiency [in English]."

In Congress, lawmakers have considered passing a bill to create a commission to enforce "reforms" prompted by some Floridians who claimed to be too confused to vote properly in the 2000 election.

Count on it that such a commission, if the past is any guide, would be chockablock with extremists who would see to it that ballots are provided in whatever language the voter requests. It used to be considered imperative that one becomes proficient in English before attaining citizenship. Now there is less emphasis on that requirement.

The New York Times article cited above seeks to assure Americans that, as in past waves of immigration, "the first generation tends to learn only enough English to get by; the second is bilingual; and the third tends to be English-dominant if not monolingual." The piece then quotes a sociologist as saying, "This is because English is so dominant and so highly rewarded."

Unlike past waves of immigration, however, there is just one roadblock to the continued "dominance" of English: The present-day determination of Western-culture-hating activists and pandering politicians to make learning English as inconvenient and unnecessary as possible.


"The great object is that every man.... everyone who is able may have a gun." Patrick Henry

Edited by - turbo on 04/19/2002 21:42:55
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