... why can't we all just get along and celebrate our melting pot diversity?
Warning ... this specific news story is over two years old BUT this being my first time setting foot inside the state where it occurred, it seemed an appropriate topic about which to rant today. So you may have heard of it before ... the Texas pi"c"za chain that offered free pizza to anyone who called in and ordered it en Espanol.
The chain was probably making less of a statement about the growing popularity of the Latin culture and doing the most 'Merican of things (using controversy to make some extra publicity to increase revenues [also known as "capitalism"]), but there was a (predictable) backlash ... from the (obviously) racist folks.
When it comes down to it, we all should probably have learned a little more Spanish along the way. (Or Arabic. Or Chinese. Or Russian if "Cold War 2: Colder than a Polar Vortex" is going to be a thing as it seems.) I grew up in a small central PA town, which was close enough to a smaller central PA town filled with poultry processing plants such that our community had to learn quickly that there would be others who would come along to satisfy the need for labor who might not speak the same language ... but I studied German instead of Spanish in high school (and college ... and while in Deutschland for a semester overseas), which basically means that I am disqualified for most jobs down here in Florida (I'm looking for next year since my role was eliminated at my current job) BUT that I get more out of the WWII documentaries on the History Channel.
I didn't stay in the county adjacent to Amish country my whole life, though (where, by the way, PA Dutch probably wouldn't count as English if this initiative were to pass [ain't now onct!]), and, after a dozen years in Chicago, I could learn the city's neighborhood history by seeing how many languages were on the signs of the businesses (Polski! Korean! Spanish! Hair for sale!). As a native English speaker, I was not in any way disadvantaged by the fact that others who were not like me were welcomed in to the establishment.
To me, here's what it all boils down to. And forgive me in advance for getting all Biblical on your ass. But I re-read the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:4-9 and, as I see it, God herself got "scurred" about the power of the people working together and CREATED various languages to keep the Tower from reaching into her fancier neighborhood in the clouds. So who are we to say that English must be the official language? After all ... what God has put asunder let no man join together, right?
THE ORIGINAL STORY:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/chain-offers-free-pizza-if-you-order-spanish-140746
YOU MUST BE *THIS* BILINGUAL TO WORK THIS JOB:
http://www.hrhero.com/hl/articles/2007/06/01/bilingual-job-requirement-oked-by-court/
JOIN THE DEBATE:
http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-english-be-the-official-language-of-the-united-states
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