Bone In The Throat

I’m glad I didn’t watch it, but the 2nd Republican Debate last night didn’t go as well as planned.

Apparently a lot of people were not impressed that there was a lot of Spanish.

Some of the tweets are brutal, even those from native Spanish Speakers.

I was reminded of two colleagues. One was from Algeria the other from Vietnam. The Algerian could read / write / and speak French flawlessly. As could the Vietnamese Guy. The Algerian absolutely categorically refused to speak French. Because the French had raped his country.

The French, had laid pipelines to transport natural gas all across Algeria, but they refused to make that natural gas available at a price the Algerian people could afford. Apparently Algeria gets very cold at night in the Winter.

The Vietnamese colleague had grown up in Saigon before the fall of South Vietnam. His parents had worked for the South Vietnamese government and when the North Vietnamese took over, his parents were sent promptly to a re-education camp. His parents had the foresight to have sent him to his uncles place in a rural part of the county just before the fall. He spoke of being taught French and English, in school. After the fall he was taught Russian only.

To this day, he refuses to speak, read, or write Russian. The only reason I know he can speak Russian is that my colleagues and myself were at lunch one day and they started sharing stories about what it was like to have their respective cultures erased, and they both had a common denominator in the French.

Vietnam once had their own writing system, and a King. Their writing system looked more similar to Chinese, or Korean. I can’t remember which one he said was closer. Vietnamese as it’s written today uses a latin alphabet obviously imported, and few if any Vietnamese people can read anything in their original written language. The French did significant damage to his culture and then got involved in a skirmish or war that became the Vietnam war if I recall his description of events correctly.

The reason that these memories popped into my head reading about the 2nd RNC debate was that my colleague’s were so angry at the invaders to their countries that even though they could speak the languages of the invaders, they consciously chose not to.

At first glance that could be construed as racist or whatever nasty word you’d like to attach. But think beyond the easy labels, spend a tenth of a second more in processing it, and you’ll see it isn’t about racism it’s an act of protest.

An Algerian walking by French tourists lost and confused in South Central Los Angeles and not offering to help them is an act of protest and rage that comes from his very soul. (That actually happened. I understand just enough French that combined with their body language I figured out they were lost.) I glanced at my colleague with a questioning look. All he said was, “NO, I will not waste my lunch time helping them, nor should you.” So we walked on.

I was thinking about the French individuals who were very probably innocent, He was thinking about the thousands of Algerians the French abused, who were also innocent.

I pointed out that this kind of tit for tat is how wars get started. He replied, “You as an American don’t have the moral high ground.” He smiled at me as a friend does, then said, “As Americans go, you’re a decent one. You keep on reminding those of us from abused countries that there is a reason to, how do you say it? Listen to our better Angels. Even though most of your countrymen do not listen to their Angels.”

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The point is, a lot of folks have felt that America was being invaded from the Southern border for a very long time. I know some folks who have been simmering for a long time about having to pick English in a phone tree when they call their utility company or other customer service number. There are some folks I know who get really pissed off if English is the number 2 option. (How can you not be pissed off about it? Someone decided to put English as the number 2 option. Straight alphabetical order “E” comes before “S” so someone was getting a dig in.)

Then they get more angry when after having chosen English, they get someone whose accent is so heavily Indian they can’t understand the “Service Rep” then hang up in frustration.

People who speak English only are not going to be appreciative of Spanish being spoken on their “Normal” TV channels.

In the context of a political debate, leading off with Spanish says to Ma & Pa Kettle that the “tin foil hat wearing ” conservatives have been absolutely right saying we’re “losing our country”.

“Well hell, Ma did I have a stroke? I can’t understand a damn thing that person is saying? Did you turn on the Spanish soundtrack on the TV again?”

Based on what I’ve seen working with folks from other countries. The imposition of a non-native language and culture leaves scars. I can muddle through with some Spanish. I used to use the Spanish I knew all the time.

But when hearing Spanish was more likely than English I stopped using Spanish altogether. Even in the grocery store I try not to buy dual labeled products. I’m not being racist, I’m trying to hold the line for my own culture.

I know there are folks who say that America doesn’t have a culture. They’re wrong! We do, and until recently it was a culture of optimism, hard work, and a healthy dose of “can do” attitude.

I’m not saying that other influences are solely responsible for the dumpster fire we’ve been seeing for the past years. I’m saying that for all its faults I liked our culture the way it was and I think it’s worth preserving and continuing to improve upon. I don’t think we need to burn it all down and start over. So if I buy only American products, or only American labeled products, that’s me saying, “Enough”!

Enough of the polyglot. Enough of shoving every other thing down our throats. How can we have a Black Pride Month, A Gay Pride Month, a Trans Awareness Month, a whatever the fuck month, and have only one day to celebrate the nations birth? Even that one day is fraught with some group or another bitching pissing and moaning about something!

Some of you may be reading this and saying, “Oh, he’s a racist.”

Okay, then my counter is this: Racists are made, not born!

You progressives keep pushing agendas on the rest of us that we don’t agree with, then chastise us for not agreeing with you. You denigrate our beliefs while holding someone else’s above those most of the country grew up with, and well Y’all are doing a damn fine job of building people who are “Racists” by whatever your current diluted definition is.

I choose not to speak or communicate in Spanish, Just like my Algerian friend chose not to communicate in French, or my Vietnamese friend chose not to communicate in Russian. I double dog dare you to call those guys racists!

Or at least let me get popcorn and beer ready to watch how that goes for ya.

Oh and by the way, If / when Spanish becomes the dominate language here in America, I’ll be somewhere else. Until then, if you insist on holding press conferences or debates in Spanish I’ll not be watching.

America is an English Speaking country.

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Why does no-one ever call out the Spaniards for their cultural annihilation and subjugation of the South American Tribes? Why are there no calls for reparations from Spain? They enslaved members of every Native tribe they encountered. The Spanish were after pretty much one thing, riches, Gold & Silver, jewels, and all of it went back to Spain.

At least the American colonies revolted to start a nation. A nation that was something different than what had come before.