I’m getting tired of coming up with diatribes against the bigoted stooges of the world…but as the Doctor once said, “always do what you’re best at”.
You see this man in the picture…this foolish, ridiculous, has-been right-wing demon? His name is Newt Gingrich, and he’s either (1) a fool, (2) a hateful, bigoted fool, (3) a stupid, insulting fool, or (4) ALL OF THE ABOVE!
The one time speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the man behind the mid-90s right-wing Contract with America, is thinking of running for President. What better way to begin than to disparage the idea of learning another language…and equating that learning with ghetto-talk!
Courtesy of CNN, these were Gingrich’s comments – in a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women:
“The government should quit mandating that various documents be printed in any one of 700 languages depending on who randomly shows up. The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.”
What a load of unmitigated, prejudicial trash! There is no greater advantage a child could have than to learn a second (or even a third) language. To hear a man of political influence equating it with inferiority – to say nothing of being a threat to the fabric of his society – is ugly in a way I can’t even describe.
If Canada stands for anything, it’s for the fact that language limits shouldn’t exist. Look at the hundreds of thousands of students taking part in French immersion programs. Look at all the language classes that occur in the evenings and on Saturdays, all across the country. All of these things are happening without threatening English in any way…and anyone who would suggest such absurd garbage would be laughed right out of the country.
Hell, it’s now a given that any Prime Minister of this country MUST be bilingual. It’s part of the very fabric of our society. Stephen Harper may be the nadir of Prime Ministers…but the idea he’s ghettoizing the nation by speaking French is ludicrous.
What about that TTC route map I picked up in Toronto a few weeks ago…the one with messages in a dozen languages…is that indicative of the rise of ghetto publishing?
And how about the nations with multiple official languages, such as Switzerland…are we to believe that they live and speak some sort of French-German-Italian ghetto talk? That would be a sight to see and hear…
That’s America’s Republicans for you: anti-gay, anti-choice, and anti-non-white-English-as-a-second-language. Just imagine the paradise of a nation these tragic, repulsive people would love to create…and then shudder!
