Andrew Stiller wrote:
I wished we had more politics like in France protecting many hundred
years of German culture.
Johannes
Yeah, well there are lots of folks here who think that American culture
is threatened by the Spanish language. I don't think much of that
reasoning no matter where it comes from.
We have an American culture? (said with tongue in cheek) After
Johannes' post I was thinking "Gee, I wish we *had* a culture which we
could protect!"
The American culture has never been monolithic and I don't see the
Spanish language threatening what has never existed.
I do see it as threatening American citizens' ability to communicate
effectively with each other, and I fear that when a country's citizens
can no longer effectively communicate with each other, the ability to
function as a country is threatened.
But a threat to American culture? The culture which has absorbed and
included aspects at and contributions from, even while some Americans
looked down their noses at, Irish and Italian and French and German and
Moravian and Bohemian and Russian and Jewish and various African and
Chinese and Japanese and Spanish cultures as well as the cultures of the
peoples that the Europeans displaced? If anybody can define American
culture in as succinct a manner as they can define French or German or
British culture, I will be amazed.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
