If I may ask for a clarification: when you say that we should speak only one language, are you saying that every American should at least be able to speak English (which I agree with), or that Americans should only know English?
In fact, the first foreign language I learned was not Somali, or French, or even my ancestors' native German--it was Latin. At age nine I began to read Edgar Allan Poe, who like any other educated American of his time knew Latin and sprinkled his work with it. Ask any nongovernment worker in the legal or medical profession if Latin is also not important for them to know. I cannot form a sentence in Latin, but I know those phrases from Poe. The Founding Fathers, being classically-trained, educated landowners, knew several languages. Being multilingual is not a new idea. In fact, many conservatives I know have studied Hebrew, Greek, and/or Italian, in addition to Latin. Incidentally, what is English? I had to read Boewulf and Chaucer in their original forms of "English"--which would be practically indecipherable to most readers today. And if one reads The Story of English (also a PBS documentary), which traces the development of the many forms of "English" spoken around the world today, the question as to what English is becomes even more relevant. Be careful about exhorting people to speak only English. I love the English language and to me, "English" means standard English. Yesterday I heard an FBI agent say, "You can't hardly..." Well, under my rulership he couldn't get away with that! No "ain't got no's," no "you don't gottas," that I hear people say all the time, if I had a say in it. (I don't hear this type of English from Somalis.) So be careful that you don't get what you wish. Kristine Harley Sheridan _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
