Bilingual ballots are bad
(Did you catch that? I used what's known as "alliteration" in the title of this post, to make it even more cool.)
I generally consider myself fairly liberal on immigration, at least by the standards of today's debate, but I do draw the line at bilingual ballots, and I'm sorry that the House Judiciary Panel didn't.
I think it's pretty simple:
- You need to understand English in order to become a citizen.
- You need to be a citizen in order to vote.
That's really all that needs to be said about that.
Comments
Balotos de bilingula son caca del toro.
Posted by: fred | May 11, 2006 10:17 AM
Has anybody ever realized that when we use 'bi-lingual' in a phrase such as this, that we all know it means English and Spanish?
Not Vietnamese who flooded our shores after the war.
Not Korean.
Not Italian.
Not German nor Russian.
Why is that? Because of all the immigrants who have come here, only one has seemingly resisted the idea of assimilation with a common language.
Posted by: mal | May 11, 2006 06:23 PM
Amen to that! Although some of my ATM machines now offer options in English, Espanol, Japanese, Portugese, French, and so on. Learn the goddamn language! When I went to France, I didn't expect them to speak English just to assuage me.
Posted by: fred | May 12, 2006 08:51 AM
It is not resistance or a lack of not wanting to learn the English language. English classes have long waiting list of these people who want learn the language. Bilingual ballots are mandatory in areas that have more that 10,000 people of protected group or when more that 5% of the voting population is limited in English. President JF Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson have the responsibility adopting the federal law that makes it mandatory. In the past immigrants from countries across the oceans have lost the native language because second and third generations eventualy lost the desire to hold on to that part of their culture. however, the constant flow of immigrants from Mexico and the geographic location of the the country will ensure that Spanish will stay fresh and continue to be a major part of future generations of Mexican American.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 12, 2007 02:30 AM