Questions?
Why would an Astros fan sitting on the front row at game 4 in the World Series not fight a White Sox player for a foul ball in the stands with 1 out in the bottom of the ninth? Didn't they see the Cubs series last year? Wear that Konerko shirt with pride.
If you get an out-of-office type reply that says I'm using another email address and lists the new address, why would you send another email to the old address requesting more information so that the new address can be added to the system? This actually happened on my utulsa account. I'm glad you all have realized I'm using gmail now. Thats a hint to send me email which I will eventually respond to, and don't worry you don't have to be pithy when you write me, you can bloviate as long as its interesting. Yes, I have been watching O'Reilly.
Why would you pledge allegiance in a language other than the national language of the nation to which you are pledging your allegiance? My sister was in town over the weekend and brought up this controversy that arose down in Midland. We didn't actually discuss it much so hear comes my argument for saying the pledge in English then, Megan, you can tell me why I'm wrong. I don't know anything about the specific situation so I might be going down the wrong path but here goes.
My argument begins with national language. What is a national language? Its the language for official government business and most residents learn a national language as their first. Does it not make sense that pledging allegiance to a nation should be done in its national language? Maybe not because this is a nation of immigrants right? And we should celebrate the diverse backgrounds that US citizens come from. Wait, what was that word, citizen? Oh yes, only citizens of a nation should be pledging allegiance to it, wouldn't it actually be treason to pledge allegiance to a country outside of your citizenship? So, when we're talking about saying the pledge in a language other than English we are dealing with a citizen that cannot speak the national language. There is not anything inherently wrong with a citizen of a country not being able to speak its national language. However, in what situation would someone gain citizenship quickly enough to not learn the language of the land that is their home? That scenario will be the exception. Generally gaining citizenship is a sufficiently long process that any individual could learn to recite the pledge of allegiance in English, there is no real hardship to speak of. It would not be right to deny a citizen the opportunity to pledge allegiance to their country because they could not say it in the correct language but I don't see that happening. Is there anything to gain by saying the pledge of allegiance in a language other than the national language? Maybe we emphasize our diversity, but at some point we must have a similarity can tie a nation together. The whole point of saying the pledge is to build solidarity among citizens through the corporate declaration of allegiance to the nation. A cacophony of languages can only disturb the ritual and inhibit the development of national solidarity. I have no problem with the proliferation of languages in the streets and private homes; I'm no linguistic elitist, but the pledge must be said in the national language, in our case English. Megan?
If you get an out-of-office type reply that says I'm using another email address and lists the new address, why would you send another email to the old address requesting more information so that the new address can be added to the system? This actually happened on my utulsa account. I'm glad you all have realized I'm using gmail now. Thats a hint to send me email which I will eventually respond to, and don't worry you don't have to be pithy when you write me, you can bloviate as long as its interesting. Yes, I have been watching O'Reilly.
Why would you pledge allegiance in a language other than the national language of the nation to which you are pledging your allegiance? My sister was in town over the weekend and brought up this controversy that arose down in Midland. We didn't actually discuss it much so hear comes my argument for saying the pledge in English then, Megan, you can tell me why I'm wrong. I don't know anything about the specific situation so I might be going down the wrong path but here goes.
My argument begins with national language. What is a national language? Its the language for official government business and most residents learn a national language as their first. Does it not make sense that pledging allegiance to a nation should be done in its national language? Maybe not because this is a nation of immigrants right? And we should celebrate the diverse backgrounds that US citizens come from. Wait, what was that word, citizen? Oh yes, only citizens of a nation should be pledging allegiance to it, wouldn't it actually be treason to pledge allegiance to a country outside of your citizenship? So, when we're talking about saying the pledge in a language other than English we are dealing with a citizen that cannot speak the national language. There is not anything inherently wrong with a citizen of a country not being able to speak its national language. However, in what situation would someone gain citizenship quickly enough to not learn the language of the land that is their home? That scenario will be the exception. Generally gaining citizenship is a sufficiently long process that any individual could learn to recite the pledge of allegiance in English, there is no real hardship to speak of. It would not be right to deny a citizen the opportunity to pledge allegiance to their country because they could not say it in the correct language but I don't see that happening. Is there anything to gain by saying the pledge of allegiance in a language other than the national language? Maybe we emphasize our diversity, but at some point we must have a similarity can tie a nation together. The whole point of saying the pledge is to build solidarity among citizens through the corporate declaration of allegiance to the nation. A cacophony of languages can only disturb the ritual and inhibit the development of national solidarity. I have no problem with the proliferation of languages in the streets and private homes; I'm no linguistic elitist, but the pledge must be said in the national language, in our case English. Megan?
posted by Brock Blackburn at 7:35 AM
5 Comments:
Go Megan! Challenge your brother!!
OK Rush. Surely you don’t think that just by throwing out loaded phrases like “caucophony of languages” and “national solidarity” you’re going to be able to mask the elitist impetus for your argument. Ok ok, so as it turns out, I’m not your sister, but I just couldn’t help but respond… and true to form I have to be as argumentative as possible… I guess that’s my disclaimer. Now, back to the important issue at hand… your fascist attitude. Haha ok I really just wanted to throw out the term fascist for the fun of it.. you know, match your tone of rhetoric.
Seriously though, lets start with the basis of your argument: that the pledge of allegiance to any country, particularly ours, should be made in the national language of that country. Well Brock, what IS that “national language” in America? As it turns out there is in fact no official language in the USA. How then can you exclude someone from citizenship on the basis of a de facto cultural standard? According to the 2000 census, just over 80% of US residents speak English (and that is only with regards to those residents included in the census) is it honestly fair or reasonable to catagorically exclude the remaing 20%?
Reciting the pledge in English without understanding of the language itself seems to me a pointless hoop to jump through, so I will assume your argument implies that the prereq to citizenship should infact be an ability to communicate in English. While this may be ideal, gaining fluency or even profeciency in a language is not, contrary to your claim, a simple task. It requires more than the intelectual ability to pick up a new language, it requires a certain level of social capital that is by no means inherent to the reality of existence in the US. Also, lets address another issue. Yes, citizenship can be attained via bureacracy and naturalization, but as the 14th ammendment of your constitution points out citizenship is also granted to those born on US soil. This doesn’t require a contract by the parent(s) to raise the child with an ability to speak English. The reality of non-english speaking residents is already that, a reality. In the face of that, how can one justify denying citizenship to others by requiring english for a symbolic oath?
The oath is, as you said, a way of building solidarity among citizens of our nation-state… that is to encourage a sense of nationalism. If this solidarity is our aim then I question your assumption that linguistic diversity will complicate this deveopment. I would argue that the ideals encompassed in the pledge as well as in citizenship itself transcend the arbitrary linguistic requirments you are asking for.
Well that was unreasonably long for a blog response, but it was a much more enjoyable way of spending time before practice then doing reading for class. I can’t wait to hear your retort, brock! ;)
eventually i'll learn how to sign my name to these things
So...you know I'm not quite as eloquent as you or as fond of arguing, but you still don't have me convinced. You see, my students pledge allegiance to the USA no matter if they do it in English or Spanish. I happen to be very proud of their bilingual abilities. It provides them with so many opportunities than is typical of kids from their social and economic background. Maybe if they were pledging to the Mexican flag, that would be a problem, but for those who don't speak English yet, at least they are learning some beginning parts of the values of the US. Give my beloved students a chance--you should know what it's like to feel completely uncomfortable in a foreign country! My favorite brother, I appreciate our differences! You're the only person in the world who could coax me into this type of debate. I'm going to miss you!
Anonymous- if you were going to live in a nation other than the US, you'd more than likely have to learn the language. And for the record, immigrants prior to the influx of illegals, learned and tried very hard to become Americans, which meant speaking English. And in fact, most of the immigrants in this country, with the exception of the Hispanics (at least in Texas) try to learn enough of the English language to carry on converstations. I do think that it should be a prerequisit to earning citizenship (for those not born here) that you say the pledge in English, as it is to help solidfy the country and unite us as ONE NATION, and one culture. Not that we shouldn't have cultural traditions, but the bottom line is, if you want to live in America, you should make an attempt to become an American, and that means learning English, like it or not.
And for the record - in the way you used the word let, should have an apostrophe s, as you were using it as (let us).
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