The 21st Century Tower of Babel

Idiocy from the heartland

http://press.arrivenet.com/pol/article.php/677871.html
from JoeUser Forums

In what can only be described as stupidity, the Denver public LIbrary has decided to make 7 branches 'Hables Espaniol'.  They are banishing english books to the back rooms and going with a spanish motif.

While this may seem like a 'feel good' policy, in actual fact it is just another attempt to keep a minority down.  It is stupidity at its worse.

There is nothing wrong with speaking spanish.  Indeed, I speak a very little and my wife is also fluent in it.  But if Spanish is the only thing you are going to speak, you are not going to get very far in the USA.  Mexico?  Sure!  You can become president there, but not in the USA.  By coddling spanish only speakers, these denizens of dunce have decided that apparently America does not have enough janitors and yard workers, so we must cultivate a permanent underclass.  One that will be happy with their low standard of living and never aspire to better themselves in this country.

For that is what they are doing. It is another example of a PCism that I am sure is being done for all the right reasons, but the effect is to create a permanent low income group of people.  And that is by far worse than any 'feel goodism' that can come of this idiotic attempt.

So chalk another one up for the ignoramuses that poo-poo the citizens trying to make the official language of the US, english (one of only a handful of countries in the world that does not have an official language by the way).  No, those who look to raise all the boats instead of lower the water are just a bunch of small minded jingoistic racists who would deny every culture their right to live in isolation and poverty in the richest country in the world.

Losers is now spelled Denver Public Libraries.

6,910 views 58 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

Proponents call the plan "cutting edge" and "revolutionary."

They sure know how to dish out the bull sh*t, dont they.

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
You wanna see the REAL Tower of Babel? Come visit Israel... a country made up of immigrants...most still speaking their native languages... and NO ONE speaking Hebrew properly. A trip to any public place will allow you to hear every language known to man.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
another example of political correctness, that is slwoly destroying america.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

You wanna see the REAL Tower of Babel? Come visit Israel... a country made up of immigrants...most still speaking their native languages... and NO ONE speaking Hebrew properly. A trip to any public place will allow you to hear every language known to man.

Oh, we got that here too.  300m speaking english (none of them correctly according to the British), and half speaking another tongue as well.  But I dont think Israel or anyother land is trying so damn hard to make sure that not everyone speaks a common language as the dummitz's here.

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

another example of political correctness, that is slwoly destroying america.

Another example of the liberals trying to institutionalize their voter base by keeping them down trodden.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
The whole concept of an "official" language seems asinine to me, simply because its plainly obvious that English is the official language. You don't need bureaucratic time wasted to establish it as such. If English was not the the official language, this plan would not be described as "revolutionary" or "cutting edge" or whatever other garbage they used to describe it.

That being said, this "plan" is about the stupidest thing I've heard about in a long time.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
They should offer free English classes for Spanish speaking people if they really want to create a 'feel good' plan.
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think it is a good idea, in some respects because it is providing a service for a percentage of Denver's population, who also happen to be taxpayers and are probably forgotten about, for the most part.

it is just another attempt to keep a minority down


I hardly think providing a Spanish library is a good example of keeping a minority down. Not providing library services for them would be a good example but this idea, to me and my perverse sense of logic, seems a sound one. But the big question that occurred to me is why they need to do this at all? Surely they could simply allocate some space in existing libraries for Spanish volumes.

Just my two cents...

Cheers,

Maso
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
no sense encouraging people to read or making the library more accessible to the community in which it's located. why try competing with telemundo and the other spanish language tv networks and risk not keep em squarely in front of the box.

haz lo menos que puedas y deja que lo hagan otros
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

The whole concept of an "official" language seems asinine to me, simply because its plainly obvious that English is the official language. You don't need bureaucratic time wasted to establish it as such. If English was not the the official language, this plan would not be described as "revolutionary" or "cutting edge" or whatever other garbage they used to describe it.

That being said, this "plan" is about the stupidest thing I've heard about in a long time.

This plan is being done for the simple reason there is no official language.  If there was, it would be quashed and the hispanics of Phoenix given a tough love, but much better solution.  English is the 'unofficial' language.  At the rate of errosion, it will not even be that inside of 50 years.

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

They should offer free English classes for Spanish speaking people if they really want to create a 'feel good' plan.

The stupid thing, is that those are offered by the school system (part of Title I).  Libraries could participate as well, and the feds pay for it, so money is not an issue here.

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top

hardly think providing a Spanish library is a good example of keeping a minority down.

Maso, by not forcing them to learn English, so they can completely function within society, they are keeping a minority down.  Champas just had an incinderary article decrying the fact that not knowing a language was keeping some very intelligent people down, in their own land.  With the resources there to teach them the language, this should not be an issue, but for some, it is.

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top

no sense encouraging people to read or making the library more accessible to the community in which it's located. why try competing with telemundo and the other spanish language tv networks and risk not keep em squarely in front of the box.

You apparently did not read the article.  Nowhere did it say that NO Spanish langauge books were available.  But hey!  Why encourage them to learn english.  They might want to get an education and compete for your job, and that would not be acceptable now would it?

Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
When my ancestors immigrated to Ohio from France in the 1830's - 1890's they did not, for the most part learn English. However, they didn't ask (demand) the local population learn French either. What they did do was to hire English speaking teachers to teach their kids English. Notice I said they hired. They didn't ask the State or Federal governments to pay for the teachers. They also paid for teachers to come over from France to teach their kids so they wouldn't forget where they came from. Right up to my dad's generation, each generation learned French and English. Pity they stopped the practice.

In all of the reseach I've done on my family I've never seen them call themselves anything other than American. Never French-American or American-French. They were proud to be here and wanted people to know it. I am an American. Beyond changing planes in Paris once, I've never been to France.

JollyFE
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

When my ancestors immigrated to Ohio from France in the 1830's - 1890's they did not, for the most part learn English. However, they didn't ask (demand) the local population learn French either. What they did do was to hire English speaking teachers to teach their kids English. Notice I said they hired. They didn't ask the State or Federal governments to pay for the teachers. They also paid for teachers to come over from France to teach their kids so they wouldn't forget where they came from. Right up to my dad's generation, each generation learned French and English. Pity they stopped the practice.

Mine emigrated to New orleans, and while my Grandmother spoke French in her house growing up, they also learned english such that my Great Uncle was a famous Doctor and another is Max Faget, of NASA Fame.  They kept their mother tongue, but they also learned the native tongue.

Like you, I am an American.  I have been to France once on a visit. It was enough.

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
But would you agree that in any multi-cultural society, part of the pride of being such is the diversity of language and cultural differences? In keeping with this, providing some services, such as specific language libraries, is encouraging the idea of multiculturalism as not so much the provision of a manual labour force, but as a more rounded integration of different cultures into the greater whole.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Max Faget




I'm so, so, so sorry...but, c'mon...Max Faget...that's great....hahhhahahhahahaa
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
Nowhere did it say that NO Spanish langauge books were available. But hey! Why encourage them to learn english. They might want to get an education and compete for your job, and that would not be acceptable now would it?


i read the article. i'm sure i coulda easily found one that wasn't totally biased against the idea and included ridiculous claims about locking all the english books in the basement (presumably where the spanish books are now)

my point was merely this: if it brings people into the library and gets them reading, it's a whole lot better than if the building is filled with the entire treasury of english literary works but used primarily for posting placas or blocking the wind.

who knows...they might even wind up wanting to learn to read english?

the other thing you and this nutgroup youre quoting fails to recognize is this: many, if not most, of the immigrants coming across our southern border are able to understand a good deal of english. they are often country people and often very self-conscious in general and rather than possibly embarass themselves, they'll deny any knowledge of our language.

the first high school i attended was surrounded by at least four square blocks of polish immigrants. many had been in this country since before ww2. it wasnt uncommon to have 3 generations in one household with only the grandkids who were my age speaking english.

everyone--from politicians to priests (pope john paul visited the place according to their website) made a big deal bout not losing their precious customs and language. the pastor would regularly bully kids in my class for not pronouncing their own surnames correctly or with appropriate finesse(names like pryszblsky or czernykowzki)

i'm sure (once again from their website) the place hasnt changed much. and it was far more acculturated than hamtramyck--the warszawa of the motor city.

compared to the people who lived there, those who migrate across the southern border already speak fluent english.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
Never French-American or American-French


what the hell is wrong with those cajuns btw? they don't even have the decency to call themselves cajun-americans. or arcadian-americans. maybe they aren't americans at all??
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top

But would you agree that in any multi-cultural society, part of the pride of being such is the diversity of language and cultural differences? In keeping with this, providing some services, such as specific language libraries, is encouraging the idea of multiculturalism as not so much the provision of a manual labour force, but as a more rounded integration of different cultures into the greater whole.

Providing a part of a library for langauge diversity is one thing.  Providing libraries for such an outing doeds nothing but to allow those not fluent in the native tongue to stay marginalized and thus always in the under class.

Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top

I'm so, so, so sorry...but, c'mon...Max Faget...that's great....hahhhahahhahahaa

That is his name, and it is pronounced fah jay.  He is a real cousin of mine (I miss spoke when I said Uncle.  He is the eldest son of one of my Uncles).

Faget is an honored and revered name in my family, and yes, we get a lot of ribbing for it.

Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top

i read the article. i'm sure i coulda easily found one that wasn't totally biased against the idea and included ridiculous claims about locking all the english books in the basement (presumably where the spanish books are now)

You like to make off handed claims, why dont you back one or two of them up every now and then?

Maybe because it is just wishful thinking on your part?

Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top

what the hell is wrong with those cajuns btw? they don't even have the decency to call themselves cajun-americans. or arcadian-americans. maybe they aren't americans at all??

Ure right!  We are either Cajun, or American.  Never Cajun-American!

Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
Nowhere did it say that NO Spanish language books were available. But hey! Why encourage them to learn english. They might want to get an education and compete for your job, and that would not be acceptable now would it?


i read the article. i'm sure i coulda easily found one that wasn't totally biased against the idea and included ridiculous claims about locking all the english books in the basement (presumably where the spanish books are now)

my point was merely this: if it brings people into the library and gets them reading, it's a whole lot better than if the building is filled with the entire treasury of english literary works but used primarily for polling places or blocking the wind.

who knows...they might even wind up wanting to learn to read english?


No one has suggested that providing spanish books is bad or should not be done. But to make spanish the de facto language in those library branches is wrong and makes it so that the english speaking citizens of that community will not be able to use the facility. And since they're helping to pay for the libraries, that makes it totally bogus.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top
As I said in my initial response;

Surely they could simply allocate some space in existing libraries for Spanish volumes


although I still don't agree that providing specific language libraries is going to keep those people marginalised. But hey, we don't have to agree on everything.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Cheers,

Maso