Por favor, Alcalde Bloomberg, no mas. Your Spanish-language ad
may have signaled your effort to reach out to the Hispanic
community, but you would have been more successful had the ad
been dubbed. Maybe you believe that this effort to communicate in
the Spanish language will persuade Hispanics to vote for you, but
it makes me wonder, how dumb do you think we are? The only people
you're likely to impress are those who can't vote because they're
not citizens.
Of course, there are members of the City Council who would like
to change that. Last year, one council member, Bill Perkins of
Manhattan, proposed legislation that would make noncitizens
eligible to vote. Now another, Eric Gioia of Queens, is taking
this multicultural nonsense a step further by requiring the
translation of all content on the city's Web site,www.nyc.gov,
into at least six languages: Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole,
Korean, Russian, and Spanish.
At least the council's minority leader, James Oddo of Staten
Island, has labeled the translation proposal correctly: silly
legislation. In a press release issued May 27, Mr. Oddo asked the
important question: "Where does it all end?"
My grandmother never did learn to speak much English. Her four
children, however, became fluent. Her son, my father, may have
sounded like Ricky Ricardo, but he was fluent and her
grandchildren all speak English flawlessly. Of course, we grew up
in a New York before bilingualism was foisted on the public
school system, which has produced mangled linguists in both
languages.
Is it well-intentioned ignorance that motivates these
politicians, or is it a Machiavellian plot to keep Hispanics out
of the mainstream by dismissing the importance of English
proficiency? We live in America, and the primary language spoken
here is English. How likely is it that Americans emigrating to,
say, France will find that country bending over backward to adapt
to their language comfort level?
I congratulate Council Member Oddo for recognizing the danger of
over-accommodating immigrants. In his press release, he wrote:
"I have never been a strong believer in the 'slippery slope'
argument, however, my colleagues are quickly making me a
believer. The various translation schemes that they are proposing
on what seems like a weekly basis would cost the City countless
of millions of dollars. Being a New Yorker is a wonderful thing
and I understand that many different people from around the world
wish to live here, however, being a resident also carries certain
responsibilities. When living in society you must make certain
efforts and not expect government to hold your hand and do
everything for you. One of those is learning the language. I
wholeheartedly disagree with this legislation as we continue to
head down that slippery slope and I urge my colleagues to oppose
it as well."
That's very well said, Mr. Oddo, but I don't think your
colleagues will cease pandering to special interests in pursuit
of votes. Perhaps Council Member Gioia and the others need to
take a good look at what's occurring in the Netherlands, where
the tolerant Dutch went to extremes for years to welcome Islamic
immigrants.
They built mosques with government funds, made all kinds of
societal language concessions, and now the Dutch are inundated
with militant jihadists who brutally killed two well-known
citizens, including Vincent van Gogh's great-grand-nephew,
filmmaker Theo van Gogh.
The maverick right-wing Dutch member of parliament who visited
New York last year, Geert Wilders, has been under heavy security
because of death threats issued by these groups. They are angered
by his call for a moratorium on immigration by non-Europeans. In
an interview with the Daily Telegraph in London, he said:
"I am not a xenophobe at all but I want to preserve our
culture. Islam and democracy will never be compatible in the next
thousand years. We should forget about a moderate Islam and
instead invest in Muslim people and integrate them into our
democracy. We have been too tolerant of intolerance."
We do not yet have to deal with a militant Islamic population, as
do the Dutch, but we do need to start thinking about preserving
the American culture, which ideally is classless, color-blind,
and democratic. Multiculturalists in the United States speak
often of preserving immigrant cultures, but it should not be at
the expense of our own. What ever happened to the great American
melting pot? This nation has become great because of the
immigrants who come here from all over the world seeking a better
life for their families. They did so by adapting to the language
and culture of this free society.
It is poor policy to enable those who are unwilling to make that
effort.