I was listening to a conversation on some inane morning radio show today about whether or not an employer should be allowed to make a policy requiring all employees to speak only English (lets assume this is a conversation about legal immigrants). Specifically, there is a metal shop in Connecticut that adopted a policy requiring its employees to speak only English during work hours, even though they knowingly hired a work force that includes Spanish-speaking employees.
I could go on and on about immigration, but one caller in particular caught my attention. His general message was that all immigrants should be required to speak English because this is an English-speaking country . . . but what bothered me is that this man could barely speak English himself. If I were an immigrant and I spent 300 hours in class learning to speak English properly, there is no way I’d be able to understand this caller because he isn’t really speaking English either – but he’ll be the first to criticize these people who can’t understand him. How have we come to a place in history where we are unable to teach our children how to speak our own language, but can teach them to look down on and scorn people who work hard and are changing their entire lifestyle to live in our country?
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