Beware of jingoism! How can there be no such thing as 'stupidly nationalistic'? If you concede that 'bad' or 'evil' governments do exist and run certain countries, then anyone that believes in their rulers for no reason other than national allegiance could easily qualify as 'stupid' to you. The rise to power of the Nazi party is one of the most extreme illustrations of nationalism (stupid, might I add) the world has ever seen. Before you get all bent out of shape, I'm not drawing comparisons between Operation Iraqi Freedom supporters and National Socialists. I just don't see how you can say that 'stupidly nationalistic' people don't exist.
i care about rational concepts, not meaningless constructs. if everyone thought like me, the whole world would be better than this country is now. there would be no arab/ jew conflict, because the simple idea of identifying yourself as a jew or a muslim (or christian) is ridiculous. conflicts would end if people would think of themselves as individuals and not divide themselves into tribes based on stupid arbitrary factors. but people are morons and they have to group themselves into teams based on meaningless made up stupidity and magic or random dna factors.
The nazi party was more about idealism than nationalism. I would compare them to muslims. To be honest with you Choas, I harbor no hatred toward anyone who fights for their country, whether I agree with them or not. Call it mutual respect. If I would have been born in china, I probably would have fought for that government. Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with any communist reasoning, I'm just saying that they are a product of their upbringing, same as myself. I was born American, I love democrocy and freedom, therefore, I will fight for those beliefs. My love for this country and my way of living is what motivates my attitudes toward others. God, Family, Corps, and Country, those are the things that matter. If you threaten any of those then you threaten my way of life. That is not acceptable. Open mindedness breeds complacency, complacency leads to loss of sovereignty.
Today was hot and humid, with thunder So indoors I stayed with words woe and wonder Also, questions and answers, I investigated There I found some Canadians irritated Angus Taylor, a man from BC Says he's just as American as me Angus doesn't like the word Mom It's American, he claims with aplomb Well, gosh Angus, is that so bad I don't understand why you're so mad And, yes its true, huh we do say What of it? You guys say eh However, Russ Germain said While discussing zee and zed 'make no mistake, we are not Americans' I say, that's ok pal, we are not Canadians We do have railways in the US of A Though, most times, railroad is what we say They are both good words that mean the same thing So just substitute railway whenever you sing The English language is not yours alone Other people have made it their own They've made changes in this word and that I know you don't like it, but that's where its at. I, for one, try to speak right Over our language I don't wish to fight But, I cannot say zed for zee It just doesn't sound right to me :hihi: :hihi:
its usually governments which use these things to push their agenda masked with the name of nationalism or religion. It isn't born of its citizens being overly nationalistic pushing for naziism/fascism/religion or what have you for the sake of being grouped. I think its the other way around. the biggest drawback of not having english a national language is the teachers who struggle with a % of their classes barely able to understand it holding back the other and a burden on the teacher. these kids should be put in an english class til they can properly speak and read it well enough. Then again this would cost more money as well burdening the taxpayer now but potentially pay off down the road once all US educated people became consumers.
Again, this is just as much of a made up world as you say mine is. I live in reality, you do nothing but bitch and moan about how you think it should be.
i was explaining to you how you should think like an individual, and not a member of an arbitrary group, like english speakers. you said when people are speaking spanish around you, you want to yell at them and tell them to speak english, as if if somehow your language is the right language. what i am telling you is that you are unnecessarily and irrationally being proud of what you percieve as your culture. if you were yelling at socialists who wanted to increase the size of government, that would be awesome, but a silly thing like language is no reason to group yourself and the ones like you against the guys who are not like you. maybe so, but the people eat it right up. the muslim leaders tell people to suicide bomb for allah, and the people are happy to do it. hitler pushes nationalism and racial superiority and the people are cool with it and fall right in line to fire up the gas chamber. i think it is a silly idea to think of america as a white christian nation. i like to think of a america as a nation based on freedom and liberty. if that means a buch of dark colored spanish speaking atheist freedom loving patriots, than that is cool with me. oh i agree, english should be taught just like every other skill that people need to get by economically. but if , for example, a school in new mexico where 90% of the locals speak spanish decides to do the bulk of the teaching in spanish, that is cool with me. my puerto rican friends tell me that their schools in puerto rico required them to learn english just like they had to learn addition. i am only really opposing the mentality that english is the "right" language and that people should learn it or go home. learning english is like learning algebra. you should learn it unless you dont care about it or somehow dont need it. i dont like the "speak english or go home" attitude.
i like it to the extent it helps everyone in the long run financially. schools, which are already strapped financially, are required to hire bilingual instructors to accomodate which not only impedes learning of their classmates it also burdens the current taxpayer. so obviously there is a problem that needs to be addressed. just not constitutionally. i think english (as official language) was passed on the state level years ago by something like 20 or more til Clinton passed some bill cutting off federal funds for states that did. on the state level it woulda worked I assume since this problem is state specific.
Tirk, the type of English instruction that you described is available already. I teach English to English speakers. ESL students can't be in my English class--because they would slow it down too much, and I don't know how to teach ESL. In the district where I teach, ESL is more of a challenge because Plano has students from over 119 countries--not just Mexico. On a side note there, most of the 119 countries' children exit ESL and can be in regular English classes within two years. It's closer to six years for poor Mexican kids. I even had a young man in my 8th grade honors English class from Kosovo last year--he'd only been in the country for four years, and was in all honors and gifted classes. By the way, he was an incredible athlete. In his yearbook, I told him to remember LSU when colleges started recruiting him in a few years.
Aren't these ESL's more readily available for the LEP's in non-public schools? sounds like yours is quite effective. within 2 years has to be considered a success.
