Tomorrow’s Cranbury Press will feature stories on:
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Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
This week in the South Brunswick Post stories on:
Get the paper for details.
Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Here’s another good piece on the recent vote on a Senate amendment declaring English the national language (whatever that means). Ruben Navarrette Jr., a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union-Tribune (I saw it in The Asbury Park Press) makes a point similar to the one made by E.J. Dionne Jr. earlier this week: that anyone living here needs to learn English for a lot of reasons but that designating English as the official language is “divisive and insulting.”
I don’t have a problem with declaring English — as in a related amendment also approved by the Senate — merely a “common and unifying language.” But calling English “the national language” is more absolute, as if no other languages should be spoken. It is also unnecessary, divisive and insulting to any U.S. citizen or legal immigrant who, in addition to English, also speaks Spanish, Russian, Chinese or any other foreign language and doesn’t feel any less American because of it.
Of course, anyone who lives in the United States should learn English. But here’s the key: They should do so for their own good and for the good of their children, and not to stay in the good graces of fellow Americans desperate to remain culturally relevant amid changing demographics.
And this:
The senators confirmed the suspicions of many U.S.-born Latinos that they’re in the cultural cross hairs, that many of those who claim to only be anti-illegal immigrant are really anti-Latino and anti-Mexican, and that the immigration debate has become a proxy for an assault on the language and culture of a minority that is, in parts of the country, on its way to becoming a majority.
The Bush crowd talks a good game when it comes to democracy abroad, but as Derrick Z. Jackson reminds us in The Boston Globe, it is not as committed to the concept at home.
I’m passing this along from a friend, the poet Eliot Katz. He’ll be on the bill at the event and I’m hoping to get over there myself. Here it is:
Marc’s Place, a monthly coffeehouse of music, poetry and discussion, will hold it’s next event on Friday, June 2, at 8 p.m. Sponsored by the Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War, it will be held at the Reformed Church, 19-21 So. 2nd Ave. in Highland Park. The discussion topic will be : How the world is changing — and its impact on the peace movement’s goals and strategies. The speaker will be Sam Friedman. Music will be performed by “In Good Company,” and there will be a poetry reading by Eliot Katz. The coffeehouse is free, but donations are accepted. Come for the coffee, food, and music, and stay for the conversation. For further information, contact Dorothy at (732) 235-1444.
Channel Surfing, The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Hank Kalet 