Spanish: The Official Language of the USA

I want to point out that I am NOT racist. Most of the friends I have made in my professional life are Hispanic. With that said, I’m sick and tired of going to Wal-Mart to see all the little t.v.s they have playing ads in Spanish. I hate it when I need something and ask an attendant for help and they get this shy look and say “Que?” At which point did this become socially acceptable? I understand that English is a hard language to learn and there are a lot of immigrants trying desperately to learn it, but why do we cater to Spanish? How is this helping them? Just the other day I went to the bank, they had a separate ‘Spanish only line’. I had been waiting for over a half hour and some girl walks in, five minutes later walks out. My Dad moved to Germany years ago for military service and tells me the first thing he did when he got there was went and bought a German-English dictionary and a map. He didn’t expect anyone to cater to his English. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be tolerant of those trying to learn English, but let’s not cripple them by making it unnecessary to learn it. My little sister worked in customer service as an operator. She had this call where this lady asked if there was anyone there that spoke Spanish. She replied no that everyone there spoke English. Then the lady said “oh, that’s ok, I can speak English then.” My sisters quick response to that was “why don’t you then?” Hats off to her. Personally, I feel that was a bit aggressive, but she did a great job of putting the point across. The reason that it bothers me so much is because it isn’t a matter of ignorance, it’s the state of mind that they have. I saw a few years ago in California a big immigration revolt in a high school. The Hispanic students took down the American flag and flew the Mexican flag with the American flag flying under it inverted. Then they stood guard at the flag pole so no one could take it down. I don’t think I have ever seen a picture that has so instantly pissed me off. I found it very offensive. I am all for immigration. Come to our country, bring your culture with you. That is what helps us be diverse, just let me keep my culture. I understand that I am here because my ancestors immigrated here. I also I keep in mind how my ancestors got here as well. They were immigrants from Denmark. The saved up money, went through all the paperwork, and set up arrangements for when they got here. They lost two kids on the way over to America and when they got here, they found that they guy they set up all their arrangements with had stolen their money and disappeared. It sucked, but they changed their last name to an American name, learned English, and started over. I understand that it’s hard. But isn’t that why we come here? To work hard and achieve the impossible? This is just my thoughts on the whole Spanish speaking issue. In my next several blogs I plan to address the issue of illegal immigration and what I think can be done to fix it. I hope you visit them soon. Remember, vote Jeff 2020.