tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14339963.post115976765741204822..comments2007-04-14T05:13:22.086-07:00Abogado Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14371370090833556465noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14339963.post-1161180112403053652006-10-18T07:01:00.000-07:002006-10-18T07:01:00.000-07:00Wow! Good comments there Jolie- So David- did this get printed in the BDC? Also was wondering if there were any followup letter to the editors in response to the issue?<BR/><BR/>I can't help but wonder if they printed her article in the first place because it was so out there that people would react to it and talk about it. Maybe start discourse? Then again, it is Beloit where people don't generally go for rocking the boat...Dannyboyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01888720794784878704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14339963.post-1160687056446201482006-10-12T14:04:00.000-07:002006-10-12T14:04:00.000-07:00I really liked this post a lot. I am discouraged when people are upset over people not speaking English. These are the same people that expect to hear English when traveling abroad. I firmly believe that all American children should be required to learn Spanish. Besides obvious educational benefits, it would have great cultural and social benefits as well. This will empower our children to interact effectively with the growing Hispanic population in America. We need to meet people half way.<BR/><BR/>Oregon is also in a labor crisis right now. The local news report that migrant workers that have been traveling up to Oregon for years are not coming now due to the hassle of crossing the border. These are people that have work visas. Migrant workers fill a huge place in our agricultural society. They take the jobs that white workers will NOT take. Now that there aren't enough migrant workers, crops are going unpicked and farmers are worried about losing their farms. <BR/><BR/>My father-in-law is a farmer and employs almost all Hispanic workers. He provides good jobs and speaks enough Spanish to communicate well. He has workers that are here year round, but the majority are migrant and work all long the west coast. Without this population to help him pick his crops (among a million other jobs they do), he would lose the family farm that is has been running for generations. We are blessed to have migrant workers work the jobs that nobody else will take. <BR/><BR/>I'm dismayed that people still think that the Hispanic population enters our country to take advantage of us. It takes immense courage to leave your homeland to seek out a living in a foreign country. I believe people do this out of need, not to work the system. <BR/><BR/>I also don't think today's immigrants differ from previous generations. Yes, in the past the mass exodus came from Europe. Since white people for the most part descended from European ancestors, it makes this immigration more romantic. No matter the era, people have fled their homelands risking their lives to forge a better future.<BR/><BR/>I just read a book about the mass exodus of the Hmong people from Laos to the states during and after the Vietnam war. These people were taken from their homeland where they were self-sufficient for hundreds of years and placed in our society where they couldn't function. The did not choose this. They did not know our language or our culture. They had the stigma of 'lazy' branded on them by their white neighbors. They were forced to live off of welfare because they weren't allowed to practice their way of life. This book "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" is now required reading at the college I work at. They have started requiring it because it deals with the clash of two cultures. The real message is how learn and work with different cultures and not just shut down because they cultural norms do not agree with ours. It's a great book.<BR/><BR/>There are a million of these stories from all over the world throughout the years. Unfortunately, many Americans do not look for the reason WHY people immigrate here. Maybe if they took the time to learn these reasons, tolerance would be more easily obtained. <BR/><BR/>Being upset that directions come in different languages is just plain silly. Riding the bus home the other day, I noticed a Spanish poem on the bus (our mass transit has a poetry program where they commission poems to be placed in buses) and I was excited when I could read and understand 90% of the poem. Knowledge is power. Once people understand this, they might be more willing to learn another language or culture.That Jolie Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07027470955125758461noreply@blogger.com