“I’m homesick for the days when immigrants … were eager and proud to learn our language and teach it to their children.”

This is one of the standard anti-immigrant talking points: All the immigrants back in the good old days learned our language and spoke fluent English, but these new guys aren’t willing to do that.

In point of fact, a majority of off-the-boats immigrants a hundred years ago didn’t speak English either, didn’t learn it, relied on newspapers and books written in their own language and so on. Their kids, however, grew up bilingual and the next generation was usually English only.

Nothing much has changed other than that bilingual signs and notices make us all more conscious of it.

In the same letter, the writer adds he’s also homesick for “when prayer in schools and other public forums was a good thing for those who wished to participate.” Umm, I think prayer in schools has always been a good thing for the people who want to participate, it’s the people who don’t for whom it’s a bad thing if it’s forced upon them (the difference between someone saying grace at lunch and the principal calling for everyone to stand up and say grace together).

Amusingly, the writer declares this was a time when “all Americans were just that, Americans.” Because if there’s one thing prayers in school are good for, it was reminding everyone in a religious minority that they’re not as American as other people.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.