Sunday, April 01, 2007
Newt Gingrich is an A-hole
Seriously, that guy ought to be tied to a chair and forced to watch his family suffer the indignities that his proposed policies would inflict on others. I don't even know where to start on this one. The fact that bilingual education has been scientifically shown to make kids do better not just in language classes, but in all subjects? That a bilingual society is not a weak society? That it's illegal in many states (like Oregon) to provide English-only election materials? That it's flat out immoral to even want to do so?? ::pant:: ::pant:: I'm just not going to start anywhere. I can only hope that he and his entire clan are kidnapped by Mexican radicals who put them in a living tableau where they have to obtain false papers, work crappy jobs for less than minimum wage, are given no help in learning Spanish, and then are asked to sign important papers and vote in local elections all in a language they barely understand. Even better - let's make it Chinese kidnappers, to simulate what it's like for illiterate people to try and hazard their way through our society.
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Ok- so I might be biased here, what with being a language teacher and all...
Being in Japan has made me very, very gung-ho in favor of bilingual education. The few times that I've been able to get English guides to, say, ATMs or how my phone works, I've been thrilled. The fact that someone was nice enough to consider the fact that some people might not speak Japanese gives me warm fuzzy feelings.
That said, the fact that my cell-phone interface obligingly speaks English at me does not diminish my motivation for learning Japanese. I live here, therefore I learn the language. Simple, really.
As for the ballots being in different languages- I think that's immensely cool, actually. We live somewhere where an official can truthfully say, "Why yes, we do have ballots in Swahili. Here you go sir. What's that ma'am? Cantonese? Oh, yes, hold on I can get you a Cantonese ballot. Happy voting!"
(Ok, I don't think that local election officials ever say "happy voting," but they should, dammit!)
Anyway, I think it's really niftily demonstrative of how diverse and weird America is that (according to that article) we print ballots in over 700 languages. That's so cool! It fill me with feelings of Sarah-Vowell style patrotism. We're awesome and weird and have Hindi and Spanish and Norweigian ballots.
Fuck Newt Gingrich- Here's hoping for Mexican radical intervention.
I'm vaguely stunned that Newt Gingrich still has any political currency. I thought he got called out as a hypocrite for cheating on his wife and then never got heard from again (at least not for seven generations or something like that). Instead he keeps on popping up, saying amazingly stupid shit, and then vanishing in a cloud of ichor as if he were some sort of insane ninja of repulsiveness.
As a lifelong beneficiary of bilingual education (on the part of others), I'm all in favor of its continued existence.
Newt Gingrich: Ninja of Repulsiveness! I LOVE IT! It's both hilarious and accurate!
Thank you! I was very proud of that imagery.
As well you should be!
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