- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
It never ceases to amaze me how elitist and un-American our very own prez sounds when casually talking about anything from brush clearing to "matters of national security" and now to what the "national language" should be. Never mind how hypocritical it all is coming from this guy.
I remember in elementary school, my 3rd grade teacher broke out a chalkboard sized world map that highlighted each country's official language, religions and currencies, along with the style of ruling government. The US didn't have any official language or religion and many of us asked why this was. "Because we're free to choose whatever language we want to speak or religion we want to practice and therefore the government doesn't demand that you believe in any one religion or learn any one language. We wouldn't be as free as we are now if they did" was the repeated answer. This has always stuck with me and as a result instilled great pride within for my country, this simple statement of our nations' freedoms held in contrast with what the majority of the worlds' were. As young as I was, I understood what I was taught and it made me proud to live here.
So despite our leaders' best efforts at converting us all to white Jeezus saved English speakers, it's a little known fact apparently there IS no official language in this country. If someone wants to sing, record and distribute our national anthem in Swahili, Elvish, Spanish or any other language they have the protected right as a citizen of this country to do just that. Yet after seeing this excuse for leadership, our blue blooded prez who hails from a state where English is increasingly spoken less than Spanish, sounds off on why our national anthem is for English speakers only, I began to wonder where exactly do I live nowadays. Physically, I'm no more than 60 miles south of where that 3rd grade class was and yet these times make it feel like I'm in a different hemisphere all together.
Bush's comments sounded more like someone who never left Mammy's back porch nor bothered to get educated on what principles this country stands for before assuming a role as leader of anything. To see the comment at the end of this WR entry stating he has sung our nation's anthem in Spanish to court voters actually caused heart palpitations.. There is no low too low or too depth too far down the rabbit hole for this kind of lead balloon leadership. It takes Colbert cajones or vast swaths of ignorance to think comments such as this would go unnoticed and not contribute to the ever widening rift between the uninformed and uneducated leadership and the rest of us. I'm not sure I've got it in me for two more months of his un-American tyranny, never mind 2+ more years!
