-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 11:25 PM 03/25/96 -0800, tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote:
I try to avoid "me too" echoes, but this is worth concurring with, strongly.
Nothing good can come out of "raising awareness," especially of an issue where the Consitution is already pretty clearly on the side of the right to speak in whatever language one chooses, to keep diaries in code if one wishes, to whisper to others, to place curtains on windows, to lock doors, and so on. (I suppose Jim Bell will point out that the Constitution contains no explicit language about placement of curtains....)
Regrettably, I must disagree with Mr. May on the matter of speaking in whatever language one chooses. It seems that here in Texas (specifically, here in Amarillo), a local judge informed a Hispanic family that they were prohibited from speaking _only_ Spanish to their child at home. The rationale was that since English is the (ostensibly, in this area) Public Language of the school system here, failure to encourage use of English would adversely impact the child's education, and was thus a form of child abuse. If need be, I can provide excerpts from the local snoozepapers coverage of the issue. *sigh* One Freedom at a time...... Dave Merriman -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMVbp7cVrTvyYOzAZAQHuTwP8DbhSO4PuMKl8/W/pNHCc2UsRCLSCADW3 JV5wJqh0H+z959tGx6zcB+WTjHSXMz/ZKsQFxGnJ40fKDj4YXOclRZraqgVPngHh nrBzPNs0eZMJujecIE9v+JHJdIGmLKlkH9XQgmA4eqUF0ivGz9yLD4aVVyOjew45 f/okXaXbjeA= =UUyW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------- "Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." P. J. O'Rourke (b. 1947), U.S. journalist. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> http://www.shellback.com/personal/merriman/index.htm