Rishi sent me this amazing article about a kid in Maryland who got offended because, during Foreign Language week, the school broadcast the Pledge of Allegience in different languages. Apparently it was Russian that got him all stressed out.
"This is America, and we got soldiers at war,"the 15-year-old said. "When you're saying the Pledge in a different language which nobody understands, that's not OK.". . . .Charles Linton, Patrick's father, said the use of other languages is disrespectful to the country. "It's like wearing a cross upside down in a church," he said. . . .The pledge was to be read in Spanish, French, Latin, Russian and German. School officials said the activity will continue, with the English version of the Pledge being read first for the rest of the week.Okay. I don't live too far from Russian Fort, and much of the Northwest and Alaska was originally colonized by Russians. Other large chunks of the nation were first colonized by the Spanish and the French. A large portion of our scientific (and military) heritage is German, and our motto (E Pluribus Unum. From Many, One. Get it Patrick? From Many.) is in Latin. Not to mention that our western railroads were built by indentured Chinese laborers, much of the Central Valley lands that now feeds the the West were settled by Punjabis, and many of our Northwestern farms were worked by Japanese immigrants. I'm not even going to try and list the influence of the Italians, the Dutch, the Iranians, the Lebanese, the Polish, the Greek, the Korean. . .Yeah, you get the picture.
Given the situation in the world right now, it seems to me that learning as many "foreign" languages as possible is about as patriotic a thing as a young student can do.
