Teddy Roosevelt - 1907. Not the liberal message of today!

[Robert Williams]

Yeah? What about Puerto Rico? Last I checked they're not a state and last I checked they still speak Spanish and last I checked no one was telling them they couldn't or shouldn't.

[fish'nmagician]

1907, when America was fair and just.

 

Liberals ruined it all.

 

 

when uppity carried a death sentence.

[obtuseangler]

Rough Rider was his knick name.

 

 

And a few decades later they named a condom after him too...

 

Great moments in history

[dogboy]

Yeah? What about Puerto Rico? Last I checked they're not a state and last I checked they still speak Spanish and last I checked no one was telling them they couldn't or shouldn't.

 

 

 

okay fine- but with the exception of being able to vote for president while they are living on the island, they are full citizens- as soon as they establish residency in the states they can vote for president

[Robert Williams]

okay fine- but with the exception of being able to vote for president while they are living on the island, they are full citizens- as soon as they establish residency in the states they can vote for president

 

Yes, and when they move here, they should be prepared to speak English because they're not in Puerto Rico any more. This is an English speaking country. So what's your point, again?

[dogboy]

Yes, and when they move here, they should be prepared to speak English because they're not in Puerto Rico any more. This is an English speaking country. So what's your point, again?

 

 

 

there are plenty of spanish neighborhoods where english is rarely spoken except among the young

 

just like there were plenty of yiddish, italian & german speaking neighborhoods during their greatest migration years

 

there are still some long settled places in rural america where german is the lingua franca

 

and when you go to miami, fuggetabout it- i bounce between english and spanish with everybody who works in the airport, and can well imagine what the street life is like

 

you should certainly know that waving a magic wand and expecting everybody to start speaking a brand new language is not a reasonable thing to expect

 

i do have problems with being expected to help foot the bill for the extra cost to print a ballot in 38 languages however

 

but if you play with that one for a while, ask yourself if it is better to promote good citizenship by facilitating the voting process for cambodians for example than it is to expect them to suddenly forsake their heritage and learn by osmosis

 

you are half cuban- did all your cuban extended family speak proper english?

 

would ift have been reasonable to have expected them to?

[Robert Williams]

there are plenty of spanish neighborhoods where english is rarely spoken except among the young

 

just like there were plenty of yiddish, italian & german speaking neighborhoods during their greatest migration years

 

there are still some long settled places in rural america where german is the lingua franca

 

and when you go to miami, fuggetabout it- i bounce between english and spanish with everybody who works in the airport, and can well imagine what the street life is like

 

you should certainly know that waving a magic wand and expecting everybody to start speaking a brand new language is not a reasonable thing to expect

 

i do have problems with being expected to help foot the bill for the extra cost to print a ballot in 38 languages however

 

but if you play with that one for a while, ask yourself if it is better to promote good citizenship by facilitating the voting process for cambodians for example than it is to expect them to suddenly forsake their heritage and learn by osmosis

 

you are half cuban- did all your cuban extended family speak proper english?

 

would ift have been reasonable to have expected them to?

 

Every member of my family that came to the US learned and spoke English. Every citizen of this country should be capable of speaking and understanding basic English. If they feel they don't have to, that's on them and it's their handicap and not everyone else's and we should in no way cater to their unwillingness to merge with the American culture they adopted.

 

Learning the language of the country you decide to live in is not at all an unreasonable thing to request or even demand. By the way, you'd be amazed at how quickly people start picking up a foreign language when they're immersed in it and must learn in order to cope with and survive in the country.

 

Applicants for citizenship are required to demonstrate basic English language skills and that is exactly as it should be.

[moonbat]

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

 

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American....There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'

 

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

 

 

Guess we better can the St. Patrick's and Columbus Day flag waving disloyalty jamborees then.

[obtuseangler]

Guess we better can the St. Patrick's and Columbus Day flag waving disloyalty jamborees then.

 

 

Not to mention all those disloyal state flags.

 

Funny how people who claim to be so strongly in favor of the rights of individuals want to tell them what language to speak or what they can do with their own uterus.

[dogboy]

Not to mention all those disloyal state flags.

 

Funny how people who claim to be so strongly in favor of the rights of individuals want to tell them what language to speak or what they can do with their own uterus.

 

 

 

almost Orwellian isn't it?

 

basic english should be strongly encouraged, yes

 

and i agree that a sincere effort should be made to learn english

 

but this is not necessarily an "english speaking country", and we have the citizens to prove it

 

the place i used to work had two way radios in many of the trucks, and a lot of folks carried walkie-talkies- the non-stop spanish blather, nearly all of it work related, caused the owner to instruct the operations director to tell the guys to start speaking english

 

his reponse was to tell the owner that it was unreasonable to expect guys with a fifth grade education to all of a sudden start speaking another language, and pointed out that even with a college degree and growing up around these guys that he, the owner, still hadn't learned more than a couple of words of spanish after 50 years of exposure

[Garv]

could you imagine what liberals would say these days if a president wanted to do something so ambitious as to dig a trench across a continent like TR did with the Panama Canal? Heck, we can't even get a road across the county built without building a habitat for some slug that would be disrupted.

 

Generally different times back then. TR did plenty to reverse liberty.

[Ibn Ozn]

could you imagine what liberals would say these days if a president wanted to do something so ambitious as to dig a trench across a continent like TR did with the Panama Canal? Heck, we can't even get a road across the county built without building a habitat for some slug that would be disrupted.

 

Generally different times back then. TR did plenty to reverse liberty.

 

We'd call you a hypocrite since it's the same public spending you're whining about in the other thread.

[Garv]

We'd call you a hypocrite since it's the same public spending you're whining about in the other thread.

 

Last time I checked, my county does not have a budget for waging war. Not the same public spending. Not really part of this thread though.

[Ibn Ozn]

Right Garv, civil infrastructure is WAR SPENDING!!! And therefore GOOD!!!

But we all know you'd be calling him a communist for his advocacy of universal health care and national health insurance so this discussion is pointless.

[jesbion]

he also sent a lot of big game animals to their eternal reward before he started the national park system and embraced conservation

 

Now, you're saying one is opposed to the other? I'm sure there are a lot of hunters who would disagree with that remark, me for one...Considering the tax hunters pay has accounted for the return of most game species that the early "market hunters" practically exterminated....And most game conservation organizations are composed of hunters....(read that hunters, not ex-hunters)

The arguments you embrace fail to substantiate.....