America has always been the world's melting pot. Even the inscription on the statue of liberty depicts this fact. That said, America, from her inception has been an English speaking nation. Yes there are plenty of people who have come here over the generations that have retained their native tongue but still learned English also. In today's American society we have a very new problem.

Over the last several decades America has seen a huge influx of Hispanic speaking people from Mexico, South America and Cuba/Dominica. A great number of these immigrants are illegally in this country and are here for just one reason; to make more money than they could make in their country. They have no intention of learning the English language or American values or anything else that we as natural born citizens hold dear. I have no gripe with these people except that they are here illegally. It is too easy to get at least a work visa in our country so what this tells me is that they want to be here illegally. Personally I don't care if these people ever learn English. But by the same token I don't believe I should have to learn their language to communicate with them.

If I decided to go to Russia because they had a great job market and I could make a lot more money over there because I wouldn't have to pay taxes since I would go illegally. Should I also expect the Russians to bend over backwards and learn my language so I could communicate with them? Do you think that the first thing I would hear on a telephone when trying to call a business would be someone telling Russians to press one for Russian? Not now, not ever!

I know that with the great demand from the Hispanic communities in our nation, phone companies and major service companies have to consider the needs of the Hispanics. But give me a break, the national language is still English and I don't care what it will be 10 or 20 years from now. If anyone should push a numbered button it should be the ones needing the special service! This is not racially motivated hate mongering; it is just plain common sense! I sure wouldn't expect the Mexican phone company to put English first on their phone cues.

Learn more about this author, Rodney Harris.
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