Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h85G7O714811; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 12:07:24 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 12:07:24 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <BB7E2C95.44A4%pmcnaughton@language.ca> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Pauline McNaughton <pmcnaughton@language.ca> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9420] Re: Accept English Only donation? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 3412 Lines: 63 Well said. Since this conversation doesn't look like it is going to end anytime soon - I guess I'll join in. If I were going to invest time and energy in a cause, "English only" advocacy would not make the top 10 or top 20 - not when there are things like world hunger, aids crisis in Africa, child poverty, violence and gun control concerns and on and on and on. For instance I'd rather be discussing how we can facilitate access and break down barriers for the considerable number of immigrants and newcomers trying desperately to get employment suitable to their level of education and training, and develop sufficient language proficiency to do so - then spend a lot of time discussing those that are managing to get by just fine without English. Choosing not to learn English, like choosing not to quit smoking is a matter of personal choice with consequences that largely effect the individual and perhaps those around them. It irritates me far more to see young teens or parents smoking and realize how powerless society is to stop that, then to hear any number of instances of people who have managed to function in an English speaking country with little to no English. Many people have managed to function in our society with little to no literacy skills. Quite a feat but it can be done! Like anti-smoking campaigns you can try to convince people to choose not to smoke - but you can't force the choice on them. You can put legislation in place that protects non smokers (no smoking in public places) but you still can't force people to quit smoking. Free choice is a wonderful thing - it gives us personal responsibility, for better or for worse. > From: AndresMuro@aol.com > Reply-To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov > Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 17:50:40 -0400 (EDT) > To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> > Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9408] Re: Accept English Only donation? > > We all get aggraviated for different reasons. Some people get mad because > others don't speak English. I, really don't care what people speak. I get mad > about other things. For example, in El Paso Texas, 26,000 children were cut > off health insurance. This is significant, since this is the state of GW, the > "No Child Left Behind" person. I also get mad when the CEO's of MCI or Enron > steal gazillions of dollars of tax payers money for personal profit when the > have enough already to buy a country. This bother's me significantly when > people bad-mouth welfare mothers and accuse them of all kinds of horrible > things, but they forget about the CEO's who steal more money than anyone can > conceive of. I get upset when we invade a country and English speaking voters > support the invasion for the wrong reasons. > > Recently, the wealthiest got a big tax cut and the rest of us got tax > increases. these wealthiest are the owners of the farms, food processing > plants, canneries, etc that employ all the migrants, many of them > undocumented, to save big bucks. They were suppossed to get a tax break to > create more jobs with better employment conditions. Do you think that they are > going to do that?? Ha!!! > > So, you see, these are some of the things that chap my butt. Do I care what > people speak, read or write? Not really. I'd rather people understood what > they were reading, regardless of the language. > > Andres > > -- > go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html >
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