[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Sounds good to me ;)
Jeme A Brelin
jeme at brelin.net
Thu Jun 20 10:57:19 UTC 2002
On Wed, 19 Jun 2002, Craighead, Scot D wrote:
> Russ:
> >Language IS importand. The fact remains that we are a nation of
> >immigrants, and as such, no one language is spoken by all.
>
> I honestly don't see how you can say this. All the signs are in
> English. Legal documents are in English. When a Government official
> gives a speech, it is in English. There are a few small pockets of
> people that speak only another language. They are a tiny, tiny
> percentage of the population. Can you agree with that?
You didn't write anything in the above paragraph that refutes what Russ
wrote in his paragraph.
This is a nation of immigrants. You made no attempt to address that
point.
No one language is spoken by all. You refer to pockets of people that
speak only another language (besides english).
So how can it be that you don't see how he can say that?
I'm going to play out my interpretation of events in my own logical
equivalents again, these are not quotes:
Russ: None of those things are true in all cases.
Scot: I don't see how you can say that. Those things have exceptions,
but they're true MOST of the time.
> I would say for all practical purposes, English is the language we use
> in the United States.
For particular values of "we", that's true. But it isn't true for all of
the "we" in "We, the people".
You want to make an "all" out of a "most". They're not the same thing.
That whole argument just reinforces my belief that those people who claim
to hate Madison's "tyranny of the majority" really support Madison's
belief that "the purpose of government is to protect the opulent minority
from the majority". That is to say, the majority is only tyrannical when
it does not include the opulent. If the minority being excluded is poor
or brown, it's majority rules, all the way. And that's what's good and
right. ("Isn't that what you poor, brown people are always saying you
WANT?!?")
> Here is a seperate thought. In Africa, the many tribes have many
> different languages. They have realized that it is impossible to
> learn all the languages. They have adopted English as a language to
> use when they are talking to people that don't know their own
> language. So if a person learns English (the Queen's, not American)
> in addition to their own tribe's language, they can communicate to
> nearly everyone.
You're right, Scot. That is, in fact, a separate thought.
J.
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Jeme A Brelin
jeme at brelin.net
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