This is not anti-immigrant or "English Only!", quite the contary.

My dear departed wife of 50 years, Esther, was bilingual, having learned Spanish as a child in Havana, Cuba, where her father was a Presbyterian missionary. After college, Esther worked in Metances, Cuba, as bilingual secretary for the head of a school, kindergarten to junior college. Later, in Puerto Rico, where I was Head of Math Dept. of a university, Esther taught English, Spanish, French and Latin at the Campus High School.

I logged 4 years of German, 2 years of French at Columbia U., NYC, in fulfilling requirements for a B. S. in physics (with equivalence of major in mathematics). In P. R., I taught in English. I can understand some Spanish, but never learned to speak it. However, if the Hispanic percentage increased enough in my lifetime, I'd willing accept Spanish as co-language with English. I know from Esther what a great language it has been for literature and poetry and drama. I know, from a file I put online, that -- in this "Century of the Brain" -- what a debt we owe to the great Santiago Rámon y Cajal, who discovered the neurons that "power" the brain.

I'm simply complaining about those who do not need to make this excuse. They have to answer to SCD as much as the others I complain about at this Website.

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The above discusses the main language "problem", currently in America. I must also consider problems of those whose "home" language is neither English nor Spanish.

I have some understanding of their stress because of the discrimination I experienced simply for beint a a poor student in the schools of Tulsa (OK) and Springfield (Mo). And some undrstanding of the stress derives from my problems at Columbia University (NY). My tuition was covered by the "G. I. Bill" because I spent nearly 5 years, before, during, and after American participation in World War II. I wanted to major in Engish and do graduate work at Columbia's School of Journalism, considered the best in the world. But I was not allowed to choose my major at Columbia because I'd been a weather observer and forecaster in the Army Air Force during my Service, and the Veterans Administration required me to major in physics, although I did not have the academic background for it (no math since juniro high school algebra). I protested this but Columbia authorities did not back me up on it, violating their own standards in classifying me as a physics major. So my physics and math and chemistry courses were periods of great stress. As noted above, I took four years of German and two of French, because that was the major requirement for graduate work. But I had little time to enjoy these language courses because of the stress of the other courses.

Resentment about others speaking a non-English language often stems from paranoid feelings that these people are talking about them or planning "something against" them. My feelings are perhaps the opposite. I value diversity in our American environment, icluding that of language.

I can conceive that an electronic device can be developed which, by simple switching, would allow a person trained only in English to understand any of the major languages. I may not live to see that, but I would enjoy the experience.

So I'm only complaining that "No speak English" is not a valid excuse in many instances.