“This is Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it.”

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• Yeah, but is there social security number legit or was it Borrowed from someone else. I don't care what language you speak at home, but you are only handicapping yourself if you refuse to learn the language of the nation that you are a guest in. In Italy, learn italian, in Spain, learn spanish. In Mexico, learn spanish. In America, learn to speak english, any variety will suffice. BTW, I've known plenty of english speaking canadians who picked fruit locally while in college. Of course that may have been before everyone felt entitled and still thought that they had to work for money.

• I can say that I have never seen a white or African-American picking up any tomatoes or lettuce at any fields by Homestead, FL for those McDonald's greasy burger YA'LL eat... Hispanics pay taxes too for those CITIZENS sitting down at home parasites of the taxpayer's money. Think twice before you speak of Spanish speakers, you may need a Doctor or Nurse who save your ass who is immigrant with Spanish backgrounds!

  • If med school would drop their quotas I am sure there would be plenty of English speaking* doctors and nurses to go around.

    *I mean, fluent can be understood easily English speakers.

• This is America. We'll go about living our lives (including driving) whether or not some tyrant in the state house wants to give us permission to do so. And if this tyrant sends his thugs to confiscate our property or throw us in jail -- well, that's why we have the second amendment!

• whoever did this headline... i wish you would come up to my face and say... i know darn well ur gunna get your ass beat by a lot of hispanics. mira mejor para tu mierda si no quieres que te den duro and i know both freakin languages so either way you want it in english o espanol you wll get your ass jumped..

  • Las chicas bilingües tienen calor!!

  • Damn, Brenda. You've got me shaking in my boots. Think you could do it on your own, or do you need your gang with you?

    Oh, and you might want to watch the video. The headline is an exact quote from it. (Although I am saying it, "to your face," on my own.)

    • You get her!!

• Imagine moving to France and demanding ballots in English. HA!

• If America is "The Great Melting Pot" then these people need to "Melt" a little, right?

• Legal American citizens speak English. Way to go Mr. James. Hope it spreads to every state. Drivers license tests and business transactions in English only.

• You've got it, Kimmy. Because German was spoken at home, my Grandmother was pulled out of first grade for a year while her parents made SURE she had learned enough English for schooling. She went on to become a teacher. Any idea how much of school budgets goes for those classes that are being taught in Spanish in public schools? ESPECIALLY if you are sneaking into another country, doesn't it make sense not to stand out by not speaking the language? BTW, actually, English isn't the 'official' language, because Congress won't pass a bill for that ... too busy apologizing for slavery and a higher standard of living.

  • I didn't know that US doesn't have an official language. WTH is that about? It is not unusual for Latin American countries and of course European countries, Asian and African countries to have official languages. It makes sense it legitimizes things especially in the documentation arena, no wonder people have been getting a free pass.

    • It's a states' rights thing. The states are empowered to establish state languages as they choose. Not all states have state languages. Hawaii has two official languages, if I remember correctly (English & Hawaiian). Penna almost adopted German as a second language in the 1800's or so (Pennsylvania German spoken by the Amish/"Pennsylvania Dutch") but ultimately never did and they still don't have an official state language of any sort-- never got around to adopting English officially either. The German idea kinda went sour after a couple of world wars with the Germans anyway.
      Having a state language doesn't exclude other languages-- witness California, which has English as its (sole) official language.
      Personally I am glad for anything that stays as a right of the states. The less encroachment by the federal level, the better. Best to be careful what you wish for when talking about increasing federal control over the individual states.

      • If an individual state wishes for their licenses/documentations/etc to be accepted country-wide or by the Feds (if the occassion calls for it), then it makes sense for the Federal govt to officiate the language that they will accept from individuals and states (for example tax forms) in order to prevent waste. Also to accomodate state to state transactions. One state may not like multi or bilingual documentation while another may be ok with it. Hiring multiple people to do the same documents just because they are coming in, in different languages seems extreme to me. This is just what I think. The states can do what they want, but if it means crossing state lines into other states (courts) or dealing with the federal government in some way to reduce costs that come with multilingual documentation and people needed to translate, in my head it makes sense for it to be in English. Within the state that has nothing to do with anyone else outside the state nor the feds I really dont care if they want to adapt swahili as the state language and have english and swahili documentation.

  • Every child who cannot speak English should not be allowed in public school, until after they take a six month full-time school program solely to learn the English language. Then, mainstream them. It helps the kids themselves, and helps the schools. Such a simple concept. Too logical for the government.

    Come to think of it, they should do this for those not only that speak Spanish, but also Eubonics.

• Makes sense to me. I am a first generation US citizen. It makes perfect sense. If I want to live in this country I have to learn to read, write and communicate in the language of the country. What's wrong with that? The official language of this country is English. It is not Spanish, it is not French it it is not Cantonese nor German. The road signs are in English, the documents should be in English. It is cool if people in the country go out of their way to speak a different language to help immigrants out, but immigrants should help themselves by learning the language of the country. A language that in all reality is not that difficult to learn. Have you tried learning Mandarin or Japanese? Now those are hard languages to learn. You are never truly too old to learn a language IF YOU ARE AMBITIOUS AND WANT TO SUCCEED. Also I find it hypocritical for people to say that the country should accomodate other languages, when those are the same people that if you go to their countries of origin, you would be hard pressed to get things in your own language you will have to eventually learn it IF you want to be able to live there properly.

  When you ENTER into a country you are that country's guest and as a guest you should ACCOMODATE to that country's way of life (laws, etc). If you want to live here, then you should ADAPT AND EMBRACE the country's language, laws and national holidays. If you want to keep your own language and national holidays to use and celebrate on your own or with your family that is awesome, but to try to enforce the language and holidays from another country on the country that you CHOSE to come INTO, that is nonsense and ridiculous to me.

• That is so awesome. A politician with a sack. We need more like him and less lawyers.

  • Not "less lawyers". It's FEWER lawyers!

    - signed -
    The recovering grammarian