For the first time in a few years my wife and I took a driving vacation, from coastal South Carolina to northern Arkansas and back.  We drove through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi on the way out, Tennessee and North Carolina on the way back.  So, we got a chance to experience southern hospitality in seven states.  All by the way, a long way from our southern border.  One thing struck both of us.  It was the number of times we heard Spanish being spoken.  In big cities and small towns, if you closed your eyes, you might believe you had been magically transported south of our border.  That got me thinking.

In all the history of this nation, we have had many groups of immigrants enter the country.  Over time, after the initial group of Scots and English arrived, we had large populations of Dutch, German, Scandinavians, Irish, Poles, Greeks and Italians come to what they perceived as a “Promised Land” of unlimited opportunity and possibilities for those who were willing to work hard to improve their lot in life.

There was one thing which was necessary to allow this to happen.  If we weren’t to be a modern version of the “Tower of Babel”, we had to have a common language, and that language by default was English.  So, as each group arrived on our shores, even though they brought many parts of their former cultures with them, they all strived to learn the language of their new home.  In fact, to become a naturalized citizen of the United States, it was mandatory that the applicant could “read, write and speak English”.  If they could converse in other languages, fine, but English was the “glue” which bound us all together.  Unfortunately, in the last fifty years, that concept has come under fire from “Progressives”.

Schools were required to hire teachers to teach students in their native language.  Government documents, including ballots, were required to be printed, in some states like California, in over one hundred languages and dialects.  We began hearing “for English, press one, para la prensa española número dos” when we called a business.  If you went to a Home Depot or Wal Mart, the aisle signs were all in English and Spanish.  What the heck was happening?  Simple, businesses had figured out that we had a very large number of Hispanics, legal and illegal, flooding across our southern border, and they wanted to cash in on their business.  But what about the “glue”?

Quite simply, to “Progressives” it didn’t matter.  How dare we declare English to be our national language?  That was xenophobic and possibly racist as well!  The concept of political correctness and the growth of identity politics on the left has pushed this country backward, not forward.  Not encouraging or indeed requiring immigrants to speak English simply puts them at a disadvantage.  The “glue” is necessary for real success.

So, on this Memorial Day 2018, let us bring back the “glue”.  Learn this phrase.

“Estás en América. Nos respeten. Habla inglés, por favor.”  

That means:

“You’re in America. Respect us. Speak English, please.”

Say it pleasantly to those who are speaking Spanish.  Stop being ashamed to be a proud American Citizen!  Stop catering to those who violate our laws with impunity.

Living in this country is a privilege which the men and women we proudly honor today died to preserve and protect.  Don’t dishonor that sacrifice.