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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Alison B: What Caused Crowd to Gasp

Alison Boggs, SR colleague: Hey, Dave,
What questions did you ask that "elicited gasps" from the audience?

DFO: I asked three questions. The first one was in way of an anecdote in which I told the story of my maternal grandmother's struggle in America. She was here almost 50 years but never learned the language. She almost had her kids taken away as a new widow during the Depression because she didn't know the language. She denied citizenship until 1954 because she didn't know the language. Yet, her children were bilingual and my generation was so thoroughly assimilated into the American culture that we couldn't speak Portuguese. I told Bill Sali that we're suspicious of efforts like his to make English the official language because we have seen it used in our family to keep good people like my grandmother down. And unnecessary. I thought about using the word racist but didn't. Question No. 2 came from Bill McCrory on this blog: When will you know when the war on terror is won or lost. Question No. 3 asked each candidate to describe and critique his opponents views on abortion and same-sex marriage. I guess you had to be there to understand the gasps.



Huckleberries Online

D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.