Letters To The Editor

LANGUAGE POLICY

Critics just troublemakers

As a resident of Kootenai County, I have yet to hear anything but appreciation for our county commissioners’ resolution making English the preferred language of Kootenai County.

Commission Chairman Dick Compton is correct; this resolution has nothing to do with racism. While some in the media see a need to sensationalize this non-issue, the commissioners are to be congratulated for representing the views of the majority of us in this county.

I don’t need Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan or Marshall Mend to lecture me on their views of racism.

Over the years, Mend and his so-called Task Force on Human Rights has done as much as Richard Butler to paste the ugly name of racism on North Idaho. Mend’s self-importance provides cannon fodder for some media but is largely ignored by those of us who refuse to be labeled racist just because we prefer English as a language.

As he has for years, Mend is beating the drum to promote North Idaho as a racist society. This is his stage and he clearly enjoys hearing himself speak. Anyone who has a view that doesn’t echo Farrakhan, Jackson and Mend is a racist. This is their way of stifling any other views.

I’m deeply offended that Mend equates Kootenai County to Nazi Germany. He owes the community an apology. John H. Rook Coeur d’Alene

Dirty little secret that isn’t

Racism is alive and well in North Idaho. Kootenai County is now English-only.

This should wake up the leadership of those who champion the fight against bigotry, but I doubt it.

Up to now, their strategy of fighting racism has been no fight at all. How could discouraging public demonstrations against bigotry possibly work in North Idaho - the grand capital of Sweeping Bad Things Under the Rug?

I once attended a rally against racism in Coeur d’Alene. I wanted to be a part of the effort against bigotry. I wanted to expose the bigotry I found rampant in North Idaho.

At that rally, speaker after speaker spoke about what a great place Coeur d’Alene is, how we aren’t racists. It seemed like a public relations rally for Coeur d’Alene. Nobody wanted to expose racism at any level. Nobody wanted to fight it. Nobody wanted to do anything but promote.

Why?

Because if the Aryan Nations marches into town and people show up to protest against the march, it gets in the newspapers, gets on television, promotes our town as anti-racist. We sweep our racism problem under the rug because doing otherwise would be bad for business.

Meanwhile, some good-ol-boy, famous potato-heads pass xenophobic legislation making Kootenai County unfriendly to immigrants, foreigners, i.e., minorities.

That’s leadership, North Idaho style. Mark Rist Bonners Ferry

English-only position correct

I applaud the recent decision by the Kootenai County commissioners to support their state law in making English their official language. I hope Spokane County will do the same.

When immigrants come to this country, they have made a major decision to a lifetime change. Surely, they expect to make changes to adapt to their new existence or they would not have come here in the first place.

They must adapt to our country, not expect our country to adapt to them. First and foremost, they should be very willing to learn English as a new first language, not a second language.

Foreign tourists are not turned off by the knowledge that English is the official language. Businesses that feel it’s necessary to do so will have employees who can speak other languages.

The observation that Nazi Germany required everyone to speak German” is not relevant. Foreigners in this country can speak any language they want but English will allow them to make the most progress.

Kootenai County’s commissioners apparently avoided a more important step: banning multilingual education. Schools should be allowed to teach any language they want to offer but should not be allowed to teach other academic subjects in any language except our official language: English. Richard T. Brown Spokane

Haste in judgments not a virtue

After reading the Sunday front page story and editorial comment, one is struck with the idea that, in this instance, bigotry is like beauty in that it is in the eye of the beholder. One is further impressed with the rapidity with which editorial efforts rushed to judgment using large words, such as “xenophobia,” and nasty ones, such as “bigot,” but without ever printing the text of the English-only resolution in question.

It is indisputable that U.S. citizens are horribly deficient in language education. It is equally indisputable that by far the majority of immigrant people wish to learn English and to maintain their original language. Well and good; they are to be commended for these attitudes. The choice should be theirs and neither imposed nor impeded.

Nevertheless, it seems thoroughly reasonable to require that all public documents be made available in English and for this be a legal requirement.

We rush to judgment when we assume that all diversity is desirable. Before the American Revolution, English conquerors gave the French inhabitants of Canada total freedom to maintain their language and cultural traditions. Good! Did that generous diversity promote unity of Canada?

Whatever one decides, The Spokesman-Review owes its readers more complete information. At least then it might not promote the rush to judgment that so apparent in your Sunday edition. Donald M. Barnes Spokane

We need decisions, not diversions

Now that the Kootenai County commissioners have put behind them the critical matter of English only, I suggest they continue to defer action on trivial issues such as growth, budget, image, repair and revenue.

They should continue instead working on new names for the city (currently French, not English) and the county (also not English).

And while they are working on new names, perhaps another bogus phantom will raise its head to be dealt with, so our elected officials can continue to shrink from the important business we elected them to address. Fred Glienna Coeur d’Alene

Reaction ‘totalitarian hypocrisy’

So, the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations characterizes those who disagree with its opinions on the official English issue as Nazis. How appalling is the totalitarian hypocrisy of the left.

Should one laugh or weep?

The “latent prejudice and bigotry” referred to by Skip Dunton is most clearly expressed by his own intolerance for the language and culture that brings millions of foreign tourists, not to mention immigrants, to America. I have compassion for Dunton’s pathological self-revulsion, but not for his need to publicly display it.

Incidentally, task force members will not find government documents printed in English for one’s convenience the next time they visit Japan. To their credit, the Japanese have attained a level of intellectual and linguistic maturity that values national unity and distinguishes diversity from disunion.

One can only hope that members of the task force, who do not seem to lack for leisure time, may some day achieve the same level of maturity as the Japanese and learn to refrain from engaging in fascist smear attacks on those with whom they disagree. Raymond Fadeley Spokane

It’s a matter of common sense

Activists attacking the recent Kootenai County commissioners’ resolution to use English only for government business should take their bologna home and make sandwiches with it.

Since when is it a right to conduct business with a government agency in the language of one’s choice?

This country is an English-speaking country. Many of its founders were English-speaking people and our laws are based primarily upon English law. It is not harsh or even unreasonable to expect people who immigrate to or even visit our country to accommodate our language, laws and customs.

This has nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with common sense.

The Nazi Germany analogy made by Marshall Mend of the Kootenai Country Task Force on Human Relations is ludicrous. People are free to speak whatever language they please in this country. The resolution only addressed the use of English in government business.

The message is this: You may use whatever language you wish for your personal affairs. However, if you choose to interact with government agencies, it will be done in English. It is far more cost-effective and reasonable to expect foreigners to use English than it is to expect the government to use Japanese, Spanish, Russian or any other language.

Human rights activists do themselves an extreme disservice when they address issues such as this. They would do better to devote their time to real problems, such as the Aryan Nations. Hal Dixon Spokane

Hat’s off to Kootenai commissioners

I commend Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin for having the fortitude to introduce the English-only resolution and the other commissioners for voting for it.

The March 20 Spokesman-Review article reported that many civil rights workers were bemoaning the official English requirement.

The English-only resolution says only that all official transactions shall be in English. What is wrong with that? Is it not one of the requirements of citizenship to be able to read, write and speak the English language? No one is supposed to vote unless they are a citizen and one of the citizenship requirements is being able to read, write and speak English. So why are we printing official papers of any type, including ballots, in any foreign language?

The English-only resolution does not ban the speaking of any language or taking whatever foreign languages are offered in schools.

We need more elected officials who are willing to take a stand on some of these issues. My hat is off to the Kootenai County commissioners. Ed Weilep Spokane

Multilingual approach unnecessary

I strongly disagree with The Spokesman-Review’s editorial on the English-only resolution passed in Kootenai County last week.

First, I don’t think you have any right to criticize us over in Idaho. Second, I think it was a very good thing that an English-only language law was passed. Third, I think that English-only as the official language should be the law throughout the United States. It would save a lot of our tax dollars not to have to print different things in all those languages.

My family came over from Sweden. We had to learn English without having instruction manuals printed in Swedish and without our children having to be taught in Swedish.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with any family speaking any language it wants to, at home or any where else, for that matter, as long as taxpayers are not required to pay for it. Gordon Lahrson Hayden Lake, Idaho

‘Official English, yes’

Congratulations to the Kootenai County commissioners for their vote on official English. Human nature develops most readily with a common language that allows all members of a community to communicate.

This country of ours, with millions of immigrants speaking many languages, has progressed faster and better than most with the common bond of English. Let’s keep these states united. English only, no. Official English, yes. E.D. Scamahorn Colville, Wash.

Correction

The March 21 letter from Rick Bailey contained an error. Dick Adams and his “group of nine” did not hire a lawyer to try to keep the Lincoln Street Bridge from being built.