16 Comments - Excessively Rabid - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 9:15 am: A friend was on the school board of another small town where they did something smarter. They had an Amish population that inclined toward speaking German, an influx of Spanish speakers, and a majority of English speakers. So they decided to have all the kids learn some of each. This being rural Illinois, it was mostly English, but using all three languages helped break down the cultural barriers and resulted in the kids being better educated and better prepared to deal with the world as it actually exists. - cassandra - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 9:17 am: Where are these “needy neighborhoods” that would be shortchanged, some say, by the CCH restructuring plan? South Side residents have, among others University of Chicago Hospitals, a research behemoth. Further west there is Advocate Christ Hospital, which includes a children’s hospital (as does U. of C., which has Comer). The West side has U. of Illinois, Rush-Pres, and Loyola, plus West Suburban and other small facilities. Many of us living on the West side and in the west suburbs could easily walk to the nearest hospital. The supposed lack of facilities is a false argument; the real issue hiding behind this alleged lack of facilities is maintaining (or not) thousands of do-nothing patronage jobs in the Stroger Hospital system. We Cook County taxpayers have been far too willing to be taxed to the teeth in order to sustain huge and unncecessary public bureaucracies in both the Cook County hospital system and in the Cook County bureacracy. - dupage dan - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 9:35 am: I fail to see the logic in Homer Townships decision. I am a big proponent of English being strongly urged upon the populace but please explain how being a legal alien somehow brings with it the magical ability to speak our language? And, how is it that being an illegal alient somehow prevents one from speaking English. Is that how ICE folk identify illegal aliens? The failure of common sense and logic here is stunning. - Amalia - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 9:38 am: “with a population that is 94% white, we didn’t realize the Homer Township had such a bad immigration problem.” so, people who come to this country from, say, Poland, and who do not speak English would not be covered by this Homer Township law? there are TONS of immigrants from Eastern Europe. I encounter lots of them with home health care. and I often have problems communicating with them because they do not speak English. this is not just about English vs. one language. NJ has some new law about giving Miranda rights in a number of languages. this is an issue that is bugging people. either we communicate in a common language or we have problems. early on in the history of the U.S. there was a vote on the language to be used in proceedings, perhaps it was in the Articles of Confederation. English was voted the language by one vote over German. my mother did not speak English until she was in school. we have always been avid proponents of all immigrants learning english as soon as possible. I’m just about fluent in one other language besides English, and passable in yet another. I would not move to Belgium and expect that the government would give me everything in English. same here. - Skeeter - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:15 am: Hey Steve Balich, my family has been in this country forever, but they still like to speak Greek. If you don’t like it, too damn bad. Only a person too stupid to serve the public in any capacity would equate speaking a language other than English with being illegal. Seriously, the guy is either dumb as a rock or racist to the core. Or both. - belmont cragin kid - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:29 am: I love Steve Goodman, but what in the heck does that have to do with naming a post office? I really wish my congresscritter would start acting like a federal elected rather than a high level county/city employee. - (618) Democrat - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:30 am: As I look at the overall ebb and flow of this election cycle I am happy with the $900,000 raised, mostly in June. Now that Alexi is up in the polls, Kirk’s lying problem that he can’t seem to stop doing, and President Obama is from Illinois and hasn’t weighed in yet I look for the contributions to pick up. Many of the Kirk supporters were telling us on this blog in Febuary,March, April and May that an election being held in November was already over. I have been around long enough to know that is never the case. The Kirk fans on here remind me of Cub fans. The Cubs defeat the Cardinals early on in the season, the Cub fans get all up and happy and rub it in, but you never hear much from them in October. - (618) Democrat - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:31 am: Wrong place. Sorry - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:35 am: Not speaking the dominant language puts the minority language speaker at a disadvantage. It also puts them in additional risk when emergencies arise. It is not reasonable for every first responder or Government official to be fluent in every language used in a polyglot community like we have in the Chicago metropolitan area. It costs money to provide services in each potential language. That is money the State and municipalities do not have. To single out a single foreign language such as Spanish as an acceptable alternative language to conduct government business shows a preference over the German, French, Chinese, Hindi etc. If accomodation is to be done for one language, it should be done for all. When the major waves of immigrants came at the turn of the 19-20th century and after WWII, there was a great emphasis to learn the dominant language and to blend in to the culture. Most continued to speak their native languages at home, but learned to speak English as a matter of pride. The question ultimately lies on where the burden of communication lies. Is it with the immigrants or with the existing population. What is the right course? - Skeeter - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:44 am: Plutocrat raises valid points. In fact, making English the official language of business or the language of government has merit. Anybody questioning that idea should check out the Miami airport, where it can be difficult for English-speakers to get around. It would be good if we all spoke English, in addition to whatever other languages we speak. However, Balich is more concerned with illegal immigration than with whether a person can communicate with a first responder. The idea that speaking another language equates with lack of immigration status is simply ridiculous. As such, I stand on my comments regarding him. - Cincinnatus - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:48 am: Plutocrat03 said, “When the major waves of immigrants came at the turn of the 19-20th century and after WWII, there was a great emphasis to learn the dominant language and to blend in to the culture.” Bingo. In the old neighborhood there were several informal fraternal organizations, groups, and other resources that helped the Italian immigrants learn English. And you are right, it was certainly a matter of pride to learn English, which provided the immigrants with the ability to enter the job market an commerce. The effort to accommodate all possible languages is bad for a number of reasons, the most important of which is to assimilation into the culture. It is depressing to see how little this now means. - dupage dan - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 10:59 am: That folk coming into this country have historically been strongly encouraged to assimmilate is well known. The “Neighborhood Houses” sprinkled throughout Chicago are a remnant of that effort. Grandmas and Grandpas were the least likely to learn the new language and remained “cloistered” in the ethnic neighborhoods relying on storekeepers who also spoke the mother tongue as well as their grandchildren to translate when needed. There were newspapers in the home language as well. Their children were more likely to need English in order to work and struggled as best they could since they needed to have some language to get and keep a job. The grandchildren who may, or may not, have been born in the US learned the language and culture quickly, sometimes to the chagrin of the elders. Many of these folk were routine victims of bigotry and worse and yet struggled to make a home in this country. That tradition continues in some part due to the fact that this country still affords many in the world with the possibility of a life so much better than what they have. What is different is that there are some immigrants who wish for the blessings of our economy but eschew our language and culture, sometimes flagrantly. I believe we need to recognize the desire of many to come here and create a new life here. There keen desire to do what is necessary to make it is evident in their willingness to take entry level positions (sometimes at 2 or more jobs) and instill in their children the need to become Americans and get good educations/jobs so as to realize the American Dream. Balich addresses none of that with his stupid remark that he claims the decision is based on whether or not a person is here legally. LEGAL residents frequently don’t speak the language, fool. - Skeeter - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 11:05 am: Well said, Dan. You summarized the history (at least as it pertains to my own family) very well. I will note that in addition to newspapers, there are now cable stations broadcasting from the home countries that are required viewing in certain households. Don’t let Balich know though. He might think that anybody who subscribes to those channels is illegal. - cermak_rd - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 12:58 pm: At the turn of the century with the waves of immigrants that people reference, it’s important to note that they came from a variety of nations and spoke a variety of languages. Therefore, it was not possible for say, Czech to become a quasi-official 2nd language in this nation. However, at this point in time, the waves of immigrants are all coming from nations with a common language of Spanish. When 25% of the population speaks Spanish as a first language, then it becomes reasonable for government services to be available to these folk and downright non-capitalistic for business to fail to note this trend. When 90% of the population in an area are first language Spanish speakers it becomes reasonable to ask whether it’s worth the expense to keep records or proceedings in English. - wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 1:37 pm: For those who’ve enjoyed the hot rhetoric of “bankruptcy” and “insolvency” and “Greece” and “no one will buy our bonds” over the past few weeks, maybe the cool breeze of the yesterday’s bond sale will calm you. The state sold $900 million in bonds. There were orders for over $2 billion. The rate was 6.96%. That’s a couple of points over the highest rated munis, but it ain’t Tony Soprano juice, either. With a fed discount, the effective rate is 4.58. Apparently, the investors are pretty confident they’ll get paid back. - Amalia - Thursday, Jul 15, 10 @ 5:00 pm: cermak rd, to suggest that some areas just use Spanish makes the super crazy anti immigrant folks justified in their fears. don’t do that. there were plenty of giant chunks of German immigrants and they moved on to english. time for spanish speaking immigrants to do what everyone else has done in America, move on, but not forget. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.