Press 1 for English

I grew up in a small town. It was mostly made up of middle to upper class caucasions. In high school, I had very little to go on in terms of forming opinions of anyone outside of these classifications. I had a father who was raised in a fairly racist home. While he claimed not to be, you could still see these thoughts occasionally escape him. Like in middle school, one of my first crushes was on a boy of a different color than I. Upon telling my father this, I got a 3 hour lecture about why that isnt ok. However, my dad owns a business and has since employed many types of people and this ignorance of his has seemed to dissipate. He is much more welcoming of these circumstances and different backgrounds. So I completely blame his previous issues purely on ignorance. The fact that his parents denied him to be educated enough to not feel this way. It is most certainly a generational thing. While I spent my childhood in a fairly close minded society, I knew there was more. I couldnt wait to graduate and leave those thoughts in that town. However, I did leave with one thought that others around me would quip and I would think it's funny and even agree with it. This was the "why do I have to press 1 for English sentiment." I would agree and think how ridiculous that others would come here and not even know our language or that we have to learn to talk to them.

Now as Ive been around more types of people and had friends of mixed cultures, I see that too is an ignorant thought. I've been pondering this lately, as Ive seen little pictures or facebook statuses about it. Here is what Ive come up with.

 Some scholars estimate that the Western Hemisphere at the time of the first European contact was inhabited by 40 million people who spoke 1,800 different tongues. By the middle of the 20th cent., as a result of European conquest and settlement in the Western Hemisphere, perhaps two thirds of the many indigenous American languages had already died out or were dying out. So based on this, English isnt even the original first language of this country. It is spoken primarily now because of the influx of our ancestors into the country hundreds of years ago. That means the Native Americans were standing around probably saying the same thing! People came here for freedom and to be in a place of acceptance. They came and formed churches, societies and classes. How many of these people do you think understood each other? How long it must have taken to get to where we are now with the ability to more easily talk to one another. How many generations of Germans or Frenchmen did it take for them to be able to communicate with others in this new society? Our country exists because of other languages living together. We created a place of acceptance and others wanted to be part of it. So in today's society we have this amazing Smörgåsbord(that's scandinavian, btw) of languages and cultures to expose ourselves to and benefit from. This country is a place of constant changing and new things. This is a good thing and as long as it is, we will never be a country of everyone speaking one language. There will always be someone we dont have the language skills to talk to. This isnt something to complain and be annoyed about. It's oppurtunity for our society to grow, and flourish.

Underneath language, skin color, religion, traditions and status we are all people trying to function in a crappy economy. We all get married and have children, for whom we strive to provide a good future. We all have complaints which lead us to calling hotlines and pushing our correct language button. I think its important for everyone to put effort into communicating with each other but I dont feel its fair to expect everyone who lives here to conform to understanding one language.

So there are my basic thoughts on the subject. As I said, it was just something that has been on my mind. I love other cultures and living in a place that allows me to see a peek into others just from walking out my front door.  Im happy to raise my kids in a place they too can learn from other views and maybe end up bilingual. Im not meaning to open up a political debate or anything, I just feel like this is a safe place for my thoughts. I love living in Texas, there is a lot of pride in it but it definetly can not be complimented on its open minds. It is good in some areas but the majority of its residents are conservative thinkers. So if you are reading this, thanks for allowing me to vent this to a hopefully understanding mind.