We have a new pork processing plant in our town – we think the Triumph Foods Human Resource office is located in Mexico City. You know how these big corporations are. Our local school system is being challenged to offer a regular old American education to children who cannot speak the language. There is great debate in the country about the issue of language. With the steady influx of Hispanics, whatever that is, should we as a country accommodate their language?

Our simple mind thinks that we will do those folks a disservice if we do not teach them our English, Americanized as it is. It is a problem. We resent the locals who don’t want the Hispanics in our town – they have proven to be hardworking and industrious. Does it cost us locally to accommodate the educational challenge – absolutely – but I don’t think of it as money wasted – it is money invested. Invested in the future of the people of our community. That is what education is!

We are watching history happen. We are watching the blending and mixing of cultures. The melting pot that we call America is improving with additional seasoning. We believe that the growing Hispanic population in America is a positive.

In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln was faced with instituting a military draft. He needed the soldiers to fight the Civil War. The Irish immigrants of New York would be called into service. At that time the Irish were the ‘lower class’ of people. They had jobs as janitors, housekeepers, train porters, and dishwashers. If they lived here today they would be working fast food, convenient stores, pork processing plants, and chicken farms. The Irish in 1863 did not want to be drafted. They argued that if they left their jobs then the black people would take their jobs while they were gone to war. This was the central cause of the Draft Riots of 1863. Today the Irish descendants are some of the most respected of our citizens.

The nature of our history is that we will accommodate any new culture or new language – but it has always been sort of understood that ultimately the newcomers would assimilate into the gooey stew of America.

We don’t care what language a person speaks – but the reality is that if a person is to have the best chance of success in America – they should speak the Americanized English. We think we should help them. We would do them a disservice if we enabled them, in our thoughtless liberal way, to not grow with this great economy.

Immigration Humor:

Where does an Irishman go on vacation? To another bar!