Is our children learning Spanish?

Obama, trying hard to win friends and influence voters:

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

Cap'n Ed and the Minuteman quickly pointed out that simply becoming bi-lingual in Espanol doesn't cover a variety of the other immigrants coming ashore or sneaking across the border daily. I'll add there is an overt pandering to the Latino voters with this, sort of a getting inside McCain's kitchen kind of thing.

So far Obama has not said he would force our children to learn another language but let's think about this a sec. Many people (like me) took several years of foreign language in high school and can't remember more than a few words. The only way to change that might be mandatory proficiency tests. With Obama's penchant for the national service it seems reasonable to assume.

But in reality it's impractical for Americans to be forced into learning alternate languages unless they so choose. Here's an excellent real-world example of how this bi-lingual lunacy can skid out of control. What would Obama suggest, that all Oklahoma Department of Safety examiners be fluent in 100 languages?

Loathe it or not America is still a melting pot, therefore it seems far more beneficial for immigrants to learn the common language rather than having native-born English speakers trying to acquiesce to a myriad of speakers. Teddy Roosevelt's take on this issue, uttered a century ago, is immortalized on the sidebar of this blog for posterity. It's about unity.

Think of how Obama could promote national unity by strongly encouraging all immigrants to quickly learn the common language, rather than looking down his elitist nose at one of the core concepts of our land, one more American than apple pie itself--the melting pot. His apparent failure to grasp this simple concept by demonizing those who desire less division through a national language (like Teddy Roosevelt a century ago) is yet another illustration of his dim vision for this country.

MORE OBAMA NEWS 7/9/08

Today Obama flip-flopped and voted in favor of the FISA bill, one which he originally indicated he might filibuster. Hillary voted against it after playing games on cloture vote. No doubt Obama's trying to pander to the middle-right security voters, but instead of taking heat on the evening cable shows the screaming headline is Jesse Jackson caught whispering about ripping the Messiah's nuts off. Good timing, eh?