Conservative Politics & Daily Events Discussion

Hi @sideseatdriver!

So....

The language battle...

I might have an @Nemesis1701 moment from some of my brothers (I hope I call us all that) possibly showing their true colors here... But... I've learned to have a thick skin working with all kinds of people in education...

Any who... Yes, Houston in particular makes many efforts to meet the needs of such a diverse community. We have a dual language Arabic school, Mandarin school, French school, and many, MANY Spanish schools. When the Arabic school first opened, there were protests... But now it's settled and everyone's moved on (which will hopefully happen with this President).

My school in particular sends mostly everything in both (English and Spanish) languages. We also offer free English classes to adults through a local community college (unfortunately not as many adults take advantage as I'd like). Point is, we need to EDUCATE!

I'm typing all this on a mobile device, so I won't rant on because it's taking too much effort.

My girls are primarily learning English first, but I want them to learn and be fluent in Spanish (even though I'm not as fluent as I'd expect myself to be), and I'd love them to attend the Mandarin or Arabic school (because knowledge is power and future employment and salary would benefit from it).

Anyway... Carry on... I'm listening...

Only 16 % of The U.S. is Hispanic and at least half speak English. Why cater to 8%

Quote from Thomas Sleight

Only 16 % of The U.S. is Hispanic and at least half speak English. Why cater to 8%

only 22 % of the U.S. owns guns. And half of all guns in the U.S. belong to a mere 3% of the population. Why should we cater to them?

My Grandfather emigrated from Slovakia about 1900-ish. He was sponsored by a church, and came over as a teenager- speaking no English. To pay his debt, as well as room & board, he worked building the railroads. He learned English, and became an American citizen. He so valued the education he acquired in America- due to National Oppression in Slovakia, about 87% of the schools had been shut down- it made his determination to learn even stronger! He worked his a$$ off, saved almost every penny he could, and bought land. He was generous to a fault to his church, his community, and even total strangers. During the depression, he raised 3 kids by himself, on a farm, and fed countless strangers who would stop by and ask for something to eat. He eventually started a photography business, and bought lots more land, (actually selling a corner lot which became a McDonald's.) He always remembered his roots, but cherished his chosen country.

So--- IMHO, it's OK if our immigrants don't know English upon arrival, but they darn sure should have to try to learn- enough to be functional, at minimum. My son, who teaches Spanish at a small-town high school, is often called upon to be a translator for parent teacher meetings. Because of little to no English, the only time they come to the school is if there is a problem, and attendance is not optional. Adult Education offers free ESL classes- I agree with @MiM - not enough take them. I couldn't care less what folks speak, in the privacy of their homes, but an effort to assimilate a sliver of our country should be mandatory. Our laws need to become their laws, our social norms, (inclusive of coloring books and petting ponies, or whatever our "norms" are these days,) need to be respected. Prime example- New Years Eve free-for-all by young Mid-East men against German girls-- NOT OK in my Country. @Cameron Roberts I am afraid that we have already become a halfway house. I need only to point to our higher education campuses--- safe zones, micro aggressions, and repression of conservative ideas.....

With slight skepticism, I will watch our current administration. I believe that Trump actually wants to fix many things. Whether or not he succeeds...... anyone's guess. In the meantime, until he proves me wrong, I fully support him.

Quote from sideseatdriver

only 22 % of the U.S. owns guns. And half of all guns in the U.S. belong to a mere 3% of the population. Why should we cater to them?

I think that 22% is a little low. (Below is published in 2015) One in Three Americans Own Guns; Culture a Factor, Study Finds - NBC News
A new study aimed at figuring out who owns gun in the United States and why suggests that about a third of Americans have at least one.
Most are white males over the age of 55, and a "gun culture" is closely linked with ownership, the team at Columbia University reports.
The study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, is one of several trying to pin down the number of gun owners in the United States. No agency keeps statistics on gun ownership and many pro-gun activists advocate keeping gun ownership private because of fears about potential future laws that might take guns away.

Quote from sideseatdriver

"American" means to you.

English speaking, tax paying, Legal Person whom doesn't mooch off the system, respects the RED , WHITE & BLUE and has a head on there shoulders to think for themselves...

I can go on, but late for hockey...so gotta fly!!

Quote from sideseatdriver

only 22 % of the U.S. owns guns. And half of all guns in the U.S. belong to a mere 3% of the population. Why should we cater to them?

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'cause they have guns ..............

..........

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@MiM...... Nemesis1701 moment........I like that!

Quote from Nemesis1701

@MiM...... Nemesis1701 moment........I like that!

Just glad it got you to post Captain!

Quote from NatomasSlingshot1

I think that 22% is a little low. (Below is published in 2015) One in Three Americans Own Guns; Culture a Factor, Study Finds - NBC NewsA new study aimed at figuring out who owns gun in the United States and why suggests that about a third of Americans have at least one.
Most are white males over the age of 55, and a "gun culture" is closely linked with ownership, the team at Columbia University reports.
The study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, is one of several trying to pin down the number of gun owners in the United States. No agency keeps statistics on gun ownership and many pro-gun activists advocate keeping gun ownership private because of fears about potential future laws that might take guns away.

Depends on who you ask. But even using your numbers, so 33.3% (still a small minority) of people own guns, why should we cater to them (other than the fact they are armed )?

I didn't know we were being catered to.We are the ones that protect our country should something happen,not the safe zone liberalso who would be hiding under their rocks.

Quote from Zeeboo

I didn't know we were being catered to.We are the ones that protect our country should something happen,not the safe zone liberalso who would be hiding under their rocks.

We are being catered too every time a new gun law isn't passed through Congress. We are being catered to with the idea that there is a possibility of national concealed carry reciprocity under this President. Yes, we (I too carry) are being catered to. When over 80% of the population supports increased gun laws, and yet none are passed, yes, we too are being catered to.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled about the lack of new restrictions and the potential for national cc reciprocity, and those restrictions are one of the many reasons I will never live in California, but to think that we are not getting catered to on some level is naïve.

Quote from sideseatdriver

Depends on who you ask. But even using your numbers, so 33.3% (still a small minority) of people own guns, why should we cater to them (other than the fact they are armed )?

Gun owners are fighting to retain the few rights they have left. Originally it was perfectly legal to own crank cannons and Gatling guns and hand grenades. Now depending on your state you may not be able to own a trimmed down version of the standard issue rifle.

Quote from Bill Martin

@sideseatdriver - you make all good points but if our country keeps "evolving" changing its core values that made this country great - when will it become something so far away from what the founding fathers invisioned it is unrecognizable. I believe we fought for independence from the English for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness not so we could become like other countries. The opinions on this subject I am sure will be quite diverse depending on generational heritage but @NatomasSlingshot1 s prior post is what I was trying to say is the fabric of which this country is made of. Now, IMO, we allow immigrants to come here and thumb their nose at 200 years of history and say " that way was wrong - do it my way". Way to many folks have fought and died to preserve our way of life and there is no place on earth better......why we gotta keep changing to accommodate foreign immigration???

What made this country great is that the Founding Fathers had the notion that the country would NEED to evolve, hence the lack of specific rules and regulations specifically addressed in the Constitution. We are supposed to be a bastion of acceptance, the guiding light for those that need help and sanctuary - that is what we were founded upon, that is what the Statue of Liberty has meant for many. That is why we have freedom of speech and freedom of religion and the right to pursue our dreams.

This country has been built on the back of so many different cultures - the Native Americans, the slaves, the Irish, Chinese, Russian, etc indentured servants (and other workers particularly found in the industrial revolution and railroad expansion), that we have become a melting pot of everyone's cultures, but have no singular identity. No singular language. In what ways have we allowed people to come here and snub their noses (legal immigrants only - the illegal immigrants who fly the Mexican flag in protest of the US should go the hell home if life here is so rough) of the nation? According to the DHS, there were 42.4 million legal immigrants in the U.S. in 2014. How many of them are causing issues? How many of them are causing us to change our "ways"?

Now, if you are referring to the ways we are modifying the way things work to accommodate the influx of illegal immigrants, then you have a slightly stronger point, but even then, without the identification of an official language, how exactly are we changing? So we make accommodations so that people can understand the world around them as they try to have their piece of the American Dream. We have done the same for every other culture to this point. And every other culture to this point has had to suffer similar derision and pushback. But we have flexed, we have evolved so that each culture is equal in the eyes of the nation.

Quote from NatomasSlingshot1

I think that 22% is a little low. (Below is published in 2015) One in Three Americans Own Guns; Culture a Factor, Study Finds - NBC NewsA new study aimed at figuring out who owns gun in the United States and why suggests that about a third of Americans have at least one.
Most are white males over the age of 55, and a "gun culture" is closely linked with ownership, the team at Columbia University reports.
The study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, is one of several trying to pin down the number of gun owners in the United States. No agency keeps statistics on gun ownership and many pro-gun activists advocate keeping gun ownership private because of fears about potential future laws that might take guns away.

I do not know how to look up the numbers, but why don't someone just look up the number of back ground checks made in say the past 10 years ( need to get a couple of years before obama) of which more than one gun could have been bought per back ground check. Now you add in the one's that you cannot see ( Concealed Carry Permits) and then you add in the private sales (no way to check) Now what is the population of the USA? IMHO you would have some real numbers. I forgot the number of guns owned before back ground checks.

Quote from FunCycle

I do not know how to look up the numbers, but why don't someone just look up the number of back ground checks made in say the past 10 years ( need to get a couple of years before obama) of which more than one gun could have been bought per back ground check. Now you add in the one's that you cannot see ( Concealed Carry Permits) and then you add in the private sales (no way to check) Now what is the population of the USA? IMHO you would have some real numbers.

How many purchases were done by the same person? Who has sold/gifted/died/lost/had stolen their guns in the same time period? How many guns existed before then and have been handed down? The problem with getting a lot of this data is that it's just not there to be found otherwise it would constitute a gun registry. And no one here wants that.