Re: Let's *NOT* "Raise their Awareness"

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At 11:25 PM 03/25/96 -0800, tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote:
>
>I try to avoid "me too" echoes, but this is worth concurring with, strongly.
>
>Nothing good can come out of "raising awareness," especially of an issue
>where the Consitution is already pretty clearly on the side of the right to
>speak in whatever language one chooses, to keep diaries in code if one
>wishes, to whisper to others, to place curtains on windows, to lock doors,
>and so on. (I suppose Jim Bell will point out that the Constitution
>contains no explicit language about placement of curtains....)

Regrettably, I must disagree with Mr. May on the matter of speaking in
whatever language one chooses. It seems that here in Texas (specifically,
here in Amarillo), a local judge informed a Hispanic family that they were
prohibited from speaking _only_ Spanish to their child at home. The
rationale was that since English is the (ostensibly, in this area) Public
Language of the school system here, failure to encourage use of English
would adversely impact the child's education, and was thus a form of child
abuse. If need be, I can provide excerpts from the local snoozepapers
coverage of the issue.

*sigh*

One Freedom at a time......

Dave Merriman
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On Tue, 26 Mar 1996, David K. Merriman wrote:

> whatever language one chooses. It seems that here in Texas (specifically,
> here in Amarillo), a local judge informed a Hispanic family that they were
> prohibited from speaking _only_ Spanish to their child at home. The
> rationale was that since English is the (ostensibly, in this area) Public
> Language of the school system here, failure to encourage use of English
> would adversely impact the child's education, and was thus a form of child
> abuse. If need be, I can provide excerpts from the local snoozepapers

Yes, and some years ago a State legislature (I forget which) passed a
resolution setting the value of pi at exactly 3.  I'm not sure how they
planned to enforce their will.  Do you know how the Texas judge means to
enforce his?

Charles Bell