From Bush’s Monday night speech:

“English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America. English allows newcomers to go from picking crops to opening a grocery, from cleaning offices to running offices, from a life of low-paying jobs to a diploma, a career, and a home of their own. When immigrants assimilate and advance in our society, they realize their dreams, they renew our spirit, and they add to the unity of America.”

Some one should get the word out to the [1] non-English speakers.

At the Lodi Adult School, where I teach English as a second language, here’s what’s going on: in the morning class, only two of three rooms are used. One is approximately half full; the other 25 percent full. In the evening, again only two of three rooms are used with roughly the same ratio of students to empty chairs.

What’s interesting about this is that the school is located in a predominantly Hispanic area with high levels of unemployment. That is to say, most in the neighborhood need to learn English and have plenty of time on their hands to do so. And they can easily walk to school.

But as I have [1] repeatedly written: they aren’t interested. And if Bush’s disastrous fantasy should become law, you can bet that mastery of English and “assimilation” by the newly amnestied will not come with it.