We really need to be doing more to defend America’s common language. Exhibit A is the intrusion of the Justice Department to force the farm town of Mattawa, Washington, (population around 3200) to provide all city services in Spanish. It’s another little town that has been Mexicanized by Washington’s open-border policy, but now the place is being further punished by being required to implement a “language assistance plan.” Talk about social engineering from hell…

Nine out of 10 Mattawa residents speak Spanish at home, and 8 out of 10 adults speak English “less than very well,” according to the 2000 U.S. Census. [...]

The Justice Department said the town had to provide translation for people who aren’t English-proficient.

In places that have a high percentage of monolingual Spanish speakers, that means all city services, including law enforcement, have to be available in Spanish.
["A Washington town confronts its language barrier", LA Times, May 25, 2008]

This instance of Washington meddling violates a widely held belief of Americans that immigrants must assimilate. A 2005 Rasmussen poll showed that this conviction remains strong despite years of multicultural propaganda: 79%: No English, No Citizenship.

Two-thirds (67%) of Americans say that those who move to the USA should “adopt America’s culture, language, and heritage. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 17% believe immigrants should maintain the culture of their home country.

Seventy-nine percent (79%) say immigrants should be required to learn English before they are allowed to become citizens. Fourteen percent (14%) disagree.

Sixty-four percent (64%) believe U.S. schools should teach all students in English. Twenty-nine percent (29%) believe some schools should offer courses in different languages.

The public has been pummeled for decades with the false ideology that all cultures are morally equal, but still hangs on to the belief in assimilation. The people still prefer American values to “diversity.”

Bellamy London’s recent VDARE.com review of Richard Grant’s God’s Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre followed by Brenda Walker’s blog yesterday: Meltdown in Ciudad Juarez reminds us of what an utterly dysfunctional state it is with which our esteemed President seems to want us to merge. It reminds me in particular of the most insightful essay I have ever read on Mexican history: “Mark in Mexico’s “The last word in Mexico”.

PC: I believe every Immigration Patriot should read this essay:

Why is Mexico such a mess? It’s the culture. Don’t scoff. I live here, remember? Mexicans do not understand the very basics of Rule of Law. They don’t understand them and I don’t believe they ever will….

Do Mexicans realize and understand the situation in which they find themselves? No. Can or will they fix it? No. So what keeps the country from exploding into anarchy and/or another “revolution” (read Civil War)? Two things; First, no weapons…Second, there is a gigantic safety valve which is protected, encouraged, supported and maintained by the Mexican government. Guess where that is? Yep, it is the northern border through which some 10,000 Mexicans flee per day along with some 600 to 1500 others from likewise failed banana and narco republics further to the south

…Both Mark in Mexico, and the wonderful Houston blog which alerted VDARE.com to his work, A Certain Slant of Light, have fallen silent. The fact is, as followers of my own work will have realized, love can only motivate so far. HINT!

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon on Google Books part of When Histories Collide by the late Irish farmer turned economist Raymond Crotty. This book, unfinished up on the author’s death in 1994, presents a cattle-centered history of the world, with an emphasis on the deep roots of individualistic capitalism in Western Europe. It’s of particular interest because it marks an early milestone in including divergent recent evolution in history –Crotty focuses closely upon the vast consequences of the emergence of a mutation for lactose tolerance, allowing adults to drink milk in some parts of the world. At GNXP, Razib has summarized the book–it doesn’t quite live up to its ambitions, but it deserves to be much better known in the U.S. than it is.

At the Mexican university in which I work, I’ve recently been applying and grading TOEFL tests. The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is a standardized English exam. In fact, it’s the world’s most widely recognized such exam. The TOEFL is used in many countries. In U.S. universities it’s used as an entrance exam. Here in Mexico it’s used in some institutions as an English placement exam.

So why don’t we apply some sort of standardized English test to prospective legal immigrants to the U.S.A.? Since so many people want to emigrate to the U.S., why not be more selective? We could apply it to all prospective legal adult immigrants, or at least to all heads of families.

Of course, some would immediately cry “discrimination”. But “discrimination” means “to make a distinction”. So every immigration system discriminates. The current “family unification” system discriminates upon the basis of nepotism. So how about discriminating to select immigrants who already speak English?