AM I PART OF THE PROBLEM?Today I received another irritating

AM I PART OF THE PROBLEM?

Today I received another irritating forward, once again from my LDS friend, Fran. (If I tell her not to send such e-mails, she will simply say she doesn't care that I'm bothered, or else apologize when sending such sends for a brief while, but ultimately she will keep doing it.) Don't get me wrong, Fran is a dear friend and a good person -- I just don't agree with a lot of the items she sends me. Generally, I delete them after reading them, but I wanted to comment on this one.

Here is what she sent me. (I will explain what bugs me about it after the text and picture.)

"COMING SOON

I passed this on to you so that we all can see our future! COMING SOON!
















No apology for sending this ! ! ! After hearing they want to sing the National Anthem in Spanish - enough is enough. Nowhere did they sing it in Italian, Polish, Irish (Celtic), German or any other language because of immigration. It was written by Francis Scott Key and should be sung word for word the way it was written The news broadcasts even gave the translation -- not even close. NOT sorry if this offends anyone because this is MY COUNTRY - IF I T IS YOUR COUNTRY SPEAK UP -- please pass this along.
I am not against immigration -- just come through like everyone else. Get a sponsor; have a place to lay your head; have a job; pay your taxes, live by the rules AND LEARN THE LANGUAGE as all other immigrants have in the past -- and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

PART OF THE PROBLEM
Think about this: If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone -- YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
It is Time for America to Speak up

If you agree -- pass this along, if you don't agree -- delete it!


Yep, I passed it on!"

Do I believe that our national language should be English? Yes, I do. Am I offended by Hispanics singing our National Anthem in Spanish? Not really. Would I prefer, however, that they learn English and sing the National Anthem in it since they are part of our country? Well, yes. But I'm not getting hot under the collar about the issue -- there are a lot worse situations in the country to get up in arms over.

What really bothers me is the statement at the end about those who don't forward it being part of the problem. Who does the author think he or she is, to pass that kind of judgment about the character of people like me who may have very valid reasons for not sending it out to everyone in their address book?

I have Hispanic employees, and they are highly valued. They are legal, according to the documentation we required when hiring them. They play Hispanic music and listen to Hispanic talk on the shop radio. We buy items for our shop cafeteria that they like, so they can purchase them from us via draws from their paychecks. They speak Spanish to each other. This doesn't bother me at all. They are good workers, and do work that us all-too-often spoiled Americans wouldn't do. They do need to know enough English to successfully communicate with my son, Jeff; nephew, Nick; and our salesperson, David, all of whom are definitely English-speakers (although David and his wife were missionaries for a while in Ecuador so he knows Spanish).

I don't think that the author of this piece was expecting someone to blog about what he or she said. (Not that the aforementioned author will ever see this blog entry, but stranger things have happened.) No, I did not delete it. But I did not pass it on, either. I hope that wouldn't confuse the author. Hee hee!

The biggest irony to me is the computer-generated shot of the Statue of Liberty. Did the person who put this together forget what is engraved on that statue? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free . . ."

At least, the text of the forwarded e-mail above does say that it's okay to allow immigration, as long as the law is followed, and I'm not objecting to those couple of lines.

Granted, the massive influx of Hispanic illegal aliens is a situation that needs an effective solution, with the strain being put on governmental services, but I think this kind of nasty forward (especially at the end) is counter-productive to a positive approach in finding answers to these difficult issues.