I caught part of Oprah recently. One of her guests was ‘Puff Daddy Master X Doggie’ or something like that… Mr. Doggie has recently become aware of the power and importance of voting! He sees himself as a role model for youth, minorities and women…if I interpreted his Ebonics correctly. He likened listening to American political debate to listening to a Spanish TV network when one’s only language is English. Now he actually claimed to be speaking English!
His complaint was that youth didn’t pay much attention to politics because politicians don’t speak their language. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of ‘BS’ passes for intelligent political debate…but they do speak English. The problem, or so it seems to me, is not in the speaking but in the hearing!
I don’t intend for this to sound racist at all… I agree completely with Dr. Martin Luther King…people should be judged not on the color of their skin…but on the content of their hearts. (I would only add ‘by the use of their brains’ as well! ) It just seems to me that human beings have spent thousands of years painstakingly increasing the sphere of knowledge for the betterment of the race. Just think of all of the great philosophers, explorers, scientists, inventors and educators who have worked to contribute to the great fund of human knowledge. And in THIS generation wherein we have unprecedented access to that fund...many can’t even speak the language of the land!
I don’t care what state public schools are in…there is no excuse in this day and time to not be able to read, write and speak English! In addition I believe that people, especially voters, should be aware of the issues of the day! Is that too much to ask?
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