22 March 2007
I was listening to Laura Ingraham this morning. A caller named Robert, from El Paso, Texas, informs Laura and her audience that he cannot get a job in El Paso because he doesn’t speak Spanish; and that is now a job requirement in most places. (That’s most places in the fields he trained in.)

On one hand, one can almost feel for the man. In his own country he must learn what is to him a foreign language in order to find a job.

But really, he lives in a border town. One would think that anyone in a border town who had the means would have learned at least some of the language spoken on the other side of that border. Many people around the world, especially in Europe, learn English. (And in Mexico many of those who live and work in high tourist areas learn English. In many cases being able to work depends on it.)

Of course, we’re all a bit sensitive to the fact that many are coming here illegally from south of that border and instead of being required to learn the language, as we would if the situation were reversed, are being catered to in their own languages here.

A bit too sensitive in some respects, I think.

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James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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