[lg policy] letters to representatives: lANGUAGE POLICY

Mon Apr 5 18:52:15 UTC 2010

bulbul
no fear -brouhaha or not, i'm not quitting the mailing list
eve

Slavomír Čéplö wrote:
> Dear Eve,
> 
> please look at the message again - it's signed "Brodhead, WI", so
> unless there's something I am missing, this is a letter from a voter
> to their elected representative. And as such, it tells you what you
> have known long before: that there are people in the US who believe
> that English should be the official language in the US because (see
> above). The only bit of new information here is that some of them live
> in Brodhead, Wisconsin. What is the value of this particular bit of
> information, that's up to you.
> Also, your point about citing anonymous research is well taken. The
> problem is that this message is completely uncitable, with or without
> the signature. Only the original letter as received by the
> Congreswoman Baldwin would qualify as a real source and even then, its
> use would raise a number of privacy issues. This message is basically
> a short FYI, nothing more.
> And I still don't understand why anyone would quit the mailing list over it.
> 
> Yours,
> 
> bulbul
> 
> 
>> wrong - it matters very much who WROTE (not forwarded) the message because
>> otherwise we don't know what we're up against as language policy researchers
>> - if it's "some Johnny Teabagger from Dumbville" then that tells us
>> something about the English-only movement - if it's another
>> group/person/constituency, then we have learned something else about the
>> English-only movement - unspecific descriptors such as "the general
>> atmosphere" of the "English only crowd" (who is that exactly? is it
>> changing?) tells us nothing new and useful - that's why when we do research
>> we don't cite 'anonymous' sources - it tells us nothing.
>> Eve
>>
>> Slavomír Čéplö wrote:
>>> Dear Manel, dear all,
>>>
>>> I must confess I don't understand what all this broohaha is about.
>>> Unless you are extremely inept at all this IT-stuff, you were able to
>>> immediately identify the source of this message, which is Harold, and
>>> we all know that it's not his purpose to convert us to the
>>> English-only cause, but rather to inform us what the Dark Side is up
>>> to. How could you possibly object to that?
>>> And as for the lack of signature, there are only two things a
>>> signature could have told you: a) who the immediate sender of the
>>> message is (and how they got your email address etc.) and b) who are
>>> the troubles souls are who have chosen to pick - of all things - the
>>> issue of English as official language to write to their President and
>>> Congressperson. a) is obvious (see above). And as for b), of what use
>>> could possibly the name of some Johnny Teabagger from Dumbville,
>>> Arkansas, be to you? The point is not to keep records of who said
>>> what, but rather what the general atmosphere among the English-only
>>> crowd is and what kind of arguments they are currently using.
>>>
>>> Yours,
>>>
>>> bulbul
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 7:31 PM, Manel Lacorte <mlacorte at umd.edu> wrote:
>>>> Dear Julia,
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for your message. As much as I understand your arguments (and
>>>> respect and appreciate the work done by Harold for this list), I don't
>>>> really think that receiving this type of offensive letters without a
>>>> signature through our list helps me understand any better something that
>>>> I
>>>> already know quite well through a variety of other non-academic means.
>>>> Best.
>>>> M.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Julia De Bres wrote:
>>>>> This discussion has been held before on this list: as I understand it
>>>>> Hal
>>>>> forwards on anything relevant to language policy as it comes across his
>>>>> desk, academic or not, offensive or not. Everyone knows bigoted English
>>>>> Only
>>>>> champions are out there, and they are as offensive to a non-resident of
>>>>> America as to anyone else. But what kind of language policy scholars
>>>>> would
>>>>> we be if we ignored them and only paid attention to views that we agreed
>>>>> with? Do we really want to only read things by people we agree with? I'd
>>>>> rather know my enemy.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>> On 5/04/2010, at 6:39 PM, Manel Lacorte <mlacorte at umd.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I completely agree with Ofelia's questions and requests. Please remove
>>>>> my
>>>>> name from the list if I am going to continue receiving this kind of
>>>>> posts.
>>>>> This is also MY country. Manel Lacorte.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Ofelia Garcia wrote:
>>>>> Where is the signature on this letter? Is this appropriate material to
>>>>> post? I don't send my personal letters to this group. If this is the
>>>>> kind of
>>>>> posting that we're getting, then I would want my name removed from this
>>>>> list. It is also MY country.
>>>>> Ofelia Garcia
>>>>> On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 11:03 AM, Harold Schiffman <hfsclpp at gmail.com
>>>>> <mailto:hfsclpp at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>>  Letter to Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI 2nd) , 6th-term Democrat
>>>>>  from Wisconsin.
>>>>>  lANGUAGE POLICY
>>>>>  To:
>>>>>  President Barack Obama
>>>>>  Rep. Tammy Baldwin
>>>>>  Sen. Herbert Kohl
>>>>>  Sen. Russ Feingold
>>>>>  January 29, 2010
>>>>>  We want English to be our official language. Immigrants who come to
>>>>>  our Country are required to learn English. We are waisting Billions of
>>>>>  dollars each year printing our information in dozens of foreign
>>>>>  languages. Why do you keep catering to all the foreigners when you
>>>>>  should be making them abide by our laws? By not making foreigners
>>>>>  learn our language, you are allowing them to set up little foreign
>>>>>  communities inside our country and not assimilate into our society. We
>>>>>  are wasting Billions of our school systems money to teach foreigners
>>>>>  in their own language.  Stop catering to foreigners and start working
>>>>>  for "OUR" Country for a change.
>>>>>  Brodhead , WI
>>>>>  --
>>>>>  **************************************
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>>>> --
>>>> Manel Lacorte
>>>> Assoc. Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics
>>>> Director, Spanish Language Program
>>>> Coordinator of Instruction and Professional Development
>>>> Spanish and Portuguese/SLLC JMZ 2202
>>>> University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742
>>>> Tel. 301/405 8233. Fax. 301/314 9752
>>>> http://www.languages.umd.edu/SpanishPortuguese/
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