Thank you, Chester Nez.

[John Schwaller]

Thank you, Chester Nez.

Thank you, Navajo Code Talkers.

Thank you for your service to your country.  Even though your country
treated you like second class citizens, even though your country attempted
to eradicate your language you persevered.  You repaid enmity with
kindness.  You repaid segregation with loyalty.

Thanks to your efforts our country was successful in the Pacific theater of
war.  I hope that we have learned that diversity is what makes us strong.



I want to thank you personally because you have transformed my life.
Thanks to your service, our Congress recognized the importance of the study
of foreign languages, and of regionally important languages and established
a system of scholarships to allow US citizens to study these languages.
Thanks to the program they established, I was able to learn Nahuatl, the
Aztec language: as Robert Frost wrote in his poem “The Road Not Taken,”
“And that has made all the difference.”



Studying Nahuatl has opened whole new worlds to me.  I have, over the
course of my career, attempted to share those worlds with others.  It has
enriched my life in so many ways; I simply cannot begin to enumerate them
here.



So, thank you Chester Nez. Thank you, Navajo Code Talkers.



-- 
John F. Schwaller
Professor,
University at Albany
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany NY 12222

jfschwaller at gmail.com
518-608-4522
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