FW: Answering the phone WAS: Licensing snafu

[John Esak]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Kracht [mailto:rkracht at filegate.net]
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 9:54 AM
> To: john at valar.com
> Subject: Re: Answering the phone WAS: Licensing snafu
> 
> John Esak wrote:
> >> I don't think I'm wrong about their children and grandchildren
> >> increasingly embracing English. If anything access to new modes of
> >> communication and new media will speed that process.  That is an
> >>
> >
> > Unfortunately, Ron, I think there are many, many situations which
> disprove
> > what you conjecture here. Take England and its massive Islamic-Arab-
> speaking
> > population... or France and its even larger similar population. They
> have
> > the benefits that all the new culture can provide, and yet, there is
> nearly
> > near zero integration or adoption of English. In time, and
> unfortunately, I
> > bleive it is an extremely short time, these situations are going to
> become
> > critical problems on a scale we have not dealt with before.  I also
> include
> > the large illegal Mexican population in our country in this area...
> > although, we seem to have slightly better luck in diluting the problem
> by
> > not really reporting it well enough yet. People, for the most part, feel
> > that this problem is border related. Hearing about reality in such
> places as
> > central Pennsylvania and Upper Peninsula Michigan may eventually
> spotlight
> > the difficult aspects of this trend enough that we will all have to
> start
> > dealing with the hard questions of bi-lingual education systems and
> such...
> > a wholly wrong way to go in my opinion.
> >
> > John
> >
> 
> The French and English examples you mention are not relevant. They are
> different cultures which, while they may have some history of tolerating
> different cultures, have no history of embracing and absorbing
> different  immigrant populations.  In fact there approach has
> traditionally been just the opposite with the French doing what some in
> this country embrace as a solution - legislating against the 'pollution'
> of their culture. A counter example in American history would be
> relevant - the best one being the very long slow struggle of blacks to
> become fully integrated into the mainstream culture.  You are well aware
> of the fact that within our lifetime there were numerous laws designed
> to keep blacks from 'polluting' the white race and culture.  Their full
> integration into the mainstream culture is happening but it's still in
> the early generations.
> 
> I don't view illegal immigration as purely a border problem and I
> certain understand that it is an issue people are concerned about - I
> just don't feel informed enough about the issue to discuss the scope of
> the problem or possible solutions.
> 
> > Why did you take this private?  People seemd to be enjoying the thread
> even
> > though it was OT.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
> I didn't intend to take this private - I was working last night and
> replying in the midst of configuring a server was probably not the best
> idea. I mis-clicked and ended up replying to the sender rather than to
> the list on your message. I didn't even realize what I had done until I
> received your next reply.   I have no problem if you want to forward
> these messages to the list although I'm going to be hard-pressed to
> steal time away from work to continue this discussion during the day.
> 
> Ron

Me too, not much time for discussing issues. However, I will forward these
to the list.

John