| Published: Waubonsee Insight |
| Date: December 2005 |
| Section: Opinion/Editorial |
| Comments: This was written as a response to the insane letters to the editor I received for my infamous 'french fries' article. |
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By: Ian Essling
I want to thank everyone who wrote into Insight regarding my article. I am very happy that we have received such a response from the student body. Any time you have the chance to voice and defend your opinion and you take the opportunity to do so, you strengthen and define your own personal convictions. It is heartening to see that we have students who are willing to take the time to sit down and write a response to something they feel strongly about.
However, I am disappointed by the manner in which some of you addressed the Insight staff and me personally. The shocking array of flagrant personal attacks and profanity-laden messages were only matched by two Hispanic students entering the Insight office the Monday after the paper was released claiming that the writer of the article "needed to be shot" and that they were "going to kill [the author]."
It appears as if many detractors of my article have misunderstood key parts of my argument.
To begin with, the article was NOT a news article. As you can see on page 7 of the last issue, it is clearly listed under the heading of "opinion," thus it is an editorial. The First Amendment guarantees myself and the other staff members of Insight Freedom of the Press. We can essentially write about anything and everything we want, and we are free to publish it.
I am not a racist, nor is my article an attack on any ethnic group. My article was born from many frustrations dealing with non-English speaking employees being unable to serve English-speaking customers. I am not attacking immigrants or Spanish speakers. I do not place all the blame on the employees themselves, either. Where are the managers? If they know someone has a difficulty speaking English, why would they put that person on the front lines or put them in a position that could have very serious consequences?
There are many food allergies and other serious reactions that can be triggered by the most innocent of ingredients, and a miscommunication at the counter could cause the sickness or even the death of a customer. People who cannot speak English should not be serving customers, in any industry.
I imagine that it must also be frustrating for these people as well, when they are being put into a situation where they are completely unable to understand the questions posed to them by customers. They should find employment opportunities where they will not have to interact with customers, until they have developed a solid understanding of English.
As I stated in my article (paragraphs 17, 18 and 19), I am more tolerant of people unable to speak the language of the country working jobs that do not cause ill effects to English-speaking customers, like cooking the food in the backroom.
But when someone's job is to provide service to the public, they are being paid to give them the highest quality service possible, and that means speaking English well enough to communicate effectively with the general public. The majority of the population uses English as their primary language; this is not debatable. Congress holds their meetings in English, the Constitution was written in English, and the 2000 Census reported that only 18% of the total population aged 5 and over spoke a language other then English at home.
A few emails suggested that Waubonsee disallow articles such as mine from being posted in the newspaper, and I refer you back to the First Amendment and our Opinion page byline. Waubonsee faculty and administration has nothing to do with what articles we print and which ones we do not. The administration and our faculty advisors actually encourage us to speak out on whatever issue we would like to write about. Ironically, this freedom extends to you, the reader, as well. The same freedom you seek to squelch allows you the option of voicing your own opinion in the same manner that I have voiced mine.
Other responses to my article wandered very far off topic, talking about everything from my ancestors to NAFTA. My article is an account about an experience I had. My article is not meant to address global issues, foreign labor or my personal heritage.
In fact, if you want to open that can of worms, I have first-hand information about an immigrant having to learn English at an older age. My grandma, Paulette Kain (nee Bodet), was born in France and came to the United States right after WWII, when she was twenty years old.
I questioned her about this experience, and she told me that as soon as she was settled in with her friends, the "first thing she did," before anything else, was learn to speak English fluently. "It was the only thing TO do.if you don't learn English, you're stuck. You are not going to get anywhere," she explained.
To this day, you can clearly hear the French accent in her voice, but she made the effort to focus on learning English and it paid off for her. So, it's not an impossible thing to accomplish. She knew that that in order to succeed in this country, she needed to speak the native language, especially if she was going to be interacting with the general population on a day to day basis.
The bottom line is that my article, while being "politically incorrect" and unpopular with some readers, is exactly what some of you complained that it is: the view of one person.
Just as you are free to express your views in your letters and emails to the staff, I am free to express mine.
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