Interstate Highway Safety - Ghost Drivers – Part II
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 335
Today we further develop the issue of Ghost Drivers, English as an official language and what it may say about our culture. I ask the question: Is the answer about why some people turn the wrong way on the interstate, any indication of our mindset about diversity in language and one way that we are hurting our own economy?
But what about the language barrier issue; should we be looking at this issue differently? Do our attitudes about being English speaking Americans say something to us about the cost of foolish pride?
If it’s a language issue then perhaps we need to reexamine our own thinking and expand it. In Iowa we legislated English as our official language. In Iowa Code sec. 1.18 the general assembly of the state of Iowa found and declared English to be our official language. So while that law declares that Iowa is comprised of individuals from different ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds the idea of assimilation requires the state of Iowa to print in English. I’m not sure what this does for our state culture or what is says about us as an open-minded and tolerant people but after visiting several foreign countries I can tell you how being treated as a foreigner made me feel.
The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that Spanish follows English as the language spoken by the largest number of people in the U.S. They point out there are 34 million people in the United States who speak Spanish. Iowa has 97,876 Spanish speaking people, accounting for 3.51% of the population. That number doesn’t account for seasonal workers temporarily residing in Iowa or those traveling across Iowa on the interstate highways. Spanish is the most widely taught second language in the U.S. [Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2002.] French is second. There are almost four times as many people studying Spanish as there are French. Ask yourself when you last ran across someone in the U.S. who spoke French and wanted to buy groceries or gas or anything? Not so with Spanish.
The top ten Internet languages are English, then Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean and Italian. In millions: English 430,Chinese 276, Spanish 124,Japense 94,French 68,Gerrman 61, Arabic 59, Portuguese 58, Korean 34 and Italian 34. That’s interesting there are 124 million Spanish speaking consumers using the Internet. That’s a lot of people that could be consumers within our state because as you know unlike the State of Iowa the Internet has not borders. And also has no official language. The 1990 Census Bureau figures showed over 17 million Spanish speaking people within the United States. That number has to be low due to those for various reasons who are not counted.
“The Spanish language is the second most-common language in the United States after English. There are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than there are speakers of French, Hawaiian, and the Native American languages combined. According to the 2007 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older.[1] The U.S. is home to more than 45 million Hispanics, making it the world's second-largest Spanish-speaking community, only after Mexico and behind Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.[6] Roughly half of all U.S. Spanish speakers also speak English "very well", based on the self-assessment Census question respondents.[7]”
In the United States, the melting pot of the world, there are an amazingly diverse number of languages spoken. As an example did you know that Tagalog and Vietnamese have over one million speakers in the United States? Spanish speaking people are a growing percentage of our nation. Presently there are 10.7% of the population.
.jpg)
Russian Border Control Sign
Perhaps we need to post signs in more than just English. You might think this is not the American way or an expense Americans should not have to incur. But I disagree with you. A recent trip to Ireland taught me something about how selfish it is to adopt this point of view we seem to have in America. In Ireland highway signs are in Gaelic as well as English. Gaelic is Ireland’s native tongue. The town of Shannon is English for the Gaelic Sionainn. Galway is Gaillimh and Ennis for Inis. Imagine if you needed to drive to Dublin and the interstate sign read: Baile Atha Cliath, Town of the Ford of the Hurdles. If Gaelic were Iowa’s official language what would the interstate signs read for the City of Cedar Rapids, The City of Five Smells?
Ireland interstate highway sign - Gaelic and English
The “official” signs were just one way that the Irish try to make us fit in. In Ireland they drive on the left side of the road and from the right side of the car. I drove and as you can guess it’s quite and adjustment. Barbara would have no part of driving. As a part of the foot traffic in Dublin we toured north and south of the River Livey. At crosswalks the City of Dublin painted on the street “look left”. This was their way of accepting our language limitations while trying to keep us safe from oncoming traffic. It did make us act and feel safer. It was one of those small gestures that did make us want to return to Ireland.
Now I hate to go back to Sarah Palin but she is the most recent example of what I’m talking about. Her mindset was as appalling as was her understanding of the world. Just this morning she admitted to not knowing that Africa was a continent. I have to wonder why so many people would vote for a team, sorry John, which includes a person who believes visiting a foreign country includes a fueling stop where you never get off the plane. If the flight entertainment included the travel channel would that qualify for visiting whatever country was being explored on film?
Some things are so well recognized that even the Russian language can't confuse or dissuade us.
What we need in this country and in this state are political leaders who have traveled outside of the state of Iowa and who have a more diverse way of thinking. People who run for highest offices need to have an understanding of other cultures. Being educated about other cultures adds to the generation of new ideas that can help us here in Iowa or any other state. We need politicians who tell us what we need to hear not what we want to hear; and who have the ability to explain why our culture needs to change in a way that it includes rather than excludes. It was insulting to my intelligence for the President of the United States to tell me what color state I lived in and whether that meant we collectively were loyal Americans. I suspect the majority of Iowans felt the same way. It was equally an insult to watch the salesman in Chamonix, France ignore the college students who spoke only English.
Consider if only in Gaelic - This is a 500 foot drop at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.
Do we have it in us to open up our minds about what languages we promote?
Don’t worry I have no intention of writing any blog post about driving on the left side of the road from the right side (our passenger side) of the car.
Right side driving.
A Universal Languge – Guinness! Is what Americans need plenty of, after an oncoming Irish tour bus passes you while driving on roads designed for the 4th Century horse drawn wagon traffic, from the left side of the road and the right side of the car.
"Blame the guy who doesn’t speak English." A quote from Homer J. Simpson.