To coddle or not to coddle

[senate7377]

Before I start, know that I'm not being racist or classist in anyway. I'm stating my opinion and thought, look for feedback as to the general opinion on the text below.

So, I was sitting on my back porch talking with my buddy about things in general, and somehow Spanish language came up. Living in a Farsi / Spanish rich community that the average income is 120,000 a year (unless you are ME or Hispanic and then is around 20,000). Over the last 5 years, the number of Spanish speaking people have almost quadrupled in number. The school system has converted two of the 5 schools to a Spanish mandatory school, meaning that if you attend, you WILL speak Spanish. These are public school and it makes no sense to me. Maybe its just me. I would understand the conversion schools MUCH more is Spanish were actually a prominent business language, but some how I don't see Steve Jobs holding a business meeting in Mexico, or even Spain (though the Spanish is two different dialects). Its just not very practical on an educational level. Japanese, German, French - if you make a language learned mandatory, then at least make it useful. Rather than set up after school programs to teach dominant Spanish speakers English, they enforce Spanish during school hours. It's like taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was written that way, if you don't like it, don't say it, but don't change a fundamental aspect of the country's founding simply because the minority is "uncomfortable"

My buddy then responded with:

"A nation should simply reflect its culture, and in today's America, lots of Spanish and Arab immigrants are living among us. America is notorious for assimilating the people who come into her borders to be like everyone else. I mean, in the end you guys asked for it anyway. The Statue of Liberty says "give me your tired, your Hungary, your poor...' ".

He was sort of disagreeing with me, but I have to agree; a nation should reflect its culture. We're Americans, not Sudan, Pakistan, India, Mexico, Cuba, Russia, Italy, Japan, or Canada; we're America. We DO assimilate the immigrants to fit in to be Americans. Its not like we're French and still have colonies out there. I feel the statement of "When in Rome do as the Romans do". the nice thing about this country is that the door swings both ways. Yet, people come here and get their free money, their tax exemption, a job, and that's not enough. If their country was so bad, why'd they leave? I understand it wasn't always a matter of not liking their country, but everything has a price. If you come to America to live here, you should , not be draft exempt, pay the same taxes, speak English like a majority of us, and in general be an American. I'm not saying that they need to give up their cultural heritage; that's dead wrong. Who are we to say that you cant do certain things that define you background, but in general - they've come here to get certain privileges, and that's fine. To come here and say that "We're not going to do this, or we shouldn't have to acknowledge that"...how is it right for me to respect all aspects of their culture and way of life, when it appears all they've done is force the majority of Americans to coddle their "needs" so that they are comfortable. I'm not comfortable here anymore. So many rules and regulations have been set in place so that you really can't even frown in someones direction without it being considered anti-cultural. Ive said in another post that the world ain't pretty, and it isn't. If the foreigners want to come to America - that's fine, I have no issue, but they'd better be prepared to do everything we are expected to do for this country. I'm tired of being in a majority of citizens, yet being forced to coddle to the whims of the minority....