The Best of Mariah Carey: WE LIVE IN AMERICA…NOW SPEAK ENGLISH CORRECTLY

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

WE LIVE IN AMERICA…NOW SPEAK ENGLISH CORRECTLY

ARE WE TO CELEBRATE IGNORANCE AND ILLITERACY?

English is not my native language and as such, I have put a great deal of effort to speak it correctly. I am particularly concerned about spelling…my own and that of others. It is very disturbing to me when I hear the English language being butchered. It is even more alarming when I hear it from a public servant.

I think a good example of Bush's challenged elocution was best demonstrated when my mom, who hardly speaks English was watching President Bush and her comment was: "Dat ees not hau joo sai dat"

I remember how I used to cringe every time I heard former President Bush speak. He was not one of our most articulate Presidents in recent history. It is hard to say what Andrew Jackson may have sounded like but I suspect he was probably folksy and informal in his every day speech.

I began to notice it a while back when I heard Vice President Quayle make some embarrassing errors while talking to some children. I began to notice a pattern; it was mostly coming from Republicans who were beginning to discover the magic of populism, the inference that “being one of the boys” would gain them favorable approval and therefore votes.

But in the process, it became sufficiently clear that there was a segment of our population who would actually vote for some person whom they thought it would be fun to have a brew or two rather than voting for somebody who was actually qualified and educated. It almost became an obsession with them to find these people charming and down to earth.

Conversely, I detested President Bush for many reasons; I was appalled at the lengths he went to discredit any of his critics, following the advice of his closest advisors like Karl Rove or Cheney. I resented the fact that he was trampling over our Constitution and I could not forgive him for having embarked on an unnecessary war with a country that did nothing to us. I was furious when I found out that there were no WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. But I was almost always annoyed when I heard him speak. It was that fake Texas twang; it was his inability to express himself, his incoherence and most of all his arrogance.

I equally recoil like a snake under attack when I either see or hear Sarah Palin speak. She represents to many of us exactly that which we find abhorrent in a person and irritating in a politician: her tone, her modulation, her folksiness and most of all her ignorance. Don’t get me wrong…I think she is smart…she has been able to gain fame and fortune with a very meager education.

Is this going to become a permanent trend in America that we celebrate mediocrity? Is this an indication of where we are heading as a nation? If it is, then please somebody pinch me and tell me that all those years I spent in college, all those endless hours I spent reading the newspapers in front of a tape recorder and playing it back to improve my English and my pronunciation were not spent in vain.

I often get comments from right-wing nuts or religious fanatics that are riddled with grammatical errors. I doubt seriously if they are even aware that they have a feature on their computers called “spell check”; but I am particularly alarmed when I see these Tea Baggers carrying signs in demonstrations and they are dismally misspelled. Oh, don’t get me wrong on this either, it is possible to make a mistake or two, and I am not immune from those…but when you see so many of those signs you begin to ask yourself: W.T.F.?

I really do hope that these people can eventually make their life-long dream come true…the one that is most likely to be able to finish the seventh grade…perhaps even be able to take a remedial English course in the process.