You’re not an American because I say so!

In a New York Times article on bilingual libraries a spokesman for Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado offer up this, "When you have a strong cultural identity and there aren't set incentives to become American, it creates a lot of tension and divides the community.” He is arguing against the creation of libraries that have extensive collections in Spanish that serve growing Hispanic populations. So many things wrong with the premise here I don’t know where to start. First off most Spanish speakers in the US in fact are already American citizens, that is to say Americans. Then the issue of having a strong cultural identity as being bad? Better tell those Italians to cancel their Columbus day parades. While we’re at it we better get ride of St. Patrick’s. In fat we should just have everyone forget where ever they came from so they can be true Americans. Last but not least the idea that having libraries offer Spanish language books will lead to tension and division is just too ridiculous. In a word with racists and religious fundamentalists he is worried about books causing tension and division.

Check out the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/05library.htmlVisit the Congressman’s website at http://www.tancredo.org