SPANISH AND ENGLISH
A friend, Brian Wiele, who is the pastor of the Escalon Covenant Church has a guest column in today's Modesto Bee.

...I have a suggestion: How about both directions? Personally, I think English should be our official language. But why don't we also officially commit ourselves as a people to do the obvious thing -- learn Spanish!

English is the one language everyone wants to learn all over the world, so they do. It's taught in schools all over Europe in such a way that students are fluent by their adolescent years. Why can't Spanish be taught the same way in America? Why don't we get serious about learning it?

Part of the problem is our island mentality, the pervasive sense that we stand alone at the top of the cultural mountain. We can hardly expect others to do work that we're not willing to do ourselves. To expect change -- "learn English!" -- without being willing to change -- "we'll learn Spanish" -- only breeds resentment. And that rarely motivates anyone to change.

Preach it, Brian, preach it!