Press 18 (Chai) for Yiddish

.....During the recent election, I went to our clubhouse where voting machines were set up for anyone who wished to vote--and in our community there were many who did so, and I was one of them.  When I got there and identified myself as a patriotic citizen who believes strongly in democracy, I was given a ballot and directed to a small booth where privacy prevailed,  When I opened the ballot, I was amazed to find that the instructions were in Spanish as well as in English.  Even on the ballot, itself, Spanish accompanied the nominee's names, so that any latino in our community who neglected to learn English could vote.  I looked around our very large ballroom and could find no one of that particular ethnic persuasion.  In fact, in all the 28 years that I've been living here, I never did meet or notice any Spanish speaking resident.  When I looked over the ballot, I couldn't help calling on my education to help me understand how  and where to make my mark.  I also could not help repeating to myself that we are an English speaking not a Spanish speaking nation. Everywhere I go, and everywhere I look, and everywhere I listen, I see and hear Spanish accompanying anything English.  Of course, anyone who tries to call a company on the phone is directed to "press one" for English, and sometimes I don't pay attention and I mistakenly press 2, and then I hear someone hablaing Espanol.

.....Perhaps I am wrong (not likely), but I don't believe a phone call in France, England, or Germany will direct the caller to press 2 for Shiite Islamic or 3 for Sunni Islamic.  There are 5 million Muslims in France, 3 million in Germany, and about 3 million in Britain--and Islamic immigration to these countries continues.  In France, alone, there are 1500 mosques.  According to a 2001 survey there were 1209 mosques in the United States.  

.....American visitors to Paris or other major French cities often are amazed when they see how the multiethnic way of life there resembles that in the United States.  But multiethnicity in France goes beyond that in the United States, for it includes a religious dimension in addition to racial and ethnic differences. If the most important minorities in the United States (the black and Hispanic) are overwhelmingly Christian, French minority groups are largely Muslim. American minority groups share many basic values with the rest of the country; in contrast, French minority groups tend to have alien values, to think of themselves as a new nation, and even to have hopes of superseding the present Judeo-Christian nation of France.  And don't think France isn't concerned about that possibility coming to fruition in the future.  As for us, I don't expect an invasion of Spanish forces led by Francisco Franco anytime soon.

.....Our country has had a history of ethnic immigrations--and I believe that if an immigrant wished to advance in American society he had to get an education, learn to speak English--and that is just what our parents and grandparents and great grandparents had to do.  And that is what they did.