Words and Music in the Immigration Debate

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

I am the president of a local retail and wholesale company that employs more than 150 first- or second-generation immigrants. I am proud to say that 148 of these employees thought that the company was important enough to them to show up for work Monday on a day of protest ["Boycott Gives Voice to Illegal Workers; The Day's Impact on Economy Unclear," front page, May 2]. My employees showed that they understand how to strive legally for the American dream by helping to build a small business into a larger one through everyone pulling together.

If we could close our borders to illegal immigrants, the people here legally would be able to find work -- many at a better rate of pay. Many companies employ illegal immigrants because they can pay them lower wages. It might cost these companies more in higher wages if they had to hire legal workers, but it also would lower the huge amounts of taxes our government uses to support illegal immigrants.

CARL LEVIN

Lorton

·

Robert J. Samuelson's April 20 op-ed column, "Conspiracy Against Assimilation," failed to mention a major obstacle to Latino assimilation in the United States: increasing bilingualism, which leads Spanish-speaking immigrants to conclude, "Why bother to learn English, when everything is in Spanish?"

This trend benefits employers who want to continue to pay minimum wages to non-English speakers, keeping them in a kind of perpetual near-peonage. The immigrants thus are ill-served by bilingualism.

The first thing I would tell any Latino immigrant is, Sin inglés, siempre pobre -- Without English, always poor.

Bilingualism also adds unnecessarily to the cost of doing business by requiring the use of two languages. Further, it harms not only immigrants, but our national unity. Just look at Belgium for a disturbing example of bilingualism's effect on national unity.

WILLIAM LLOYD STEARMAN

Rockville

·

The April 28 front-page story "An Anthem's Discordant Notes; Spanish Version of 'Star-Spangled Banner' Draws Strong Reactions" noted that a wide variety of artists have recorded the national anthem and then said that "musicologists cannot name another foreign-language version."

On the Internet, I found "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Yiddish, German, French (a recorded version by a Cajun group) and Samoan. I recall no hullabaloo when the Samoan translation was proposed as a second anthem for American Samoa this year. I also found lots of Spanish renditions, including versions on the State Department's Web site.

KAREN DAVIS

Laurel

·

So Roseanne Barr can deliberately mangle the national anthem without causing a political firestorm, but when the anthem is respectfully sung in another language, it's a national crisis?

Last time I checked, English wasn't the official language of the United States. I also remember that our country was founded on the principles of freedom of expression. So as long as the anthem is sung respectfully, I don't see the problem.

Our country was built by people of many ethnic backgrounds working together despite their differences. It is what makes our nation great. Chastising people for translating the anthem into another language flies in the face of our own history.

PHILIP YABUT

Arlington