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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo now I must suffer in silence or scream bloody murder (again)
So now I must suffer in silence or scream bloody murder (again) at having a president who can barely articulate a thought or consistently use coherent English rules of grammar and syntax telling me my mother should have been banned from entering this country.
This fraud who calls himself president, who is now advocating banning immigrants who do not speak English from coming to America makes my blood boil.
I recall the first time my mother was home alone and had to answer the door in America. It was Halloween, and costumed children were at the door. She could not speak a lick of English and they could not speak Japanese. She fed them rice balls wrapped in seaweed. They laughed and ate them.
When she decided to become a citizen, she sat down and memorized the book, teaching herself to read and write by recopying the Citizenship pamphlet over-and-over in her meticulous cursive that looked so Japanese. The words look like she sounded with her "Broken English" she struggled to overcome.
Me? I teach English, have mastered most of the conventions. I can mimic most any style. And like other English teachers, I can hear your accents still. Every one of you. I can hear what country you come from based on how you write on a piece of paper: Japanese, Russian, German, Mexican, Vietnamese, etc. Your handwriting will always identify your origins. But what you have to say is what really matters. What is in your heart.
I found that notebook my mother filled with the rules for citizenship, the questions she needed to be able to answer, even the Bill of Rights written over and over like a prayer. And Emma Lazurus's words: In my mother's handwriting. "I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
And now President Bone Spur suggests that somehow keeping someone like my mother out of the US is going to help American factories open again and give African Americans more jobs. Are you kidding me? In Queen's, Long Island English (or whatever that is he calls what he speaks) let me just say he needs to Shut the Fuck Up. Yo.
BSdetect
(8,999 posts)Not worthy of anyone's attention as a person but sadly as a PINO.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,719 posts)Please, scream all you want.
You scream for all of us.
trueblue2007
(17,240 posts)leftofcool
(19,460 posts)Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Every day until it sinks in to their stupid little brains.
I voted for the woman who got the most votes.
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)NBachers
(17,146 posts)Your message, and your presentation, are always worthy of attention.
lastlib
(23,309 posts). . . . . . . . .
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Sadly, I was about to post another piece of my mind when I somehow lost it. So my second rant goes unranted.
onecent
(6,096 posts)I have never hated a man as much as I hate him...GOD I DETEST HIM.
sorry for not having your mother around....if he has already work his fucking magic
Good luck to you and your mother.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)But she left us a message of hope. In her imperfect English.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,729 posts)citizens. Replace IT people and MD's etc with imported people for less money.
bora13
(860 posts)they throw him out there you know it is intentional to scare
those who may be vulnerable to such action and words.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)I actually googled AND IT IS what they say about him. "Speakers on the caliber of Goebbels warmed up the crowd...Hitler used to wait like a rock-star - as the crowds outside grew...to the strains of Wagner overlaid..."
Whipping up the mob with WW2 racist dogwhistles and an alt-right arguing style like a boot in the face. No reason. Just pure hate. Must be called out. Or we are complicit.
volstork
(5,403 posts)It is touching to hear the story of your mother and to hear how she strove to be a good citizen of her adopted country.
Assholes like trump just want to take and take and take and have no regard for others. He will be relegated to the garbage bin of history. Soon, I hope.
triron
(22,023 posts)Stonepounder
(4,033 posts)My father's parents didn't speak very good English. They immigrated from Germany to get away from Hitler. So, I guess I shouldn't be here either.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)We should all be rising up in defense of the American Dream he is destroying.
apkhgp
(1,068 posts)He was born in Queens, New York.
I was born in Queens, New York.
After that we have no more commonalities. The screwed- up rationalization that 45 puts forth "makes my blood boil" ( if I could borrow that from your post).
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)It 's just y'all say it directly with no BS.
apkhgp
(1,068 posts)You have every right to say everything in your post. If I was you I would say the same things. In exactly the same way. I wish I could have been so educated on my vocabulary. That is something that 45 can only see in his wet dreams.
BadgerMom
(2,771 posts)I feel you. Trump enrages me. Would that he could be half--heck, 1/10--the American my mom was.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)instilled morals, empathy for others, kindness, service to your community, etc. All the things conservative yahoos mock us for.
BadgerMom
(2,771 posts)I believe her values are much more truly American than his.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)but I did try not to be ayn rand on a broomstick.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,902 posts)to this country arrived not speaking English. Most of them learn the language after a while.
Trump, and those supporting this, are total dolts.
hunter
(38,328 posts)ladym55
(2,577 posts)We are all with you. Every day I think it CAN'T POSSIBLY get any worse, and lo and behold, it does!! Today was just another new low.
It would really be handy if Americans would master their own language (spoken and written) and one or two other languages in addition. Our own ignorance makes the hateful garbage Stephen Miller spewed today even more appalling.
People who want to come to this country need to know English. Those of us already here--not so much.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)HurricaneWarning
(220 posts)Thank you for your post even though it broke my heart.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)by not wanting to speak up, stick our necks out, the racists get away with this shit.
I understand. We all do. Speaking out is not always easy.
But damn. How much more of this are we going to accept?
catbyte
(34,458 posts)for the primaries. I'll bet that lazy, vile, willfully ignorant, incurious, bigoted, mean-spirited, narcissistic, morally bankrupt, and very, very small pathetic excuse for a man who's currently infesting the White House wouldn't be able to answer even one question correctly.
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)Generic Other
(28,979 posts)than an English test administered.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)In the general election debates, they should cite the Constitution to support their positions. Of course, that would not go over well with the repukes' billionaire sponsors, the wannabe oligarchs of America.
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)had her parents moved here as well. I guess only "hot" immigrants and their families are welcome?
BigmanPigman
(51,635 posts)Generic Other
(28,979 posts)but if her spontaneous efforts are an indication of her mastery of four other languages, well I guess I am a polyglot by her standards as I can say multiple foreign words too.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)Back to a cold Scottish island. On the Outer Hebrides. With no golf course.
After all, his mother is Scottish.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Up to the eyeballs in shady deals.
What did Scotland ever do to you?
Seriously, I can think of no better candidate for a moonshot.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)But I hear the holes on the moon are great for golf.
Better than a White House staff unable to control a senile old man who mumbles "Snowflake" every night as he drops off to sleep, tweets at 3 AM when the Miralax kicks in, threatens to bomb some other country daily, and meets with the Russians more than he sees his own wife. He or his representatives are currently destroying the country as fast as they can, lining his and his childrens' pockets with cash, peddling influence, corruption, laundering cash because they seem desperate as if they owed massive amounts of cash to Russians and are unable to make good on the debt. They will have to pay the piper eventually. After all, he has the "pee pee" Tapes.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)University of Dundee... 4 years alas no degree (mental illness sucks).
Scotland can take #45. As a private citizen, of course. I don't think #45 could take Scotland. Oompahloompahs are not native to Scotland and I don't know if he could survive the climate, plus the winters.
One way trip to Mars looks good though.
Initech
(100,105 posts)Solly Mack
(90,787 posts)Thank you.
WinstonSmith4740
(3,059 posts)DarleenMB
(408 posts)My maternal Grandfather came here from Ukraine. Although he had a college education and could sing operas in Italian, his English was always a bit sketchy. My maternal Grandmother's family came over from Sweden and Germany. Lucky me that Trump wasn't around then or I might not be here to call him names and demand his impeachment and immediate jailing for treason.
Generic Other
(28,979 posts)Not that slob in the White House.
planetc
(7,838 posts)your mother was three or four times the American that "President Bone Spur" is, is fully supported by excellent examples.
Do please favor us with another rant. Or, have you thought of stand-up comedy?
However you choose to express yourself, please feel encouraged to do so.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Shoonra
(523 posts)And my father arrived on the opposite side of America in 1915, with his parents, speaking not a word of English. And his mother never quite managed to communicate in English. But my father made a point of getting a Master's degree in English from an ivy league college, and eventually teaching English to (drumroll, please) immigrants to America. By the time I was born, my father spoke English with no discernible accent, besides being fluent in three other languages. He taught English to many hundreds of immigrants. He also served in the US Army (I somehow felt the need to mention that).
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Initech
(100,105 posts)Ever. I thought it was bad during the Bush years but the hatred and animosity that the republicans have towards the democrats is unlike anything I've ever seen. They invade our protests and make us look like violent lunatics. They demonize us on every network at every hour. And our president doesn't do anything to unite us, he just attacks the other side daily and fuels the haters and white supremacists. We are heading for dark times.