Round 3

Well, Miss Vicki has send a third message. I have to hand it to her she does stand her ground.

Good morning Michael,

Thank you for sharing your history with me. I was adopted, and only know bits and pieces of my biological heritage, I was told and when in Arizona years ago, did research the Hopi Indians that I have 1/8th of. The other side was a combo of German. My adopted parents were English, Irish and maybe from a good neighborhood, not sure.
Being the melting pot that America is, I like to consider us all Americans once we reach here.

My son has worked in the fast food industry since he was 16. Once in Austin he has worked side by side wit people from every country known to man and God that most speak very little or no English. He came home horrified one day when one of the workers was backing up and he and two others were trying to tell him to watch out and be careful... he backed into a frying vat and was servilely burned. This was not the only time safety issues came up. Thus, if we all knew the English language (which is our National Language) it would be safer for all concerned.

If I were to move to ANY other county in the world, the first things I would learn would be the language, government and money exchange.

The quote is one that brings us all under one umbrella, thus the United States of America. It does not divide us. No where do we disrespect or say anyone can not be all the things that you and I are or support.

I must admit I know very little about Farmers Branch. It sounds like Kingsville where I was raised and yeekers, that was the pits of the pits...

A semester at Baylor University in Waco- White And Closed Opinions as I called it... opened my eyes even more... I hated it.

I was so happy to move to Corpus Christi where it was a little more opened minded, however there if you were not hispanic and wanted to sue someone you were kind of out in the cold.

5 years ago Sunday, I moved to Austin where my sons have been for 8 years. I love Austin, everyone can be who they want to be, do what they want to do and we all co-mingle with each other. I find it to be amazing!

Like I said before, my main goals is, if people like us, are involved in organizations that want to see that compassion and opened minds are kept, we have to be an active part. In the past 3 decades there have been changes where now Girl Scouts are not allowed to even lead us in the Pledge since we are considered a specific political organization. Boy scouts can, but can only go on before the program starts and must leave the stage before the program begins. I thought the purpose of those two organizations were to help young kids learn civic pride, work in the community etc. Because an organization wants to ask them to lead the pledge in my opinion shows that we support our young children that are active in learning civic leadership.

When we walk away and let everyone else take the lead in all of the organizations we are basically giving up and letting the ones that keep the pearly white gates closed in charge. If we take an active roll, then we can negotiate to keep things more open minded.

Again, my major concerns are the human rights violations that occur when people from Mexico want to come here and work. They are being poorly treated by the coyotes and their own people. You nor I would ever consider making another human being go through what they put them through.

Other concerns are the terrorist that are getting into our country to do us harm, and documentation proves that is a reality.

All of our ancestors did come here for a better life, that is what Coming to America is all about!

Scared, no I am concerned, I am pretty hard to scare. A rattle snake corned scares me. It will strike with a venom that can kill in one quick strike. A shark that I can not out swim when in his turf, is scary to me. A lion when I am his cage would be scary to me.

What I do not want to see is my freedoms taken from me. I want to know that it is ok for everyone to be who they are and believe what they want. Communism and socialism concern me because they want us all to walk in the same direction to the same beat, just as Kingsville and Farmers Branch does.

I am curious, why do you stay in Farmers Branch and that area?
As talented as you are, you should be able to do very well anywhere you choose to live!

Sounds like you would love Austin! I know I am not a member of the Chamber etc here, but I just love the whole Austin thing.

You see, I respect you because you are opened minded to have a conversation about our beliefs and ideology. We both have our reason for our beliefs. They are based on our past and what we have learned and see today. If we all felt the way we do, wouldn't it be a lot better place? And only by us being active can we get our voices heard.

Will the rest of the world listen, we can only hope!

I know that our Rally will not have the very best National Anthem sang because you believe we are something that we really are not.

You see, music and smiles are the two things I know we all relate to, they are the two most uniting things all humans can do that we all understand. It is the true Universal language.

I hope you succeed greatly in all of your endeavors.

Sincerely,
Vicki 

My Reply;

Vicki,
I can admire you for standing your ground and in this letter it all sounds a bit more personal and not a prepaired speach you have for the masses.
However, I would like to point something out. You said that English is the National Language but it is not. I am sharing with you a section from http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html

Many people are surprised to learn that the United States has no official language. As one of the major centers of commerce and trade, and a major English-speaking country, many assume that English is the country's official language. But despite efforts over the years, the United States has no official language.
Almost every session of Congress, an amendment to the Constitution is proposed in Congress to adopt English as the official language of the United States. Other efforts have attempted to take the easier route of changing the U.S. Code to make English the official language. As of this writing, the efforts have not been successful.
Here is the text of a proposed amendment. This particular bill was introduced in the House of Representatives as H.J. Res. 16 (107th Congress):

The English language shall be the official language of the United States. As the official language, the English language shall be used for all public acts including every order, resolution, vote, or election, and for all records and judicial proceedings of the Government of the United States and the governments of the several States.

Also introduced in the 107th Congress was this text from H.R. 3333:

The Government of the United States shall preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the United States of America. Unless specifically stated in applicable law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English. If exceptions are made, that does not create a legal entitlement to additional services in that language or any language other than English.

Often these bills are in response to legislation recognizing non-English languages in public discourse of some kind. H.R. 3333, for example, also explicitly repealed the Bilingual Education Act which authorized funds to educate American students if their native tongue as well as to provide specialized training in the learning of English.
The most recent efforts to promote English as the official language has come as more and more immigration from Spanish-speaking and Eastern nations (such as China and Vietnam) has brought an influx of non-English speakers to the United States. According to the 1990 Census, 13.8 percent of U.S. residents speak some non-English language at home. 2.9 percent, or 6.7 million people, did not speak English at all, or could not speak it well.
The ACLU, which is part of a group opposed to establishing a national official language, has published a paper detailing reasons that such a move should be opposed. It starts by mentioning an effort by John Adams, in 1780, to establish an official academy devoted to English, a move which was rejected at the time as undemocratic. The ACLU notes past efforts at English-only laws that abridged the rights of non-English speakers or which generally made life difficult for large non-English speaking populations. One example cited in Dade County, Florida, where, after a 1980 English-only law was passed, Spanish signs on public transportation were removed.
The ACLU believes that English-only laws can violate the U.S. Constitution's protection of due process (especially in courts where no translation service would be offered) and equal protection (for example, where English-only ballots would be used where bilingual ones were available in the past).

It astounds me that someone with a group called Commonsense Americans calls English our national language. I hope you will pass this knowledge along to the rest of your group.

You also talked about your son at the fast food place. It is unfortunate that this happened and I know how frustrating it can be. Time after time I have been in a restaurant or store and the person I was dealing with did not speak English. As a white American your first thought is 'why can't these people learn English!' and there we have the seed of racism and intolerance. I have taught myself to look at "you people" and what I mean when I think or say it.
When I am driving behind an old person who is going too slow and I think 'you people shouldn't be allowed to drive' this in intollerence.
When I am ordering a burger and the person can't speak enough English to understand that I want it plain and I think 'If you can't speak the language go back to your own country' this is intolerance.
When a group of Hasidic Jews walking across Preston on the Sabbath to get to temple and in the back of my mind I think 'come on people, this is the twenty first century. Drive your car.' This is both stupid and intolerant.
I could give you hundreds of examples but it all boils down to this. We are uncomfortable with things that are different. We fear what we do not know. We want others to conform to us to make our own lives easier.

You also made the point that if you were to "move to ANY other county in the world, the first things I would learn would be the language, government and money exchange." I have traveled all over Europe and mast of the countries have several different languages from region to region not to mention that they learn the languages of their neighboring countries so they can communicate. Europe is far more advanced than Americans in this regard.


You ask why I live in Farmers Branch. The reason is that my partner bought a house here (even though I told him not to move to Farmers Branch) and later ask me to move in with him. Another reason is that I am an American and have the freedom to live wherever I want. I suppose that as a gay man I should be living down in Cedar Springs with all the rest of my people because that is safe and where I belong but that is not how life works. You find gays living all over just like Mexicans, African Americans, Canadians, Chinese, Indians, Germans, Russians, Koreans, Irish, Italians, Jews, Catholics, Christians, Muslims etc. Kind of like a big....oh my goodness melting pot! Wow...look at the beauty that is America.

As far as the Girl Scouts go I know little to nothing about them. I am aware of the issues people had over the Pledge of Allegiance and if I am not mistaken it was over the line one nation under god. I find this to be totally unnecessary. it is the whole separation of church and state issue that i will not get into with you.
Here is another history lesson in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis BellamyChristian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). The original "Pledge of Allegiance" was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children's magazine (1855-1931), a Baptist minister, a The Youth's Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, in a campaign to encourage patriotism and the display of the American flag in public schools.
Bellamy's original Pledge read as follows:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided not to. Louis A. Bowman (1872-1959) was the first to initiate the addition of "under God" to the Pledge. At a meeting on February 12, 1948, Lincoln's Birthday, he led the Society in swearing the Pledge with two words added, "under God." He stated that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Though not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom." Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings.

 As far as the Boy Scouts are concerned, I find them to be a backward, homophobic organization. They prohibit atheist and agnostics. If this group were truly about the boys and their leaders and civic pride it would not matter what their religious background or sexual orientation is. Here again you have shown me a group that promotes intolerance.

in short, I will not be coming to your rally if for no other reason than my partner and I will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary this weekend.

My god!!!! This is exhausting!