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Reply #7: It would be great if Spanish were required in U.S. schools. [View All]

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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-14-11 09:14 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. It would be great if Spanish were required in U.S. schools.
It really should be, since it is the language of half of our hemisphere. But, given that it is not, it is absurd to imply that there is no obligation on the part of the English-language news/opinion media to provide fulsome, in depth news coverage on events in Latin America--especially on something as important as CELAC and the events and policies that led up to it. Ordinary north Americans, who speak and read only English, should not have to return to school or somehow or other acquire college level Spanish in order to be well informed on Latin American issues. That is a ridiculous requirement and it lets the corpo-fascist 'news' corporations off the hook. In your view, apparently, they and their corporate pals can profit from U.S.-backed rightwing coups, the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs" (that just goes on an do, benefiting war profiteers) and U.S. corporate resource extraction and sweatshop labor, but they are under no obligation of journalistic ethics, common morality or the premise of democracy--an educated, informed public--to inform the public in THIS country about what is happening in the other half of the western hemisphere--let alone inform the public in THIS country what billions of their tax dollars are being used for in Latin America.

The need to be informed about Latin America is NOT restricted to those with a sufficient fluency in Spanish to comprehend all the nuances in news and other articles. You might as well say that people who want to--and NEED to--understand events in Iraq must first be fluent in Arabic. And, ironically, it is often U.S. brutal interference in Middle Eastern and Latin American countries that gives understanding of events in these countries special urgency. Learn Arabic or shut up! Right! Is that what you're saying? Become fluent in Arabic or Spanish, or be content to be ignorant of the places where they speak these languages? Or better yet--from your point of view--become fluent in these languages, or be content with the lies, disinformation and lack of information in the corporate 'news'?

You want people to be ignorant and stupid? Is that it?
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