Saturday, June 7, 2008

Elkinds vs. Sedaris

I don't feel like typing up anything intelligent or profound at the moment, mostly because that brain power needs to be put to better use. (I should be typing up the final draft of an English paper.) Also, nobody is going to read this anyways. I just wanted to get out my feelings about the rainbow people and bilingual education. When I say rainbow people, I'm talking about homosexuals, but I'm doing so with racism in mind. I have grown tired of the constant comparison of the two; orientation preference and race should not be compared. Whether our sexual tendencies are our choices or not, they can always be fought. Race is not a feeling and therefore cannot be fought. If people want to support homosexuality, they need to stop using race as a comparison. Going further, homophobics cannot be compared with racists. I think the issue is much more complicated than that. This is the first part of my complaints...against Sedaris. I had to read a short story by him for my English class. The story is a nonfiction one titled "I Like Guys," which honestly caught my attention before I knew I would later be required to read it. I have to say, I was disappointed. I wanted something deeper.
And what about bilingual education? Well, I feel that it is only fair to offer education in English as a second language for anybody who is looking for it. I guess my complaint about bilingual education is that some people are not interested. I do not feel too passionate about this just yet because I feel way too biased. I love languages, it's what I do. Other people might not feel the same way, and they don't care about practicality as much as their heritage. I wish I could see it from their point of view, but my "heritage" is practical. I can easily go the rest of my life without learning a second language. That is a luxury that I don't care for, but given the evidence of a growing number of monolinguals in the United States, others actually do care. Many of my fellow Americans have taken advantage of the fact that there is no need for them to learn a second language. These people are just people, and I believe they could have been born in a different country and grown up wanting the same thing...in a totally different way. I guess it just saddens me to know that there are actually a good number of people that would prefer to remain monolingual. Well, that's my ranting and raving of the day...maybe even of the month or year. (This is honestly not common for me, and I guess I just wanted to type out my feelings, which makes this a real blog, right?) Oh, I almost forgot...this second half is a response to another short story I had to read by Elkinds. He describes how I feel, but it's very one-sided. I really wanted the other side. Sheesh, I don't know if I'll ever be satisfied with what I read.