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Now!
On the stock-market channel Friday afternoon,
just before commercial time, comes news that the Senate of the
USA has declared Inglés the "national language"
of state. Then comes the commercial, cutting to a Chinese couple
standing in a busy airport, somewhat startled by a youngish white
man who rushes up to them and says "welcome to America"
in Chinese. "I practiced all morning," says the gleamy-eyed
realtor. "I hope you understand. Welcome to America!"
The Century 21 realty company calls this new series of ads, "Agents
of Change." But if it's true that the bi-lingual aspirations
of the eager realtor qualify him as a change agent, where does
that leave the Senate?
When the term "national language" was inserted into
immigration legislation this week, it both revealed and escalated
power attached to English proficiency. On the one hand, the language
of the so-called compromise immigration bill already would require
English proficiency as a condition of citizenship. Or as one
Senator put it: "If you fail to pass the English proficiency
exam, you will be deported."
To this clear and distinct requirement was added another warning:
"Unless otherwise offered or provided by 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" (SAMDT4073). The timing
and placement of that language says watch out, when it comes
to communicating in languages other than English, the USA is
fed up trying.
And so another pander-to-fascists week came to an end in Washington,
with little remembrance of the fact that the Senate had declared
2005 "The Year of Foreign Language Study" (SR28); or
that legislation is pending "to construct a language arts
facility at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia,
New Mexico" (S2274); or that the 911 Commission said, even
according to compromise co-author Sen. Kennedy, "we ought
to give emphasis to other languages and that that was in our
national security interest."
The pander-to-fascist context seemed to relieve many observers
from worrying overmuch that anything serious or long lasting
will come from the President's call to send National Guard troops
to the Mexican border. As in: "isn't he just pandering to
fascists? Isn't that what this troop thing is really about?"
And then moving on to the next issue, as if it matters not at
all that based on this week's fascist pandering soon enough the
troops will actually start moving into place.
When the President announced plans for troop deployment, his
so-called target audience was only half satisfied. A "Minuteman"
spokesman called it a "stop-gap" measure, which again
seemed to help observers take comfort that the President was
being only a little fascist. More progressive voices picked up
the "stop-gap" language and therefore contributed to
the impression that the President was being mostly insufficient,
stupid, or crazy; when in fact sending thousands of troops to
the Mexican border follows the same logic of radical excess that
has motivated pre-emptive war, global strike, and torture camps.
If this logic has to stop sometime, why not now? In solidarity
with a rising immigrant rights movement, the Quakers seemed to
get it. So did the ANSWER coalition. This time, these likely
suspects are joined by enough insiders that maybe we can quietly
snuff this troop deployment before it starts.
Refuting the charge that the troop deployment was merely a pandering
insufficiency was none other than the Vice President himself,
who came out of his bunker long enough to record an interview
on a right-wing radio show that was promptly published at the
White House web site. In the interview, the number two leader
of the free world explained that good troops can make good fences,
and of course good fences are what good neighbors are made of.
Most stunning was the sudden relevance of the New York press,
headlining in a timely manner the crucial context to keep in
mind: that this is the month when billion dollar bids will be
submitted for a megamammoth border contract called SBInet (the
Secure Border Initiative Network). Bidders will include such
military-industrial behemoths as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, and Raytheon. Most interesting is the last-minute entry
of the European-based Ericsson company, because they provide
surveillance along the Russia-Finland border, matching up nicely
with the ideological model of the USA-Mexico border pushed by
the fascist crowd's cold-war compulsions.
On the question of ideological models, it would be prudent to
consider that the Vice President's description of the next Mexican
border sounded a lot like the Israeli border with Palestine.
In this context, the Bush-Cheney troop deployment will provide
free of charge to the winning bidder of border security services
a cadre of perma-temp employees who are already trained, dressed
for photo-ops, and security-cleared (in case you missed the simultaneous
news this week that the agency in charge of security clearances
was shutting down because of poor budgeting).
Sad to say during election year in the USA, it still helps to
be a little fascist. Everyone seems to comprende.
CounterPunch
Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid?
CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair
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