SPEAK ENGLISH, DARN IT! My blood boils as I wait to be seated at a restaurant, two people near me talking in another language. They’re in America, so they should speak English! But why? Do I think they’re talking about me? Or planning to rob the place? Do I really want (or need) to know what they’re saying? If they were speaking English, it would be rude of me to eavesdrop. I’m not bothered by people speaking in sign language or teens speaking their brand of “English” (although I could do without some of those words). I, like most people, pepper my everyday language with borrowings from Spanish, German, Yiddish, Italian. And I know that if I go to England, people there will complain that I don’t really speak English at all! Next time, then, I resolve to turn boiling blood into thankfulness for living in a country made up of a rich tapestry of cultures, all of which add words to that ever-evolving banquet of language we call “English.”
Tag Archive for complain
We Must Earn Our Right to Complain
You should be in decision-making mode right now, as vote-by-mail ballots arrive and voting day approaches very soon. Here’s something to consider.
Lots of us are upset with laws that are being passed or how our elected officials are representing us. Many people are angry at new laws on the ballot that that will hurt specific economic, ethnic, or age groups, or that further endanger people who are already at-risk, or that fund projects that are clearly designed to benefit a small group at the expense of and little benefit to the rest of us.
Oddly enough, many who complain don’t exercise a basic American right that empowers the average person. They forget that one tiny individual voice added to all the other tiny voices equals a shout heard in the halls of all the legislatures.
Remember: you don’t have to vote on every issue and office. Vote on the ones you feel you understand and will have a positive impact on your state and country. BE that one vote added to another added to another that, together, DO make a difference.
This election, earn your right to complain: vote.
Let Others Tell You How to Live?
Go ahead and let other people tell you what to do and run your life. No? Don’t want to? A whole bunch of people are doing just that. Look at these figures:
- One in five U.S. eligible voters is not registered to vote.
- 40 percent of eligible voters did not vote in the 2016 election.
If you fall into one of those two groups, you are letting others make big decisions for you–like taxes, healthcare, housing, citizenship, transportation costs, and who represents (or fails to represent) you.
Every vote does matter, because each one adds to another which adds to another…. Coming up shortly, SOMEONE will decide many major issues. There are 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats to be decided, plus governors, school boards, city councils, district attorneys, and judges in YOUR state and city.
I ask Are you registered and will you vote? If not, you can’t complain when people are elected and laws enacted that make your life miserable.
Think about it.