I have two disparate comments to make on this. One concerns the partial myth of German persecution during WWI. Certainly there was some. But I interviewed my 95-year-old mother in preparation for an assignment I give some of my classes. They have to do a language biography, interviewing an older family member about their memories of language experience, whether a different language or a different dialect. My mother, who was born into a German-speaking community in Elmore, OH, in 1906, moved to Hamtramck, MI, in 1912 where my grandfather became pastor of the local Lutheran church, also German speaking. In the neighborhood were German, Hungarian, and Russian immigrant families. The mothers, largely homemakers, spoke mostly their native languages. The fathers needed English for employment and spoke English at work and the NL at home. The children spoke some English and some of the other languages and most were at least to some degree multilingual. I remember my mother speaking Hungarian with post-WWII displaced persons. Many of the children went to the Lutheran parochial school, where instruction in the morning was in German and in the afternoon in English. The Hungarian and Russian children all learned both German and English in school, throughout WWI. When the armistice was announced, she remembers the entire school, children and teachers, gathering in a circle around the US flag in front of the school and singing "Nun danket alle Gott" (Now thank we all our God), in German, of course. My own family stopped speaking German at home about the time I was born in 1942, but that's another story. Yes, there was certainly some bias against Germans, but it wasn't universal.
The other matter is Robert Einarsson's recent postings. I've read some of his scholarly work and his postings on many of the issues we discuss on this list, and I have a lot of respect for him as a professional. I look forward to reading more of his insightful linguistic and pedagogical thoughts. However, he has also convinced me recently that I would not choose to carry on a political conversation with him because it likely wouldn't go anywhere. It's not that I disagree with him or that I object to his passion. Rather, it's that he's shown us an area in which he is not interested in discussion. He doesn't care what others think on those matters. I'm sorry that's that case, but it doesn't alter the quality of his linguistics.
While I value the discussion we've been having on current events, perhaps it IS time we returned to what we normally do.
Herb Stahlke
<<< [log in to unmask] 9/18 8:07p >>>
In 1917 when the US declared war on Germany, the speaking of German in public and
the teaching of German stopped over night. I live in a part of the US which were
bilingual communities before 1917. Now, only the oldest members of that community
retain any German of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
Immediately after December 7, 1941, Japanese-American were rounded up and sent off
to camps for the duration of the war.
The New York Time's today is reporting two people dead who seemed to be Muslim.
Given this history and the need to be united, I think it is incumbent upon all of
us remain civil in how we think about the awful events of September 11. Let me
respectively submit that the following does not help anyone:
Robert Einarsson wrote:
> I do not forfeit the right to speak disrespectfully. I do not care
> about people's feelings.
> Civility means nothing whatsoever to me in comparison to the
> attack on the WTC and the feelings and concerns which I have to
> express upon it.
Fortunately, we live in a part of the world in which this is still the case.
However, let me share with everyone the following scream by Ann Coulter, one of the
shrillest critics of Bill Clinton, in her column about Barbara Olson, a passenger
on the plane that hit the Pentagon.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and
convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about
locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We
carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war.
And this is war.
I am appalled that someone who regularly appears on American television and who
writes for one of the respected journals of political opinion is not ashamed to
share such inflammatory ideas with the rest of the world. Go here for the entire
column: http://www.nationalreview.com/coulter/coulter091301.shtml
The people who planned and committed those horrendous acts on September 11th win if
no one speaks out against the incivility of Ann Coulter's cry for extermination.
Bob Yates
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