Are U.S. values worth adopting now?
President Bush’s June 7 speech in which he asserted that immigrants must adopt U.S. values and learn English was laughable at first glance. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to feel sad and embarrassed for our country. The president is the first person who should learn to speak English. His mangled pronouncements and jumbled syntax are a national embarrassment. That was the laughable part. I felt something very different about Bush’s urging immigrants to adopt U.S. values. I thought, what exactly would an immigrant perceive as U.S. values today? Would U.S. values include disregard for the Geneva Convention as evidenced by torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo? Would U.S. values include unconstitutional wiretapping of U.S. citizens without regard for privacy and without a warrant? And would U.S. values be reflected in the most secret administration in history, one that routinely denies even its own party the privilege of participating in the process of governance? Persona
