Correspondence
GATTO, JOHN TAYLOR & SNYDER, ROBERT W. & ARNOLD, PATRICK M. & SCHMIDT, AURORA CAMACHO DE & TALBOTT, ROGER G. & CUNNEEN, JOE & LEER, DANIEL J. & GLENDON, MARY ANN & IMBELLI, (REV.) ROBERT P. & LUKASZEWSKI, LEON & PURCELL, DONALD & BURNE, MARTIN J. & POLICANO, JOSEPH D. & McCarthy, Abigail & Steinfels, Margaret O'Brien
CORRESPONDENCE Credit where due Cambridge, Mass. To the Editors: I was heartened to read Paul Baumann's intelligent and hopeful analysis of the recently adopted Connecticut abortion legislation...
...Cooke's legitimate concern about the unity of this country is that English can take care of itself: just ask the pastors and elderly members of any Slovenian, Armenian, Hungarian, or other ethnic parish what language their children speak...
...McCarthy's and Mr...
...To the Editors: Abigail McCarthy ["A Common Currency," May 4] writes in a vacuum of political understanding as she concurs with Alistair Cooke, board member of U.S...
...To the Editors: The glossary you supplied for Archbishop Weakland's letter [Correspondence, May 18] is far from complete...
...Such pieces make Commonweal a review that nourishes the spirit, even as it stretches the mind...
...Let Alistair Cooke be concerned about the coherence of the Empire...
...New York, N.Y...
...English who would like to see the U.S...
...To the Editors: While I thank Commonweal for its generous comments on my ideas ["The Passion of Teachers," April 20], I seem to have misled your interviewer about my attitudes toward civic and cultural traditions and academic learning in general...
...In my urban area, I find it almost impossible to understand some persons who speak what some linguists call Black English, or Australian English, or Caribbean English, or Mississippian, or Texan, or Bostonian...
...My aunt, a former missionary in Nigeria, would spend the first couple of weeks of her quadrennial furlough with a friend who would teach her how to understand a language that had changed radically in the previous four years...
...In February 1990, "The Convocation for Peace in the Middle East" brought similar peacemakers to the Cathedral of St...
...Research shows that Spanish-speaking immigrants acquire English language skills at a rate comparable to that of any other immigrant group...
...Our national headquarters is at 27 West 20th St., N.Y...
...I would like to point out, however, that the article from which he quoted was a co-authored piece in Newsday, in which George Weigel, the president of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, and I joined forces in proposing six principles for the guidance of Catholic politicians on this most controversial and difficult of public issues...
...Pedalpoint" is a note sustained while other parts change, and "ground bass" is a bass motif that keeps getting repeated while other harmonies and melodies change...
...That does not mean that I support any xenophobic views that may have been expressed by past or present officials of the organization U.S...
...I just wish my tax dollars weren't being used to enslave them...
...The resolution had no teeth of its own...
...April 6, page 205], please indicate whether the students are: [ ] minimally indifferent (could care less...
...That, after all, was the entire point behind the invention of "Ms" as a title...
...MARY ANN GLENDON The writer is professor of law at Harvard University...
...Baumann was kind enough to credit me with having contributed to the development of such a strategy...
...policy toward Israel...
...In 1988 Linda Chavez, president of U.S...
...It gives the nonir-reformable opinion that both "Ms...
...DONALD PURCELL Middle East ferment New York, N.Y...
...I think Patrick Arnold misstates the case when he says the American Catholic community is "virtually silent" about U.S...
...An essay on English usage published in our Bible (see above) contends that though "could care less" is illogical, it is not therefore to be stigmatized...
...John the Divine...
...Since Israel holds all the cards in Gaza and the West Bank, blunting peace talks while settlements continue guarantees the success of the Big Israel plan...
...de Schmidt's gibe about Alistair Cooke and the Empire seems to imply that he does not have equal status as a U.S...
...JOSEPH D. POLICANO Silence on Israel San Diego, Calif...
...As for our use of "complexifying," we were careless...
...In the context of the whole letter, it becomes clear that the archbishop is a bass man, a rumbler...
...American Jews are joining in unprecedented numbers to speak for a just, lasting, and peaceful settlement of the disputes between Israelis and Palestinians...
...The allegations made by Ms...
...She assumes that any support for making English the official language of the United States is necessarily anti-Hispanic...
...There is a question that the English-as-official-language people have never answered to my satisfaction...
...gives military assistance to a nation which possesses nuclear weapons and orbits satellites, and which boasts one of the most powerful air forces in the world...
...In the U.S...
...LEON LUKASZEWSKI From the Editors: The students were maximally indifferent...
...government legislate in favor of one official language for the United States...
...The arts and sciences are constantly creating new words...
...the lower is more like unto a rumble...
...It's our practice to consider whether a given invitation respects our freedom to observe and therefore serves the interests of our readers...
...But then, with all the injustices in this world, is the plight of the Palestinians that important...
...Human nature being what it is, we tend to spend more time on such a trip with the sponsors, we grow to like them, we see the reasonableness of their position a little more clearly...
...She correctly notes the "subtle and intense" dialogue between the warring parties...
...Her own rhetoric, like Murdoch's, strikes bright, gracefully arcing sparks without subjective distraction, her estimates of flaws are fair, she avoids the trap of over-synopsizing, and her final admission of puzzlement as to the book's precise meaning is refreshingly honest...
...ROBERT P. IMBELLI Rave for a review Potsdam, N.Y...
...Hayakawa, who introduced it as a seemingly harmless resolution in the first immigration bill passed by the Senate in 1982...
...Lest we get too nostalgic about our past, however, we ask for continued critical (but friendly) scrutiny for our "new" merged quarterly, Cross Currents: Religion and Intellectual Life...
...To the Editors: Re your comment, "Apparently, students could care less...
...The thought of accepting a trip paid for by an interested party is mind-boggling...
...and "Ms" are acceptable, and that the word itself is a "blend of Miss and Mrs...
...To the Editors: It goes without saying that Margaret O'Brien Steinfels is an honest and honorable person whose opinion and written views cannot be "bought" with a lunch, a Mercedes, or a trip to Israel...
...The United States is the fifth largest Hispanic country in the world, and it is going to be that no matter what the law says about official English...
...JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Soul food Chestnut Hill, Mass...
...JOE CUNNEEN Blot that dot San Francisco, Calif...
...And the diversity of the dialects does not mean the language as it is taught and written is not understandable to everyone...
...She also labels supporters, by implication, as exclusionist, fascist, and desirous of a homogeneous nation...
...ROBERT W. SNYDER Journalists & junkets East Hampton, N.Y...
...Thanks for the best review of the book I've come across...
...To the Editors: Thanks for linking Cross Currents with the London Tablet in your June 15 note on "historic anniversaries...
...English-views, I must confess, of which I was unaware and certainly deplore...
...Joining forces with the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life not only enlarges our subscription list but allows us to draw on their distinguished advisory board to plan for a more interreligious thrust in future issues...
...A year ago at Columbia University, "The Road to Peace," a gathering of Israelis and Palestinians, stimulated days of dialogue and debate...
...English, resigned after an Arizona newspaper published a memorandum from John Tanton, chair of that organization's board of directors, in which Tanton warned the people of the U.S...
...The rolling has received a lot of help from exclusionist groups such as the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR), of which John Tanton, an ophthalmologist, is a founding member...
...And that is why they spent the money to send us there...
...it takes enormous effort to mount the kinds of gatherings mentioned by our correspondent, and they then get little attention...
...Prunskiene" [editorial, June 1...
...not only the unum, but the pluribus of a just society...
...Keep it down Morristown, N.J...
...And this journal is only one of many that have been sharply critical, while taking note of factors in Israel's situation neglected by our correspondent...
...The U.S...
...Illogic rules Walnut Creek, Calif...
...English has been amar-velously inclusive language and its vocabulary will no doubt be enriched in the future as it has been in the past-but it will still be English...
...There are many reasons why we should not want a homogeneous nation...
...Policing language inevitably means policing thought, however...
...There are days when I want the language-police to blow the whistle on what I hear and read...
...But in the context of an exclusionist immigration policy unabashedly directed against Latin Americans, it was a symbolic snowball that started to roll...
...Joseph Policano offers a counsel of perfection that ignores some realities...
...Like most parents, I don't always understand every word my children say because this language is still growing and changing...
...I was pleased, too, that he gave his approval to the notion that conscientious Catholic legislators often have to pursue an incremental approach to the protection of human life, and can do so without compromising their religious principles...
...MARTIN J. BURNE, O.S.B...
...Also, "complexifying the matter" [page 203]: horrid neologism...
...I also serve on the board of the Chavez Foundation, which sponsors scholarships and research in honor of Senator Denis Chavez, the first U.S...
...MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS...
...by Israeli-related organizations...
...Abigail McCarthy 'Currents' merging New Rochelle, N.Y...
...senator of Hispanic origin...
...Still, I was startled to see that her trip to Israel was "sponsored" (i.e., paid for...
...It gave me renewed confidence in the ability of the best side of Israel to prevail and eventually give full human rights to its oppressed Palestinian population...
...The question I keep asking, however, is: Why does the American Catholic community remain virtually silent as bur government enables the worst side of Israel (to the tune of $3 billion a year) to indulge in the human rights abuses you mentioned in your article...
...Which is precisely the reason responsible publications do not accept junkets, background trips, orientation tours, or whatever you wish to call them...
...AURORA CAMACHO DE SCHMIDT No official language English will survive Philadelphia, Pa...
...As for our use of "complexifying," we were careless.ot therefore to be stigmatized...
...Why are they then so silent about Israel, the largest single recipient of American foreign aid...
...To the Editors: Why on earth do you use a period after "Ms"-as in the title to, and throughout "Prudent Ms...
...medially indifferent (care less...
...Nouns are continually being turned into verbs so that we can "theologize" and perfectly good words fall out of favor so that the practice of ministry becomes "praxis...
...What my proposals really argue is that these things can be drawn from the texts of real life far more efficiently than from the hollow cocoons we call classrooms...
...In my own defense I wish to point out that I was the publisher of one of the first Spanish-language newspapers in the Washington, D.C., area, and am currently on the board of El Pregonero, the award-winning Spanish-language paper published here...
...It portrays a hopeless situation and the status quo being maintained for perhaps years to come...
...DANIEL J. LEER From the Editors: Our Bible in these matters is the American Heritage Dictionary, a noninfallible source...
...And that, I am sure coincidentally, is precisely what the Israeli government is striving for...
...The concept of English as the United States' official language was raised in recent years by Senator S.I...
...Our congressional lobbying groups and media opinion-makers are right to oppose apartheid in South Africa, military assistance to El Salvador, and contra violence in Nicaragua...
...According to the recent survey by Professor Steven M. Cohen of Queens College, the most detailed of its kind, a solid majority of American Jewish leaders support such positions as conditional negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization and trading land for peace...
...To the Editors: Thanks for Margaret Steinfels's report on her visit to Israel ["Nothing's Simple," May 4...
...The standard edited English which I have tried to speak and write as a college graduate is not the same as the Northern Appalachian dialect which I learned as a child...
...Neither Abigail McCarthy nor Alistair Cooke, whose views McCarthy shares, could be accused of either...
...In the "upper register" one squeaks...
...10011...
...Roger G. Talbott's assumption that making English our official language would mean that we would have to "police" it is, I think, unfounded...
...My own organization, Americans for Peace Now, welcomes all, whatever their religious or ethnic background, who want to join us...
...Frankly, those thing are vital, and I would never dream of building a curriculum that "revolves around the mercurial interests of students...
...My involvement in the needs of my Hispanic neighbors and my pride in the achievements of my Hispanic friends does not, however, alter my conviction that having one official language is unifying- especially in a country where the population is so diverse and composed of so many different language groups...
...It is true that English has been a unifying force in this nation of immigrants and that those who do not learn English are condemned to second-class citizenship...
...against Hispanics' high fertility rates and the possible impact of their Catholic affiliation on the separation of church and state in the United States...
...The end result probably will not be a Quebec-styled language ghetto, but a new language which will prove that English is numero unoROGER G. TALBOTT The author replies: Both these letters commenting on the column, "A Common Currency," make assumptions that are not substantiated by the column itself...
...Probably not...
...Cipher" has a special meaning in music, but we haven't been able to decipher it...
...It is true that in the Southwest and Florida, and in our largest cities, English is colliding with the equally dynamic Spanish language...
...PATRICK M. ARNOLD, S.J The author replies: In my view, all three correspondents make valid points but perhaps make too much of them: Robert Snyder is right, up to a point...
...come across as chauvinist or racist...
...Walter Cronkite also resigned from the board...
...REV...
...He takes the low road...
...Who will define official English...
...Finally, Sra...
...To the Editors: A word of gratitude for two little gems of spirituality that have appeared in recent issues: Paul Wilkes's "An Honest Day's Work" [May 18] and Peggy Rosenthal's "Liturgy and Lawns" [June 15...
...The article contained a quality lacking in most such commentaries: hope...
...maximally indifferent (could not care less...
...The millions who watched the Tony Awards in this Year of the Actor must have been impressed by the contemporaneity of the centuries-old Shakespearean speeches which interspersed the program and were so beautifully delivered by actors of varied ethnic backgrounds...
...Such generous support has been typical of Commonweal throughout our forty years, from our very first public notice in Commonweal (1951) via a write-up by John Cogley...
...Let Commonweal celebrate North Olmsted, Ohio To the Editors: Many advocates of making English the official language of the U.S...
...Aurora Camacho de Schmidt are the most serious...
...there are free and intense discussions in this country on the Middle East, but in Israel they seem to occur spontaneously, go on all the time, and enter the public realm...
...The good news for Ms...
...Continued on page 468) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 434) When I was in journalism the rule was that we did not go on trips paid for by anyone-period...
...there are not only intense private conversations about the challenges of making peace, but also international con-ferences...
...My reaction to your report...
...What about "pedal point," "cipher," "upper register," and "ground bass...
...Responsible" publications that spurn opportunities for "junkets" enjoy sources of revenue denied to journals like Commonweal-advertising from General Electric and Exxon, for example-and media critics have argued that this circumstance affects the tunes the pipers choose to play...
...Making a language official does not freeze it or keep it from changing and growing...
...I want Congress to outlaw "hopefully," "irregardless," and other atrocities...
...yet they think they speak English as well as I do...
...To the Editors: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels's "Report on Israel" [May 4] performs a valuable service by recognizing the small but significant steps that Israelis and Palestinians are making toward peace...
...in the U.S...
...Why not "complicating...
...Thanks, but...
...To the Editors: I was heartened to read Paul Baumann's intelligent and hopeful analysis of the recently adopted Connecticut abortion legislation [June 15...
...Why do we Catholics remain quiet as the U.S...
...212) 645-6262...
...Ms" is not an abbreviation for missis (or missus, depending on your preference), nor is it a contraction of mistress or a shortened form of miss...
...But to say that "none of these conversations could have taken place in the United States" creates a mistaken impression...
...To the Editors: I hope you'll invite Madeline Marget to write more book reviews for you and that she'll accept...
...citizen or a right to his opinion...
...The church is not far behind...
...Catholic bishops issued a statement on the Middle East last fall (Origins, November 23,1989) that deserves his attention...
...Latinos, Asians, and all other immigrants desire to learn English...
...Her review of The Message to the Planet [May 18] reconciles what I'd supposed Murdoch made irreconcilable: Marget nourishes the person lucky enough to have read the book and also informs the prospective reader what to anticipate in a way that does justice...
...If we also manage to retain our mother tongue, all the more power to us...
Vol. 117 • August 1990 • No. 14
