America. What a country.

Land of opportunity with its streets paved with gold.

Purple mountains majesty,

and Northern winds that blow so cold.

Send her your tired and huddled masses

and all those yearning to breathe o’ so free.

Like a diamond she has many facets

O’ say can’t you see.

Like a sun she has risen to heights unbound

Her people are like no other kind.

Her conscience has basis unfound,

Her government has its own mind.

Founded by derelicts of the European kind

settled by conquerors of the same type.

A new freedom of politics they hoped to find,

More were to follow, ’cause they believed the hype.

Her history she seems to forget,

although she makes me read it every chance she gets.

Different cultures are at the table that I sit,

and different languages cross the meal not one to omit.

America, from Amerigo that Italian that first sailed

German was the language that might have been chosen.

Vespucci not Columbus, no his attempt had failed.

Chris, well he wasn’t quite the explorer the books was supposin’.

Claimed by the overly righteous

built by the underly appreciated

Exterminated were the red and faceless

While the brown, yellow and black were cremated.

Why does she make such an issue

about how her people communicate?

About what language they use to say I love you.

This is America we are big enough to compensate.

Chicago has more Poles than some cites of Poland

It has an airport named after an Irish pilot.

Those Greeks in Greektown many are a Cub fan.

While the Spanish that is spoken is a quiet riot.

New York has more Puerto Ricans than the city of San Juan,

While every city in South Cali has a Mexican ring

Even the Mayor of former New Amsterdam is an Italian one

While the governor of Texas’ background is a German/English thing.

We have Las Crucas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles

They all have their Spanish speaking parts.

Then there is Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and other angles

Embedded in Native-American words are their names and arts.

I ask does it make a difference

what language we speak and converse in?

Does it really make a difference

What language America immerses itself in?

Everyone in our borders knows English is necessary to survive

arriving on our shores this question needs no asking

However other languages keep this country alive

If you know more than one America could be yours for the taking.

We the people are so arrogant

to prove to the world that, “yeah we speak English”

The world laughs at us and says “how ignorant”

While we bask in our glory the world is learning Yiddish.

We the people of the greatest country on earth

don’t even think to learn a new tongue while we are young.

America, country of my birth,

Where you adapt or perish is the song that’s sung.

Americans speak English

this we already know.

So let’s make a law

the obvious we will show.

There are more pressing issues for people to discuss

like the state of our children’s education and the lack of jobs.

Too many things more important to waste all the fuss,

There are other important things to waste all the tears and sobs.

We know the French speak French that is all too clear,

The Spanish speak spanish that we all know.

Go to Kenya, Swahili is not all you hear,

French and German and some English are all good to go.

Mosquito, gallery and instant all have foreign births

Half the English language is found in another’s vernacular

Our dictionary is massive and full of girth,

taken from other languages it is not that spectacular.

America don’t be so engrossed in yourself

A lot of your children don’t care what language is official

To claim only one that must be used as a shelf

is to disregard all that makes us really special.

What makes us special is what makes the world our fan

The greatest and the best

You know this man!

---

Rhaason Mitchell is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Chicago.