When in Rome....

I was discussing immigration with a friend of mine and my belief that we should call a spade a spade and call out the fact that English is the official language of the U.S. She 1st says I'm racist, then that I'm prejudice, then that I should be more inclusive in my thought process because 'we white people aren't the majority anymore!' Fortunately for me, I remembered a recent trip she had taken overseas. So I said, 'Remember when you went overseas?'

She: "Yeah, what about it?"

Self: "Where did you go?" (I knew where she went but I needed her to say it.)

She: "Duh, Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy!"

Self: "So when you went there, did you demand or expect Germans, French people, the Swiss or Italians to speak English?"

She: "Of course not! How rude! I mean really!!"

Self: "So then why is it OK for people to come here and demand that WE speak THEIR language, as opposed to English?"

She didn't know what to say. So I said it for her. We are not racist, rude, obnoxious, uncaring people because we ask that when you are in Rome, or in this case the US, you do and the Romans, speak as the Romans do..or in our case do and speak as Americans do. Our forefathers had to. When I have to repeat, suh-lowly and cuh-learly 4 [yes, 4!!] and no I'm not kidding, times that "I want to buy 4 chocolate chip cookies" before the girl gets it...then she gets mad at me....uh no!

Stop and think about this in a more practical sense if you will. We have our driver license tests in NC in Spanish. Lovely. How nice. And compassionate. They're not forced to adapt. People, what language are all of our street signs in? Thank you, I rest my case.