Verified by 
God bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam,
God bless America, my home sweet home.
- Irving Berlin
My blog entries here are not overtly political, although I assume my liberal leanings are evident. But in the present case, I cannot help myself, What follows is a political rant triggered by a story I just read that some legislators in Arizona want to remove teachers with "strong" accents from classrooms in which the English language is being taught,
Never mind that the way most Americans speak English is an abomination to those from England. Never mind that Australians have little idea what Americans are saying because we sound so funny to them. Never mind that many of us in the middle of the US have trouble understanding people from the deep South, from Boston, or from Brooklyn. (The first time I met someone from Brooklyn, I innocently congratulated him on how well he spoke English, given - so I thought - that he had just arrived in the country!)
The United States is a wonderful nation, and I think it is a wonderful nation precisely because it is a nation of strongly-accented immigrants. Our ancestors came from around the world, some willingly and others not so willingly, but they all arrived, survived, and thrived. Do we speak in one voice or with one accent? Not exactly, and isn't that the point of America?
A movement to remove those with "strong" accents from public life in the US would get rid of some of my best teachers, some of my most revered colleagues, and some of my closest friends. It would send some of my best students packing. It would kick Henry Kissinger to the curb. Also Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bye bye Albert Einstein and Cesar Chavez. Irving Berlin: Take a walk, and take your songs with you!
Has America - or at least Arizona - lost its mind? My immediate ancestors, from Sweden, Germany, England, and Ireland, eventually settled in Iowa, where the notion of hybrid vigor is familiar. Usually applied to crops, it applies metaphorically to people.
"Strong" accents among English teachers in the United States? Rather than barring them, how about requiring them?
