Column: Accepting others is a prerequisite of a civil society

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 22, 2002

&t;I&gt&uot;No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.

Tuesday, January 22, 2002

&uot;No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.&uot; – Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to the NAACP, June 25, 1938

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Monday, for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I had the privilege of attending a program at the Albert Lea Civic Theatre put on by the Peace and Justice Committee of the Albert Lea Human Rights Commission. As I watched the program, it brought to my mind some of the inequities and prejudices we live with in Albert Lea every day.

I once heard a joke that went something like this: &uot;Question: What do you call a person who speaks only one language? Answer: An American.&uot; The joke isn’t very funny, but in most cases, it is unfortunately true. We don’t have to learn to speak any other languages, because if we want to travel overseas, the chances are good that the employees of the airlines, the hotels and resorts will be able to speak English. Perhaps the popularity of the English language has spoiled us. Generally, we expect people coming to America to speak English when they get here. No room for people we can’t understand, I guess.

Last Friday (Jan. 18) in the Tribune, there was an article about Glenna Kristy, the cultural services coordinator at Albert Lea Medical Center. In a nutshell, the article described part of her responsibilities as &uot;assisting patients who have little command of the English language,&uot; because of a need for this service among Albert Lea’s Spanish-speaking community. I believe Albert Lea Medical Center should be recognized for taking this step. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester has translation services available in all kinds of languages, because it serves patients from around the world. Given the Hispanic population of Albert Lea, our medical center needs something like this too.

However, some people seem to feel differently about it. One anonymous poster in the Tribune’s online forum was clearly against this. The poster didn’t believe that tax dollars should be used for this purpose. I never realized that our tax dollars were used to pay the staff at ALMC. I was under the impression that medical bills were used for that purpose.

Another poster, in response to the cuts necessitated by the failed levy referendum, stated that &uot;English is the only language that needs to be taught at taxpayer expense.&uot; This person is actually opposed to students having the opportunity to learn Spanish, which he (or she) suggested should have been cut along with the French program. What kind of myopic 1800s mentality is that? It’s fine if this person has no interest in learning another language, but suggesting what others should be able to learn is stepping over the line.

The proposed newcomer center, designed to help Hispanic and other newcomers understand what community services are available here, has also drawn its share of criticism. I’m having a tough time understanding why some people are so opposed to newcomers learning about what their opportunities are once they are here. The newcomers are not being offered anything unusual – just information about community resources they otherwise may not have known about because of the language barrier. They are not being handed a welfare package or given opportunities the rest of us don’t have. Would those who oppose this center have felt the same way if 50 to 100 years ago, if Albert Lea had a newcomer center that helped the newly arriving Norwegians and Danes?

No matter how you feel about it, Albert Lea is a bicultural, bilingual town. Having pride in one’s culture is fine, but we also need tolerance, understanding and respect for people of other cultures. Saying that people should learn English before they come here is not a real solution, because the opportunity isn’t always there. Reacting by putting up a wall of resistance won’t help matters any, either. What we need is cooperation. We have to be proactive and take initiative toward bridging our cultures into mutual understanding. Making it work will be as easy – or as difficult – as we decide it will be.

Dustin Petersen is an Albert Lea resident. His column appears Tuesdays.