New tag line? Quasi-autobiographical: kramerwetzel.com.
Douglas Adams:
One of his books, I’ve got it on the shelf here, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which is a play on a typical literary term, the “Dark Night of the Soul.”
Observations:
Fellow Sagittarius wrote this, which is funny – or sad – that the short paragraphs evoked such strong sentiments.
Let me describe an event I haven’t dealt with effectively, just random observations from life a little north of the Nueces Strip. I was in the Post Office. Slightly south of San Antonio’s meager downtown. I know the one guy working behind the counter, Libra, ex-Army Ranger. Served several years. Hispanic persuasion, married, good father, Federal employee. Worked for the Army, still wears a tiny emblem from his unit, wears that emblem with pride.
He was explaining in fluent, flawless Spanish that the US passport application had to be filled out in English. From what I could follow, he was shaking his head, the people applying for passports wanted them so they could easily get home to Mexico and back to Texas – for work. Passports are now required or something.
It’s simple, to my mind, after all, I’ve held a US passport since I was about five or six years old, but the idea is that a passport requires proof of citizenship. One of the people in question was admittedly, from what I could ascertain (and I might be wrong), born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Chihuahua, as a state, is slightly larger than the whole United Kingdom (Britain).
And possibly not a legal resident. I don’t know, for fact, either way. The poor guy behind the counter, culturally, he was “Mexican.” As a sentient citizen, he served in the US Armed Forces, and he was a real hero, in my mind.
The people shuffled off, I dropped another eBay item in the mail, he shook his head, “They don’t understand, it’s got to be filled out in English.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
Historical fact: the flag that probably flew over the Alamo – wasn’t the Lone Star, despite the myth and movies. It was probably a tricolor with the Mexican coat of arms replaced with the numbers “1824,” which showed the colonist supported the Mexican constitution of 1824.
So, should English be required? Or just optional? I’m with that postal employee, I think it should be required. However, I’m also with him in that people who live along the border? We should be able to converse freely in both, native tongue and colonial English.
English is the default language of the provisional government.
