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I was trying to look for stories on how people some English speakers in America get offended when people speak a foreign language, even if they aren't talking to them. I had an experience today where someone made a comment on how "rude" it was, and I was curious to know why. This is just an event that happened in 2006 that I found interesting. I hope to find more articles about this topic.

We do have Freedom of Speech in this country. So it is interesting that we feel like that speech must be in English, even when the speech is between people speaking to each other in private. It may go to insecurity. We are one of the only 1st world countries who is not multilingual. Most countries (1st world or not) are conversant in more than just one language.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?CountriesWithMoreThanOneLanguage This tells you which countries speak more than one language and how the list of countries that only speak one language is very short

This is posted here in Wisconsin and was a lead story on last night's local news. Is this hate speech? See picture of the sign above. The man says he supports the President and it is a showing of support. Is he simply unaware of the connotations of putting a noose on a sign for a black man? For any person? Or is he lying? See if you can follow the story. Will he have to take it down or is it protected by the First Amendment. Should it be classified as Hate Speech?

After our discussion in class about the MLK Jr. monument I was interested and found this article. I like this one because of the background knowledge it gives. I also like how the author shares the controversy at the beginning and at the end ties in how the author thinks MLK Jr. would have felt about the way his monument represented himself and his beliefs.

This shows how the Monument became about contingent issues in a way that many would not have expected. The article is a great overview of the major controversies surrounding it. Positioning in relation to other monuments, the quote, the speech the three blocks of marble are derived from, how MLK is coming forth from the stone, even his stance are all rhetorical decisions that have been questioned. Nice Job Anna!

The part that bothers me here (among many things) is the line where the mans says "I know how to build a noose." Anyone want to comment on this article? I also have a weird feeling about people getting upset about a chair in a tree. But then there is the context of the Eastwood speech and the guy's claim that he was just "Eastwooding" it. All kinds of problems here...