”While I Have You’re Attention”
The Power of the Spoken Word

Two points;

One…Learn to read, write, and speak English!

Two…Learn to speak it properly!

If you intend to live in this country for any length oft time and especially if your intent is to become a citizen, then for Christ sake learn how to speak the language. You will suffer long-term debilitating restraints by not speaking English, and your new country will suffer
right along with you. You may have an IQ of 195 but if you can’t communicate on an everyday basis, you’re screwed and so is anyone else that is forced to deal with you.

Encouraging emigrants to establish themselves in groups, usually in the poorer sections of cities solely because the majority can’t read, write, or speak English is the very last thing they need and the exact opposite of one of America’s great edicts: the melting pot. Emigrants that can’t communicate don’t have much choice but to congregate with the only people they can
communicate with and sooner or later, there’s going to be trouble let alone a greatly diminished day by day opportunity to succeed.

I know, I spent two years in Tokyo in the early sixties. Fortunately, the US Army took care of me very well but if I’d had to compete on my own to make a living, it would have been a real problem just to survive let along build a career no matter how good I was at my profession. I had a decent general education as well. Many emigrants and illegal aliens in this country never saw third grade. How can they possibly cope when they can’t speak the language? I can’t think of a better recipe for poverty, crime, and destitution of all kinds. Not too
healthy for our country either is it?

Speaking, reading, and writing English at least enough to get around should be a requirement for long-term residents with possible exceptions for the very young, very old, or otherwise impaired. An apathetic attitude should not qualify you for this group. English is not only the chosen language of the United States it is also the accepted universal language
of the world. Learn it! Many foreign countries like China and Japan for instance, now teach mandatory English in grade schools.

Our government and industries are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions producing bilingual material and catering to people that simply don’t want to be bothered. End this stupidity and we’ll all be a lot better off including the people that must linguistically fend for
themselves in an alien environment. These people have two strikes against them even before they get up to bat. It is imperative that they learn to communicate in this English speaking society. For some unknown reason, we encourage people to remain English illiterate by producing by-lingual material which simple helps them get by in very few isolated situations, no where near what they need on a daily basis. I suggest we phase out this monumental waste of money and human resource by setting up free, specially designed English classes around the country in cities where the bulk of non-English speaking people reside. Volunteer or federally subsidized, this country would save a fortune in the long run. Not only from not having
to print practically everything in two or three languages, but from new taxes generated by a whole lot of people that are going to make more money through better jobs simply because they can communicate.

A people whose crime rate will drop drastically and that will be a lot less dependent on our various government agencies for assistance of any kind. Education is again the key here, it always is. A willingness to work 14 hours a day for next to nothing is not sufficient these days. When I was a kid, the harder the job, the more money you made. Now it’s just the
opposite because there are hoards of people willing to do hard jobs just to put some food on the table because 90% of them have no choice, they can’t read/write or speak English, its that simple!

You black kids of America, it’s the same deal damn it! English, English, English! REAL English! Established dialects around the world are the results of many different influences such as isolation, influx of foreign speaking peoples, local customs, and centuries of changing times. The Black American slang called “Ebonics” used today by way too many of our young
citizens is not even a true dialect. It was born out of simple ignorance hundreds of years in the making.

Slaves were forbidden from possessing books or being taught how to read and write along with all other scholastic skills for that matter. As a result, a dialect of ignorance developed that no one wished to correct at the time. It prevails to this day and still, no one seems to care. In fact, a collage in California unbelievably offers this so called dialect as an elective .
Worse, it’s considered “cool” and “unique” to young blacks in particular and it is quickly being assimilated by main stream youth across the nation. It used to be unique to young black kids but not any more. As for “cool”, I don’t think so. There’s nothing “cool” about ignorance! As a matter of fact it’s a one way ticket to a lifetime of abject poverty.

I can sit here and tell you how dumb it is to deliberately disgrace and discredit your schooling and the monumental efforts of your teachers over the years by using such verbal ignorance but you wouldn’t believe me so I’ll give you a few examples that will clearly illustrate my point. You may then draw your own conclusions. “Yo homie! Ya unnastan what I’m sayin?”

Let’s first agree that everyone wishes to succeed at they’re job or what ever they are involved in at the moment. Right?... Good!

Suppose you, me, and 25 other people apply for the same job. The starting salary is 100K. Initial paperwork and tests eliminates everyone except you and me. Let’s
say our personal qualifications and experiences are equal. We’re both called in for the final interview before the “big guy”, the guy that’s going to hire only one of us. Better yet, imagine you’re the big guy making the decision and your job depends on you picking the better suited of the two applicants.

Both applicants get an opportunity to speak or more accurately, “communicate” with the big guy. Let’s say I go first and I articulate my answers and thoughts with precision and clarity, showing a sizable retention of my English education and a clear indication of my general intellect, personality, and my obvious ability to satisfactorily communicate with potential customers and co-workers.

Now the other applicant begins his oral interview. He speaks in the stereotypical Black-American dialect, complete with physical gestures and possibly even cuss words that are now perfectly acceptable in his small, individual world. Who are you going to choose to represent your company? I’ll take you for a spin in my new Vette next year!

Now imagine the same scenario except the only difference this time is the clothes we wear. I’m dressed neatly and well groomed and the other guy looks like a sack of potatoes without the potatoes, but in his world, he’s “cool” man. Who are you going to hire to represent your
company? I’ll take you for a ride in my new Vette next year!

Chase Manhattan Bank. Same two guys, same set up. This time their applying for a business, mortgage, or personal loan only one will get. I’ll take you for a ride in my new Vette next year!

You get the picture? Want more proof? I challenge you to show me just one black collage graduate or otherwise educated person Up One Level that isn’t involved in rap music or some other lowlife stereotypical industry that speaks the way you do. There aren’t any, they’re educated! They know better! They don’t wish to come across as morons and they don’t. Good for them! I highly suggest you don’t either.

The modern day use of this terrible English is much more than a simple, harmless dialect as with others around the world, it is a revolt, an obvious and deliberate rejection of main stream intellect and society as it stands this day in our country. If there was a cause or a reason to isolate one’s self and revolt against the establishment I’d be right there along side you but there isn’t. You’ve already been given your equal rights and opportunities at great expense to your benefactors both white and black.

Once again, the majority of your youth is being had by an assortment of culture manipulating racist groups, movie producers, and rap artists. Your individual futures are of no interest to any of them and they could care less if you spend the rest of your lives speaking like you
have no education at all. Selling movie tickets and rap records is all that concerns them.

Take advantage of the opportunities this country and the blood of its forefathers have laid before you free of charge and learn. Education remains the singular solution to all of mankind’s problems, including yours! There is absolutely nothing cool or smart about acting
or being ignorant.

Sidney Poitier, a great actor and educated man brought many an hour of pleasure to my life and hundreds of millions of others watching his movies over the years. No one on earth would have ever gotten to enjoy his talents if he spoke the way you do. As a matter of fact, he made a movie decades ago called “To Sir, With Love”. I’ve seen it a half dozen times and I’ll watch it again given the opportunity.

Rather than bore yourselves to death reading my feeble attempts to reverse your roller coaster ride into social suicide, rent the movie! This movie will at the very least entertain you. But if you watch it with an open mind as well as open eyes, you will get up from your livingroom chair reborn, enlightened and eager to become decent and productive citizens of this, the greatest country on earth. Believe me, you will never make a better investment, even if
you’ve seen it before, watch it again, your in it!