Friday, July 14, a short, one paragraph editorial was published titled “Assimilation.” In essence it was a complaint to our Federal politicians about leading our country to destruction due to lack of assimilation and multiple languages that do not allow common communication within our United States. That was it. To a degree I agreed with him.

Sunday, July 23, a reply was published, “In response to Assimilation.” I found this response to be full of arrogance. Let me define that word for the writer: “Arrogant — having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities.” This author spent his time trying to demean the previous author of July 14th and interjected comments about data and thoughts that were simply not there. Wow – talk about judgmental and intolerant!

My response to his: “…assimilation has nothing to do with language” is: OF COURSE IT DOES! If one has studied any history or social science then you know that common language is one of the strongest bonds there is in defining a country and keeping it united. He goes on to state that China as a super power with 302 languages is able to communicate just fine. NOT TRUE! The only reason China is a superpower today and held together as a country is because they are ruled by a brutal dictator, as has been their history. We can see within Ukraine, how the different cultures and languages have weakened the country and put it at risk.

He then goes on to accuse the first writer of hate and racism and suggests that he should “…quietly sit down and keep (his) opinion to (himself.) ” I found no hatred or racism in the first editorial. It was a complaint about our politicians not doing their job. One of thousands of such complaints in the U.S. where freedom of speech and differing opinions are respected. The only one trying to promote hate and racism was the author of the second editorial. But that is no longer surprising, unfortunately, for I have found that such arrogance truly believes that no one else is as smart as they are and they use name calling and put downs to stifle any debate because they don’t have respect for anyone who disagrees with them, nor enough substance with which to have a debate. The only speech they tolerate is their own.