Enabling Insures Failure

For several years I managed the largest homeless shelter in New Hampshire, which typically sheltered about 100 persons each night. Many were alcoholics or drugs addicts, some were mentally deficient, and some were just "set back" by some tragedy such as death or divorce.

But they all had one thing in common - "enabling" them always made their situation worse. When you enable someone, you give them a reason to keep doing the things that put them in the position they are in.

When I first began managing the shelter, it was an environment of enablement. The homeless were not required to make any changes in their lives - they were fed, clothed and housed without anything ever being asked of them. And that sort of "free ride" not only allows them to stay on the dole, but encourages it. When I left that job, the shelter had case managers to help people confront and deal with their "devils", and everyone was required to contribute to the workings of the shelter in some manner. And for the first time in the history of that shelter, some of the lifelong homeless had found a way out, a better life, and freed themselves from their chains.

The point of this is simple: enablement is never a good solution to a problem. Never.

But a lot of well-meaning yet non-thinking people want to enable immigrants to "get by" in America without having to bother with learning English. These people oppose "English Only" systems, thinking that an "English Only" system is somehow "discriminatory". What they do not understand is that it is discriminatory to NOT require English. Here are some reasons why:

1) A non-English speaking resident will never have the same opportunities as English speaking residents.

2) It is natural for a person to avoid, fear, or discriminate against those he cannot understand. They don't call it a language "barrier" without good reason. Not speaking a common language does, indeed, create a barrier. If you really want to tear down barriers, make "English Only" a reality in this country.

3) A person in America who cannot speak English is much easier to exploit. Human nature what it is, there is no shortage of people who WILL exploit them.

So, for all you brainwashed liberals out there who believe "English Only" is a bad thing, you need to open your eyes. By enabling people to not need English, you limit their opportunities, cause fear and misunderstanding, and enable unscrupulous people to exploit these immigrants.

And that is wrong, no matter what side of the political fence you are on!

English Only is what we should all be behind. We need to stop making it easy for people to just "get by" without having to learn English. Take those "other" languages off our packaging, out of our restaurants, out of the workplace. Force immigrants to learn English - not for our good, but for theirs! If we do not do this, we are doing every immigrant - legal or otherwise - a disservice.

Besides, if you enable one, it would be discrimination to not enable them all. What will we do - write everything in 112 different languages? Most packaging and menus are not that big, and the cost to businesses would put them out of business.

No. The only answer is to make all of America "English Only", for the good of everyone who lives here.