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Tom Tancredo is just a really, really mean man.

Being 850 miles away in Northwest Arkansas, I typically would have an opportunity to hear about affairs happening back in the great Mile-High City. Amazingly enough, I had extra time today before one of my classes. Since the class was in the same building as the library on campus, I decided to do something that I often do; I entered the library and picked up a newspaper. They get copies of The Denver Post, but the issue available isn't recent, and I'm not a Post person but a Rocky Mountain News type. However, I picked up the daily copy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It was mostly articles about the recent hurricane devastatio, but one article¹ caught my attention. I was aware of the situation before I left Denver, but I had just dismissed it as pure, local evil done by Tancredo. Now, I'm seeing that it's making national news.

Basically, the Denver Public Library has a good deal of Spanish-language material in its inventory. It's not unique to Denver at all, but it's being scrutinised in Denver all because of the acts of a local politician. Tancredo wrote a letter to the Denver mayor expressing his concern about the situation. In a nutshell, he was worried that some other language besides English would be getting attention at the library. I have no objections to placing material in a library purely on the basis of language. Let's face it: Denver has a large population of Hispanics². The library is intended to be a sanctuary of literature for people to use. Believe it or not, the English language is not the only language that has literature, and I'm sure that Spanish-language literature would not go to waste in Denver given the demographics. The article listed two objections to the library keeping Spanish material: public funds shouldn't support a demographic that could include illegal aliens and shouldn't support any language other than English. First of all, if we want to exclude public money going towards a demographic that can include illegal immigrants, we should just not have libraries. I'm sure that there are people in the United States who speak English as their first language and are here illegally. Besides, it doesn't matter that there are Spanish speakers here illegally. What matters is that there are Spanish speakers who are here legally. These people pay their taxes too. In my mind, they should have their share of that public money.

Tancredo's position on immigration is not one that is against immigration per se. Rather, Tancredo believes that two elements are essential if immigration is to happen: immigrants must come to the United States legally and immigrants must culturally assimilate once they arrive.³ I can agree with Tancredo on the first issue because, of course, I wouldn't want anyone to break the law. However, our laws are ridiculous. There are several people wanting to come to this country who only want to make a decent living and enjoy the same quality of live that any American has, and immigration policies can make the process take forever. However, on the second issue, Tancredo couldn't be more wrong. The fact is that people who come to America have the right to retain the features of their culture. If a person wants to speak Spanish in their daily life, that's their choice and their right. In parts of Denver, the number of people who choose to speak Spanish is great enough to warrant the businesses in these areas to choose to cater to these people which is also their right as business owners to decide.

Tancredo often uses the concept of Western Civilisation to refer to the values which he stands behind as a model for the ideal society. However, Tancredo appears to use this concept in a ethnoselective manner to select ethnicities which he chooses to include in Western Civilisation while at the same time excluding others. However, the term Western Civilisation is ambiguous itself as I learned in my college course with Professor Jones. From reading his speeches, Tancredo's definition of Western Civilisation apparently excludes Hispanics and Muslims. My definition of Western Civilisation includes them both as they both derive from an ancient, near-east origin (which is where any textbook on Western Civilisation begins). However, for this purpose, I'll use Tancredo's definition of Western Civilisation. Tancredo's fear is that America will become so “multicultural” that it will loose its cultural identity. Tancredo finds it shocking that schools teach that our culture is one that was founded on the slavery of Africans and the genocide of the First Nations. He finds it shocking, but it's true. This nation does not have a clean record when it comes to morality. However, I don't want to deemphasise the progress made. There are no slaves in America, and we don't kill people from First Nations anymore. So, American culture wasn't founded on ideal ideals, but I doubt that any culture can say that it has. Besides morals, the other elements of a culture can't really be placed in a dichotomy of good and evil. I can't say that Chinese food is inherently better than Indian food. I can't say that baseball is great and soccer is evil. I can't say that jazz is great and country music is evil. I myself happen to love Chinese food, baseball and jazz and hate Indian food, soccer and country music with a passion, but that doesn't affect its sacredity. Tancredo will agree when he says: “When I talk about multiculturalism and the problems I see in it, I am not talking about cultural diversity that brings into our society the music, the poetry, the art, dance from different cultures of all continents of the globe. Certainly our Nation has been enriched and continues to be enriched by these contributions.”⁴ Should Tancredo realise that American morals itself could become enriched by other cultures? This might seem hard to believe, but I think that American morals could take a page out of the Islamic world. When the Islamic world is upset when young employees at “Western” hotels sneak into rooms to watch naked lesbians have sex with each other on television channels provided to clients, I really can't argue with that. When Mexicans come to the United States to find a better life through a strong work ethic, I cannot complain. When Asian cultures place a strong emphasis on education compared to a nation of students that continually score lower and lower in subjects, I cannot complain. There is good and bad in each of these cultures. Rather than focus on tradition or culture or values, can't we just simplify the issue and concentrate on what's good and right?

It's amazing how I started talking about Spanish books in libraries and end up talking about value in cultures.

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1. Gartner, Erin, “Libraries adjust to Hispanic needs”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — Northwest Edition, 2005 September 5, section A.
2. I am aware that this doesn't necessarliy include Spanish speakers, but, from the usage in the article, I'm assuming that it does otherwise I doubt that the library would bother to purchase Spanish-languge materials.
3. http://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/tancredo-42903.html
4. Ibid.