DigitalBishop http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com Musings on PHP, Zend Framework, ExtJS, Beekeeping and life in general Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:01:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Advice from an Israeli Agent http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2010/01/advice-from-an-israeli-agent/ http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2010/01/advice-from-an-israeli-agent/#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:01:49 +0000 DigitalBishop http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/?p=26 I got this from a good friend of mine and I thought this would be interesting for you to read. I agree with just about everything this says. Our Government has been nothing but reactionary. When something happens they take a freedom away from us. I bomber hid explosives in his shoes, we now have to take our shoes off at the airport before we go through security. They tried to sneak liquid explosives in drink bottles, they now confiscate any liquid over an ounce. Since some jackass sewed explosives in his underwear, what are they going to do now? Have us take our underwear off? No, we have machines that do full body scans and from what I hear they really don’t do their job too well.

We’re complacent, reactionary and simply plain ill informed. We stand by and let things happen to us. In the email I received it explains that Israelis will alert on an unattended bag at the drop of a hat. I know we don’t do that. I’ve seen us simply walk on by a bag that’s left there, probably thinking “well somebody owns that bag, they’ll come back to it“. An unattended bag in the subway system. (For the record, I did notify the deputy patrolling the area, only to have the bag’s owner run to the bag as the deputy was reaching it and speaking in to the radio. I’d rather have the owner freaking out that they’re going to lose their bag than give anyone a chance to plant a device in the subway system.)

We’re constantly playing catchup and whack a mole with terrorists when we should be thinking ahead and beating them at every turn and closing the door on them.

Sorry for the formatting. I did the best I could given that wp’s editor is far from perfect but I’ll take it over nothing any day.

Advice from an Israeli Agent

AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ !!

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ’Munich’ was based. He was Golda Meir’s bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know — but that our government has not yet shared with us.

He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O’Reilly laughed, and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East) to the Bush Administration about 9/11, a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke — that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

For example:

1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.

2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can’t bring liquids on board. He says he’s waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked!

Every strategy we have is reactionary.

3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time. The interlands (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas.

Aviv says terrorists won’t need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. Government does not want to ‘alarm American citizens’ with the facts. The world is quickly going to become ‘a different place’, and issues like ‘global warming’ and political correctness will become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don’t have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons.. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to ‘meet their destiny’.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America  should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad.  But will be, instead, ‘homegrown’, having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for ’students’ who frequently travel back and forth to the  Middle East. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won’t know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face.  America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel’s, Ireland’s and England’s hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust ‘aware’ citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, ‘like babies’. Our government thinks we ‘can’t handle the truth’ and are concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well ’trained’ that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, ’Unattended Bag!’ The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.

Unfortunately, America  hasn’t been yet ‘hurt enough’ by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it’s their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were ‘lost’ without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there.. (In New York City, this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within your family, of how to respond in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the schools too, develop plans of actions, just as they do in Israel.

Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan, that in the event of another terrorist

attack, EVERYONE’s ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., will immediately be cut-off, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak to each other? You need to have a plan.

If you understand, and believe what you have just read, then you must feel compelled to send this to every concerned parent, guardian, grandparents, uncles, aunts, whomever. Don’t stop there. In addition to sharing this via e-mail, contact and discuss this information with whomever it makes sense to. Make contingency plans with those you care about. Better that you have plans in place, and never have to use them, then to have no plans in place, and find you needed them.

If you choose not to share this, or not to have a plan in place, and nothing ever occurs – good for you! However, in the event  something does happen, and even moreso, if it directly affects your loved ones, then this e-mail will haunt you forever.

Telling yourself after the fact, “I should have sent this to so and so, but deleted it as so much trash from old Bill Jones, plus, I just didn’t believe it”, will not change anything. You were alerted, had the chance to do something, and instead of erring on the side of caution, you chose to disregard, if nothing else, a sensible, valuable warning.

Advice from an Israeli Agent

AN ABSOLUTE MUST READ !!

Juval Aviv was the Israeli Agent upon whom the movie ’Munich’ was based. He was Golda Meir’s bodyguard, and she appointed him to track down and bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who took the Israeli athletes hostage and killed them during the Munich Olympic Games.

In a lecture in New York City he shared information that EVERY American needs to know — but that our government has not yet shared with us.

He predicted the London subway bombing on the Bill O’Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O’Reilly laughed, and mocked him saying that in a week he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack had occurred.

Juval Aviv gave intelligence (via what he had gathered in Israel and the Middle East) to the Bush Administration about 9/11, a month before it occurred. His report specifically said they would use planes as bombs and target high profile buildings and monuments. Congress has since hired him as a security consultant.

Now for his future predictions. He predicts the next terrorist attack on the U.S. will occur within the next few months.

Forget hijacking airplanes, because he says terrorists will NEVER try and hijack a plane again as they know the people onboard will never go down quietly again. Aviv believes our airport security is a joke — that we have been reactionary rather than proactive in developing strategies that are truly effective.

For example:

1) Our airport technology is outdated. We look for metal, and the new explosives are made of plastic.

2) He talked about how some idiot tried to light his shoe on fire. Because of that, now everyone has to take off their shoes. A group of idiots tried to bring aboard liquid explosives. Now we can’t bring liquids on board. He says he’s waiting for some suicidal maniac to pour liquid explosive on his underwear; at which point, security will have us all traveling naked!

Every strategy we have is reactionary.

3) We only focus on security when people are heading to the gates.

Aviv says that if a terrorist attack targets airports in the future, they will target busy times on the front end of the airport when/where people are checking in. It would be easy for someone to take two suitcases of explosives, walk up to a busy check-in line, ask a person next to them to watch their bags for a minute while they run to the restroom or get a drink, and then detonate the bags BEFORE security even gets involved. In Israel, security checks bags BEFORE people can even ENTER the airport.

Aviv says the next terrorist attack here in America is imminent and will involve suicide bombers and non-suicide bombers in places where large groups of people congregate. (i.e., Disneyland, Las Vegas casinos, big cities (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) and that it will also include shopping malls, subways in rush hour, train stations, etc., as well as, rural America this time. The interlands (Wyoming, Montana, etc.).

The attack will be characterized by simultaneous detonations around the country (terrorists like big impact), involving at least 5-8 cities, including rural areas.

Aviv says terrorists won’t need to use suicide bombers in many of the larger cities, because at places like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, they can simply valet park a car loaded with explosives and walk away.

Aviv says all of the above is well known in intelligence circles, but that our U. S. Government does not want to ‘alarm American citizens’ with the facts. The world is quickly going to become ‘a different place’, and issues like ‘global warming’ and political correctness will become totally irrelevant.

On an encouraging note, he says that Americans don’t have to be concerned about being nuked. Aviv says the terrorists who want to destroy America will not use sophisticated weapons.. They like to use suicide as a front-line approach. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s effective; and they have an infinite abundance of young militants more than willing to ‘meet their destiny’.

He also says the next level of terrorists, over which America  should be most concerned, will not be coming from abroad.  But will be, instead, ‘homegrown’, having attended and been educated in our own schools and universities right here in the U.S. He says to look for ’students’ who frequently travel back and forth to the  Middle East. These young terrorists will be most dangerous because they will know our language and will fully understand the habits of Americans; but that we Americans won’t know/understand a thing about them.

Aviv says that, as a people, Americans are unaware and uneducated about the terrorist threats we will inevitably face.  America still has only a handful of Arabic and Farsi speaking people in our intelligence networks, and Aviv says it is critical that we change that fact SOON.

So, what can America do to protect itself? From an intelligence perspective, Aviv says the U.S. needs to stop relying on satellites and technology for intelligence. We need to, instead, follow Israel’s, Ireland’s and England’s hands-on examples of human intelligence, both from an infiltration perspective as well as to pay attention to, and trust ‘aware’ citizens to help. We need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens; however, our U. S. government continues to treat us, its citizens, ‘like babies’. Our government thinks we ‘can’t handle the truth’ and are concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. Aviv says this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created/executed a security test for our Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major cities. The results? Not one person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase!

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well ’trained’ that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizen(s) who know to publicly shout, ’Unattended Bag!’ The area would be quickly & calmly cleared by the citizens themselves.

Unfortunately, America  hasn’t been yet ‘hurt enough’ by terrorism for their government to fully understand the need to educate its citizens or for the government to understand that it’s their citizens who are, inevitably, the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children here in America who were in preschool and kindergarten after 9/11, who were ‘lost’ without parents being able to pick them up, and about our schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there.. (In New York City, this was days, in some cases!)

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within your family, of how to respond in the event of a terrorist emergency. He urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the schools too, develop plans of actions, just as they do in Israel.

Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even our youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U. S. government has in force a plan, that in the event of another terrorist

attack, EVERYONE’s ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., will immediately be cut-off, as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak to each other? You need to have a plan.

If you understand, and believe what you have just read, then you must feel compelled to send this to every concerned parent, guardian, grandparents, uncles, aunts, whomever. Don’t stop there. In addition to sharing this via e-mail, contact and discuss this information with whomever it makes sense to. Make contingency plans with those you care about. Better that you have plans in place, and never have to use them, then to have no plans in place, and find you needed them.

If you choose not to share this, or not to have a plan in place, and nothing ever occurs – good for you! However, in the event  something does happen, and even moreso, if it directly affects your loved ones, then this e-mail will haunt you forever.

Telling yourself after the fact, “I should have sent this to so and so, but deleted it as so much trash from old Bill Jones, plus, I just didn’t believe it”, will not change anything. You were alerted, had the chance to do something, and instead of erring on the side of caution, you chose to disregard, if nothing else, a sensible, valuable warning.

]]> http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2010/01/advice-from-an-israeli-agent/feed/ 0 Bee Culture Responds http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-responds/ http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-responds/#comments Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:08:34 +0000 DigitalBishop http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/?p=16 I didn’t expect this at all and I have to give credit where credit is due and kudos where kudos are due. Bee Culture’s editor Kim Flottum responded to my previous blog post about my opinions on the magazine. I thought his response was excellent and intelligent. Most editors respond with extreme defensive language and dismiss the complaining party as ill informed or ignorant using colorful language. Kim responded with care and sensitivity as well as information to assure me that they were aware of the need for articles on Natural Beekeeping. Here’s the response in full.

Hello,
I enjoyed reading your perspective of our magazine, but I think you may have missed some aspects of what we do. For instance, Ross Conrad is a regular contributor of ours…author of Natural Beekeeping…and though some of our editorial is aimed at how the majority of beekeepers pursue the craft, we certainly cover all aspects….chemical free is certainly important to all of us, and that was apparent in that Bee Culture sponsored the EAS meeting this summer with a strong emphasis on no chemicals, few chemicals and definitely using resistant bees. My point is that there is more to Bee Culture magazine, and beekeeping in general, than treatments and chemicals…especially the latest in IPM management skills needed to keep your bees healthy and alive…don’t give up on us after only one issue…
Kim Flottum

You can also check it out here. Rest assured I’m not going to cancel my subscription and ask for my money back. I still think Bee Culture has valuable information and more important to note that although there is peer pressure to use medications and treatments, no one is putting a gun to my head and telling me that I have to. We all have the ability to filter what we read and take the information we want and throw out the information we don’t want. I have to admit that complaint may have been premature in that I fired it off only after seeing one issue of Bee Culture but most magazines have a running tone depending on what the owning company believes in or where the bills are paid.

I want to thank Kim for responding as quickly as he did. I’m delighted to see that Bee Culture is listening and looking forward to reading future issues. Kudos to you and the magazine. The response he gave makes me think that he and Bee Culture could be a powerful ally in getting the word out about beekeeping with no chemicals.

Update: Oh boy. I feel embarrassed. Kim is a he, not a she. I was alerted to that fact by Scot McPherson on the Yahoo group. Thank you Scot. I should know better and do my homework on people and not assume gender based on names. Considering that my name is also unisex, that’s a double faux pas for me. The post has been corrected.

]]> http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-responds/feed/ 0 Bee Culture is not my culture http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-is-not-my-culture/ http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-is-not-my-culture/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:15:56 +0000 DigitalBishop http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/?p=8 I just got my first issue of Bee Culture Magazine. When I first subscribed to it I couldn’t wait to get my first issue. All that useful information I’d be able to read about bees and maybe some tricks of the trade. What I got was something rather different. I didn’t expect the magazine to be difficult to read. What I mean by difficult is that I opened the magazine to the first page and the first thing I see is an ad for medication for bees. So I thought “Ok, I can ignore ads for bee medication and mite treatments and other
unnatural things.”. There just so many of them though. I should have expected it. It is a magazine after all. So I start reading the articles and I get hit with the reality of the situation. As a new beekeeper (or future beekeeper), even though I haven’t gotten any bees yet. The way I’m planing to start. I get hit with the fact that I will be in the minority of beekeepers. The articles in the magazine are filled with mentions of bee treatments, medications, mite strips, feeding sugar syrup. Reading the articles I started to get the feeling with all the mentions of medications that if I didn’t use them I would be doing something wrong and it has something to do with how the author of the articles places the mention of medications and treatments. Most treat it as fact and as a part of routine maintenance when either ramping the colony up for spring or bedding the colony down for winter. There is an element of peer pressure and this not just in the magazine, it’s in the Bee Source forum as well. A new beekeeper who starts out on the forums or reading through Bee Culture or even just reading Beekeeping for Dummies since they all mention medications would think that by medicating bees they’re doing the right thing. I haven’t seen American Bee Journal yet but I can only surmise that I would be in for the same bombardment of ads and articles that mention medications, supplements, mite treatments and more peer pressure.

I’ve learned more about beekeeping through the Organic Beekeepers Group on Yahoo and by reading entries in the Backwards Beekeepers than anywhere else. I’ve learned about the industry off of the Bee Source forums but as far as taking care of bees I think I’d take the information with a grain of salt unless it’s from someone I know that has the same goals. I know Michael Bush frequents the forum. I’m just disappointed that Bee Culture has no organic section and I realize that would be hard to do since we advocate no treatments of any kind, no artificial feeds (only sugar, and that is a last resort). The industry is built on treatments, medications, feeds and other artificial means. The magazine couldn’t survive without the funding those ads provide.

I’m fine with the fact that I belong to a minority of beekeepers. I know I’m doing the right thing by the bees I’ll be getting. So I’m also fine with the thought; Bee Culture is not my culture.

]]> http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/12/bee-culture-is-not-my-culture/feed/ 3 Immigration, Language and Respect http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/11/immigration-language-and-respect/ http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/2009/11/immigration-language-and-respect/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:00:02 +0000 DigitalBishop http://digitalbishop.badwolfmedia.com/?p=3 Something happened to Erin and I today that has me very upset. I’ll get to explaining what it is has soon as I explain what I believe and what I am about so that there can be no mistake as to who I am. If you’re sensitive to politics, subjects on immigration or general bitching about people coming in to your country and foul language, you might not want to read this. I have no problem with individuals immigrating to this wonderful country of ours. That’s what makes this country great. I have no problem with other races or religions. I am not a racist. Yet, I know I will be called that because people use the word “Racist” in place of “Shut the fuck up”. I love my country. I love the fact that we can, within limits of the law, do what we want. We can start a business, criticize the Government without fear of reprisals, create and disseminate opposing views, and many more things. This is what makes the United States of America great. Let also not forget, we have the freedom to make an ass out of ourselves. If you think I’m not an ass for expressing this, great. If you do, well, that’s great too. Now on to what we’re really here for.

Language As A Barrier

I love immigration. It’s great that individuals and their families can move here and become a citizen. However there’s a problem with the immigrants that have been coming here. They’re trying to recreate what they had back where they came from instead of trying to become full fledged fully absorbed Americans. Back in WWII when we had a rush of immigrants we had people coming in who wanted to be Americans. They brought many things from their homeland, traditions, food, music and other things and America was enriched as a result. They realized and respected that America has its own traditions, values and language. They took the time to learn American history, traditions and the English language. Most of the immigrants today apparently just want the freedom without becoming an American or learning the language. So now we have communities based on cultures that self segregate in parts of a city. Take a look at my home town, Los Angeles. We have Little Tokyo, Little China, Little Armenia and many other  “sectors”. I’ve run across many individuals who use language as a weapon, or worst an excuse, and here lies my beef. Now, not everyone does this so I’m not saying that every immigrant who can’t speak English doesn’t learn. It’s the people who don’t who give a bad name to everyone else.

I’ve had many instances where people have used their native language as a weapon. I’ve gone in to nail shops (yes, I’ve had manicures) where the workers are predominantly (read all of them) are from Philippines or Vietnam. If you’ve been there too you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Conversations between the workers are in their native language, not English. You know when you’re being talked about as they glance at you and converse. Feels weird doesn’t it? It’s also disrespectful. You get angry that they show you that disrespect. I’ve also had instances where a person fakes that they don’t speak English because they want to get away with something or that they want to make communication very difficult. So you hear in their language that they don’t understand. These people use language as a weapon.

Then there’s people who simply haven’t learned the language. They’ve never tried. Sure they can speak broken English. Picked up over the years. This is where I’m trying to get to. This is where the story begins. We have a garden at the Sepulveda Garden Center. We’ve only had it for about two years. It’s been a source of pride for both Erin and myself. However the center isn’t run very well, but that’s another post, I plan to rake the administrator across the coals. My plot neighbors are a plethora of different individuals. All sorts of different backgrounds. A few even have more than their fair share of plots. One of my neighbors is Russian. We even call him, “The Russian” because we don’t know his name.  The Russian has many plots throughout the center. He and his wife have accumulated them before the rule of having a maximum of three plots. “The Russian”, only speaks Russian.  His English is broken. It’s nearly impossible to communicate with him. Since we had a problem communicating we had a misunderstanding come up. You see, The Russian had grape stock that is basically all over the center. If he thinks you’re a good gardener, he gives you a vine to plant in your garden. This is a kind and noble gesture even though the vine was going dormant looked like it had Pierce’s disease and it was of shit stock. So to be nice we originally accepted his offer of a vine. I really didn’t want it. Not because it was a crappy stock but that we had found a better place and we were on the verge of deciding if we were staying or going to give the plot up and leave. He had us dig a hole 2 feet deep and two feet wide. The he told us not to plant it till we had all sorts of mulch and amendments, controlling isn’t he? He wanted us to come next weekend so he can plant the vine. We weren’t able to, something had come up and we had no way of contacting him. We didn’t meet again till three weeks later. When he came up to us he was irritated. It was pretty much a tantrum. He threw his hands up and walked away. All these years in the United States and he hasn’t learned English. Either by picking it up or going to classes. He couldn’t communicate to us what he wanted and we couldn’t communicate to him. I felt like he wanted us to cater to him. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? I felt insulted that he didn’t bother to learn English. Am I wrong to feel this way? Some people would say yes. Other people wouldn’t. We ended a friendship with both parties walking away in frustration. Now, things will be tense between us at the garden when we’re both there. All because he couldn’t speak English. Yes, America is a melting pot. However a melting pot means integration. He decided that he didn’t have to, and that’s insulting. There have been many instances where this situation comes up. I’ve been told time and time again stories of people being yelled at by individuals who don’t speak English asking why they don’t speak their language. This holds especially true with our neighbors to the South. Since they’re so close, there’s really no incentive to learn English. A friend of mine was yelled at because they couldn’t speak Spanish while they were at their job as a cashier.  This was insulting to hear. If you want to come and live in my country I expect you to learn English, just as I would be expected to learn the native language of a country I immigrate to, if I were to, and I would out of respect for that country. Apparently, since I’m a white American male born in this country, I’m not allowed to expect that.

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