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What America will look like in 2050--fractured nation, multiple languages

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Message Frosty Wooldridge
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As a reminder validating the reason for this commentary: demographic experts project the United States adding 100 million immigrants to this country by 2050--a scant 37 years from now.  All totaled, since we reached 300 million in October of 2007, we will add 138 million people by 2050 to total 438 million people--enough to duplicate 20 of our top cities' populations to our country.  The Pew Research Center, U.S. Population Projections by Fogel/Martin, and the U.S. Census Bureau document those demographic facts.

From the dawn of time, ethnic tribes created languages to fit their understanding of their surroundings.  Eskimos created words that defined ice, cold, caribou, whales, and frozen seasons.   Tribes in Africa created languages that described their trees, rivers, monkeys, elephants, and zebras.  Tribes in the desert of the Middle East formed entirely different languages based on heat, camels, and sand storms.

Each language not only allowed tribes to communicate,  language defined their "world-view" or how they perceived existence.  That same language also formed their religions.  They created their religions based on their fears of the unknown--to give them a sense of hope, community, and purpose.  Each language defined how a tribal member understood and interpreted the meaning of life.

Language also allowed human beings to become self-aware, pursue understandings of the world around them, and form family and community bonds.  It served them well and humanity advanced in word, thought, and concepts.

Language also separated tribes because they could not understand one another.  Back in those times, civilizations grew, but never mixed because few seldom stepped outside their territorial boundaries.  However, when they stepped out of their "turf", they fought in wars for dominance.  History reads as one Great War or conflict after another right up to 2013.  In the last 10 years, the USA fought two wars. Another 20 wars wage in different areas of the planet as you read this series.

Isolation of tribes changed with mass transportation, first with the sailing ship, locomotive, automobile, and finally the airplane.  Today, we see cultures, civilizations, and individual humans crossing over onto all seven continents.

The one thing they take with them with a powerful sense of meaning remains their culture and their language.  It defines them and offers them meaning.

However, when they cross over into countries with totally different languages, cultures, and meanings--they become ostracized, confused, marginalized, out of place, and, ultimately, angry.

No multicultural and multilingual country in the world today enjoys a peaceful state of being.  Today, Canada struggles with French, Arabic, Chinese, and other Asian languages overwhelming their schools via immigration.

Belgium, Lebanon, and Malaysia suffer conflicts and tension from multiple languages.  In those countries, minorities with different languages vie for autonomy.  Pakistan separated from India and Cyprus divided because of language, religion, and culture.  Nigeria suppressed ethnic rebellion.  France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, Corsicans, and a growing Muslim demographic.

With hundreds of languages in the world today, we see a clashing of civilizations, which ultimately come down to culture and language.  A country without a single language in the 21st century faces ultimate disintegration of its culture, world-view, and language.

With different languages come different ideas on how political "things" should proceed in a country.  Some languages along with their cultures suppress all women's rights. 

Immanuel Kant said, "Language and religion are the great dividers."  You can see his wisdom working all over the planet in violent confrontations: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sweden, France, UK, Tunisia, and many more.
A country, culture, and language constitute more than a place to live. 

A language creates a state of mind, a world-view, and distinct understanding of a person's standing in life.  His or her culture defines how he or she operates in the world.  If a person in a country loses language and culture--they lose their ability to function in a viable manner.

If you notice all the terrorist attacks on the USA in the last 11 years, they came from people who speak other languages, come from other cultures--yet injected themselves into America via our immigration policies.  From the 9/11 maniacs, to the Fort Dix Six, to the Times Square Bomber, to the Shoe Bomber, to the Underpants Bomber, to the Fort Hood killer, to the Korean shooter at Virginia Tech, to the Boston Marathon Bombers, to the New Jersey Muslim who beheaded and be-handed two people last year--all of them arrived from a different language.

Unfortunately, at the present rate of 1.0 million legal immigrants annually and the proposed 2.0 million immigrants annually via Senate Bill 744 Amnesty, Americans guarantee themselves more language breakdown that descends on this country at blinding speed.  Especially in education!  Once we lose our literacy, we lose our ability to maintain a first-world civilization.

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Frosty Wooldridge Bio: Frosty Wooldridge possesses a unique view of the world, cultures and families in that he has bicycled around the globe 100,000 miles, on six continents and six times across the United States in the past 30 years. His books (more...)
 
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