I'll assimilate when you assimilate...

Does anyone even know the definition of assimilate?

assimilate |əˈsiməˌlāt|:

cause (something) to resemble; liken : philosophers had assimilated thought to perception.

• [ intrans. ] come to resemble : the churches assimilated to a certain cultural norm.

So we want the Latino to assimilate to America. In other words, we want them to resemble us. Does that even make sense? First, who is the us? Last time I checked, we pride ourselves on being one of the most diverse, culturally heterogenous, accepting nation in the entire world, besides maybe Iran. We don't exactly burn people at the stake for their religion (any more). But when it comes to language, it seems like a different ballgame. Our Bill of Rights is specifically designed to accommodate this wealth of cultural and intellectual diversity. But when it comes to freedom of speech, we would prefer that the speech be in English, because heaven forbid an American is forced to learn one of those "other" languages. And its because speech isn't free. In fact, when it comes to changing infrastructure to incorporate Spanish, it is actually quite expensive.

So what is assimilation, besides an attempt by the majority to shed all responsibility when it comes to providing for those at the bottom of our economy? We want Latinos to learn English and act American so we can pretend that they aren't here, while they work 70 hours per week cleaning our offices. Well if that's the case, they are going to need at least one resource. I recommend the Rosetta Stone. They can do it for an hour per day on their computers, right before they go to bed, and we can stop feeling threatened by their insidious cultural invasion.