Rick Santorum is quite an entertaining figure. In the midst of campaigning, the Republican presidential candidate/routine comedy act recently suggested that Puerto Rico, which has been a U.S. territory as long as Hawaii (more than a century), must adopt English as its primary language if it wishes to become the 51st state, in accordance with a (non-existent) federal law.
Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator embodies the kind of person who despises when American imperfection is compared to Europe. He sees the old continent with all its languages, compares it to the United States, and subsequently believes this makes America one united culture compared to Europe’s many. He is wrong.
I have been blessed with the gift of travel. To date, I have visited Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, Monaco, Venice, Greece, and three corners of France. Obviously, the cultures change tremendously from country to country – even city to city. The different worlds and histories, all woven together and entangled, represent the complex beauty of the European experience. But believe this: America varies just as much.
The United States is a not so much a melting pot of cultures and ideas as it is a broad palette, with individual colors around the edge and a mixed center. We are not painted with any one brush as merely Texas cowboys, Wall Street bankers, Baltimore factory workers or metropolitan artists.
There’s no need to use more radical examples like Alaska or Hawaii – Americans are kidding themselves if they are trying find a unifying culture. Categorizing us is just impossible; there is a substantial population to counter every patronizing statement about almost every individual group. Even racially, we are far more diverse than most of Europe.
We all know Europe only pretends to be one country. But even in a political sense, America can be just as divided. Some local Parisians, who spend a good portion of their time arguing about whether Paris represents “the real France” (ring any bells, Sarah Palin?), were shocked when I explained how U.S. laws change from state to state on everything from taxes and speed limits to same-sex marriage and fireworks. “Like different countries” one of them blurted out. They were equally surprised to learn how, just like Europe, America diversifies spectacularly across the nation, as I provided for them examples in cuisine, history, economics, race, religion and regional dialect.
We don’t all love football, processed beef, country music, capitalism or corporate control of politics. And we don’t all speak English.
Even for the English-speaking majority, the actual language varies enormously. Perhaps this was best illustrated by our British tour guide in Paris, who smugly proclaimed Americans “understand English but can’t speak it!”
The differences in how we verbally communicate are as much a part of our culture as the food we eat, the politics we support, the gods we worship and the different countries we call home. These factors, which diversify America, are not detrimental to the culture – it is why America triumphs over Europe. While differences have dragged them into tyranny, dysfunction, genocide, and war time and time again, we continue to turn our diversity into strength in America. Different people offer varying ideas and solutions to common problems. We see holism in America – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And to suggest that Puerto Ricans should abandon their contribution is appalling.
Language is just one more difference between the diverse community that makes up our country. In learning to accept this, perhaps Rick Santorum will see what an asinine suggestion he made. Maybe then we’ll finally move on to the real issue: Anyone who opposes the circular design of the 51-star flag hates America and is a communist.
Greg Nasif is a senior history major. He can be reached at nasif@umdbk.com.
