The latest estimates of population growth have caused some unease among certain sectors of America.  The two most dramatic pronouncements are that the United States will become, like California of today, a minority/majority society in which non-Hispanic whites will no longer be the majority and where Latinos will make up 30% of the population.  In a sense everybody is in the process of becoming a minority and, therefore, the term will become obsolete.

For me, this is good news.  If Americans can use these changes as an opportunity to negotiate a modus vivendi founded on the e pluribus unum slogan (out of many one), we are poised to make manifest what we have claimed to be for so long--a pluralistic society where everyone is treated equally.  Of course, we are a long way from that kind of society, but it is enormously important to continue the quest.

Some folks in our society are feeling insecure about the dramatic increase of Latinos among us.  Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 thru October 15, is a good time to delve into these concerns.  Too many Americans having to listen to a phone recording asking them to choose a preference of language between English or Spanish find the experience disconcerting.

We are so used to everybody (including aliens from outer space, underwater fish, and unborn fetuses in the womb) speaking English that we assume that everybody speaks our language.  If everyone speaks our language, why bother to learn other peoples' form of communication?

Our planet is inhabited by populations all or most of whom do not speak English--Mandarin or Cantonese maybe--but not English.  To put it bluntly but lovingly:  America is, among the industrialized nations of the world, the most linguistically ignorant society.

The consequences of this ignorance are enormous.  As we know now the horrific event that we call 9/11 could have been prevented if we had had Arab-speaking intelligence agents that could have translated the communications that were in our hands.

At a daily level, we lose precious opportunities to lead the world when Americans come across as arrogant monolinguals, unsophisticated cowboys, and/or as provincials masquerading as intelligent global citizens.

Somehow the debate about our language policy has fear mongers angrily demanding that every resident in the U.S. learn English.  And if they would listen for two seconds, they would be shocked to learn that most Latinos agree that it is essential that every American citizen or permanent resident know our common language which is English.  But why stop there?

Is it not important for our leaders in the intelligence community, the military, big business, and public office to have the skills necessary to lead?  And is it not clear that one gains greater understanding of culture and a greater ability to comprehend other realities when one knows more than one language?

Maybe, just maybe, we have been ruminating about the wrong problem.  Maybe there is more to be concerned about the military attaché at our Venezuelan Embassy who can influence a number of important matters but is ineffective because he knows no Spanish and maybe we should be less concerned about the farm worker or the janitor who knows no English.  The farmer worker may not pick the fruit just right and I may have to bear a bruised peach.

The military attaché, who is also linguistically challenged, may miss the signals and nuances in language that he would have understood had he known Spanish.  The result maybe much more serious than bruised fruit.