LETTERS: Non-English speakers taxing society

To the editor:

I see that interpreters working for the local court systems now are demanding $50 per hour (more than $100,000 per year for full-time employment) to interpret for those who refuse to learn English, the language of our land (“Interpreter pay threatens court system,” Monday Review-Journal). Maybe it’s time to ask the question: Why is society, and by extension the taxpayer, expected to be responsible for those who live here and refuse to learn English?

It doesn’t stop with the courts. This is a big expense for private businesses, too. Several of my friends work in day surgery centers and report that patients regularly show up for surgery and don’t speak a word of English. It is expected that an interpreter will be provided — free of charge, of course — for whatever language the patient understands. Students show up at public schools with no knowledge of conversational English and expect to be accommodated and taught English; we all know how expensive that is.

We all know many who have lived here for years, possibly decades, who have yet to learn conversational English. It wasn’t always this way. My immigrant great-great-great-great grandparents’ gravestones are entirely in German, as is often the case back east. Almost without exception the next generation’s graves were in English; they worked hard back then to assimilate into American society, and these were simple farmers.

There are those who will maintain this issue is not a problem, but it is, and an expensive one at that. The solution is simple: stop making it inexpensive and easy for those who refuse to learn English. Make it the personal responsibility of those who don’t understand English to accommodate themselves instead of relying on society and taxpayers. Mandate that those who don’t understand English bring interpreters to court at their own expense. Require that children enrolling in public schools have a working knowledge of conversational English — which should be the parents’ responsibility. Give driver’s license exams in English only, so at least we know that drivers can read traffic signs.

To paraphrase a famous Ben Franklin quote: Make it easy and cheap to accommodate non-English speakers, and you will have that many more people who won’t speak English and who refuse to learn.

BRIAN COVEY

LAS VEGAS

NLV police probe

To the editor:

The actions taken by the North Las Vegas Police Department against Patrick Harper in the shooting death of Andrea Lafon are reprehensible. Equally noxious are the comments made by department spokeswoman Sgt. Chrissie Coon, as reported in the Review-Journal (“Teen may be wrongly accused in shooting,” Saturday Review-Journal).

Sgt. Coon does not want this “[tried] in the court of public opinion” and says that the department is “done looking in the past.” That is easy for the department to do, but not so easy for the Harper family. The past has irreparably harmed them. Imagine the horror of being wrongfully arrested, handcuffed in school and jailed for 12 days. Mr. Harper has to deal with this experience for the rest of his life.

Sgt. Coon says “to look to the future,” to just move on. Mr. Harper has been described as a good kid who plays volleyball and basketball. He is, at minimum, a “C” student with good behavior, or he would not be eligible to play sports. The school district requires a hearing process before he can be reinstated, even though the charges have been dropped. Currently, he has missed more than two weeks of school, and catching up is difficult under far less trying circumstances. But just move on, says the North Las Vegas Police Department.

Furthermore, his father was fired from his job because of days missed while trying to assist his incarcerated son. But he, too, can just move on. The parents have to deal with the dreadfulness of their son’s arrest and jail time. These things are not forgotten, and emotional pain is immeasurable. North Las Vegas police handled this investigation miserably, and somehow drawing attention to this miscarriage of justice is “inhibiting [their] ability … to find the real murderer.”

The attention is a temporary embarrassment, an irritation to be forgotten.

JENNIFER ANDERSON

HENDERSON

Activists for every cause

To the editor:

It has become apparent that John L. Smith seems to have a vendetta against animal advocates, as his commentary attests (“Hookers’ treatment far worse than a dog,” Sunday Review-Journal). This time, he has a problem with folks who stand up for animals, rather than social justice causes involving humans.

Perhaps Mr. Smith needs to be reminded that everyone has the right to choose which cause they wish to take up, and rather than deriding those activists for their choices, he should quit wasting everyone’s time and the newspaper’s ink and take up a cause which he feels is being ignored. We can always use more activists in any given number of causes. Mr. Smith’s venomous attacks are getting old and redundant.

ANNOULA WYLDERICH

LAS VEGAS