Poker Perambulation

Sometimes it is for the better and others it is for the worse. We all like having our cake and eating it. That happens on the tables and in our real life. But, we are also incensed by the luckboxes that depend on it. But, today's blog again isn't about poker again. Frankly, this doesn't look much like a poker blog anymore.

The interesting bit came from overseas – The Register – who's article goes:

Red-faced Dallas police chief David Kunkle has apologised to the local Hispanic community after it was revealed that his officers had fined 38 drivers for the novel offence of having an inadequate command of the English language.

Among those who fell foul of the language police was 48-year-old Ernestina Valdez Mondragón, pulled on 2 October for making an illegal U-turn. Rookie cop Gary Bromley slapped her with a fine for the manoeuvre and not carrying her driving licence, and then topped it off by handing her a ticket for "not speaking English".

Mondragón, orginally from Mexico but resident in the US for 30 years, told the Houston Chronicle (in Spanish): "He asked me if I knew English. I told him I only speak a little, and he understood." 

She added: "I felt humiliated, sad."

It was later revelealed that around a half-dozen officers had fined mainly Hispanics for the same deficiency. Kunkle said: "We don't have abilities to determine proficiency in any language, and we shouldn't be doing it in the first place. I apologize to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community."

He concluded: "Any citations that were paid, we're going to reimburse the people who paid the citation."

The Houston Chronicle notes that "latinos" make up 44 per cent of Dallas's million-plus inhabitants, of which 45 per cent speak a language other than English.

The area I live in had a lot of middle European workers.  They were brought to the steel mills over decades.  It was a crappy job in many ways. Many local bars ran with a foreign language preponderating.  But, they learned the language enough to converse in the marketplace.

Their children didn't speak with their parents accent.  They were indistinguishable on the playground.  This and their parents sacrifice and hard work gave many of them a chance at being professionals and they did that as well or better than the next guy.  They were tax payers just like those who came of the Mayflower.

If you've followed the market during the rise you'll have noticed that much of the legitimate gains were attributed to efficiency.  It certainly happened in those steel mills.  Steel was a labor intense and difficult work.  Thousands were employed.  The pay wasn't great but it was a livelihood that sent a lot of their children off  to college.  That's what the melting pot helped create.

Efficiency has been a hallmark throughout our history.  It phased out the buggy whip factories and a host of former stalwarts to our economy.  Our immigrants melted in and that allowed their success to be sought alongside the rest. 

All this has given us an economy that others envy – some to the point of immigrating illegally. But, they seem to have arrived with demands.  Demands are different from opportunities of the past.  There is a big difference between them. 

Ethnicity isn't denied under the old melting pot.  Our area has various “Saturday schools” that still operate.  Among the most active are our Greek, Polish and Lithuanian neighbors.  They learn history and language.  The melting pot fostered uniformity but it also engendered pride and that continues in those communities.

If we give up our efficiencies we are just like the nations people have fled to us from.  This new society won't give the children of our immigrants the same opportunities that the past provided. So, there should be a cost involved with such an obstinance.  A ticket seems small recompense.

ADDENDUM:

Pokerwise I do play a bit.  But, it isn't much to brag or chat about.  I'm just a bit bored with it and need to regroup.  I've played more away from Stud of late.   I seem to have mastered finishing fourth in sit and goes.  That was my meat and potatoes in past times.  Even if I were doing better at them, it isn't holding the interest it once did.  I need a change and haven't found it.

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