Xenophobia: the New Black?

Homophobia is great, but it's soooo yesterday. Hipsters at the RNC executive committee are saying that xenophobia, not homophobia, will be the smash hit of the next decade.

A few months ago I posted about Norton, Ohio getting into the swing of things. Now a high school in Kansas has raised (lowered?) the bar and suspended a student for speaking Spanish in the hallway.

And you thought Kansans blew their wad of ignorant foolishness on ID, didn't you?

Here's what the National Libertarian Party's blog said about the student's father, who is considering filing suit:

"Zach's father displayed a greater understanding of due process than the Endeavor Alternative School administrators. He said, 'I learned in America, they can't punish you unless you violate a written policy.' Rubio asked the principal to show him the written policy against speaking a foreign language at school. The principal replied the school did not have such a policy."

A great philosopher offers this insightful counterpoint:

"Jim Boulet, executive director of the Virginia-based group English First, says the school did the right thing in suspending the high school student. 'Let's face facts here; if the kid had been saying in Spanish, 'The bomb is around the corner,' the school would be held liable for not knowing that.'"

But if he said it in English, then there's no liability? And isn't it true that anybody anywhere speaking in a language you don't understand could be talking about a bomb? And what about hard-to-understand dialects?

There is only one way to keep this country safe from bomb-toting polyglots, and I call upon all American-speaking Americans to join me in that way.