No comprendo

Alabama Gubernatorial candidate Tim James is making a campaign issue out of Alabama's policy of giving the drivers license written exam in multiple languages. I am appalled by this.......

I am not appalled by making it a campaign issue. The reason for my horror is knowing that a person can get a drivers license without being able to read English road signs, warning signs, etc. Call me naive, but I was not aware this was possible. I guess I never really thought about it.

I don't know if Texas offers the drivers license exam in languages other than English, but I can promise that I'm going to find out, and letting Rick Perry know what I think about it either way.

Before you go off calling me racially insensitive or anything else, please understand that this issue goes beyond immigration and assimilation of immigrants into American culture. This is a safety issue. Giving someone legal permission to drive, knowing they cannot read the road signs and warning signs, is putting that person in danger, as well as anyone else near them on the road. This is irresponsible and is a major failure of a core competency of any state government that allows it to happen.

Hats off to Tim James for shedding light on this issue in Alabama.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9ohsvJHkbY&feature=player_embedded
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UPDATE:

I have done a little research, and found that Texas gives the drivers' exam in English and Spanish. I have lived in Texas for most of my life, and have never seen a road sign in Spanish, so right away, I see a problem.

Kudos to the 9 states who only give the exam in English: Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Oklahoma (changed last year to English only), Utah and Wyoming.

Biggest offenders (the leader and runner up here are no shock): California (32 languages), Massachusetts (25 languages) and Kentucky (23 languages). Kentucky surprised me.

California offers drivers exams in 32 languages, including: Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Rumanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Check these and other states HERE.
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I love this guy

Very insightful commentary from Alan West. We need this kind of bold leadership.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WReJgvOBXa8&feature=player_embedded

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