Infinite Monkeys

Arnold being Arnold — meaning blunt and honest

Arnold is certainly a mixed bag of a governor, especially when he gets Master of the Universe disease on issues like global warming. A little bit too much of the "screw the people, they don't know what's good for them, I'll fix things."

But, at his best, Arnold speaks his mind like no other major politician in America. And sometimes that is a very good thing.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a gathering of Hispanic journalists that immigrants should avoid Spanish-language media if they want to learn English quickly.

"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set" and avoid Spanish-language television, books and newspapers, the Republican governor said Wednesday night at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster," Schwarzenegger said.

"I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say, and I'm going to get myself in trouble," he said, noting that he rarely spoke German and was forced to learn English when he emigrated from Austria.

Schwarzenegger was responding to a question about how Hispanic students can improve academically. Many journalists for Spanish-language organizations in the audience were surprised by the remarks.

"I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," said Alex Nogales, president and chief executive of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Yes. Naive. How silly of the governor of California to give Hispanic kids the best piece of advice any immigrant could get about how to succeed in America. Spending your days watching Telemundo might be comforting, but not much good in the long run.

And coddling Hispanic immigrants, treating them like children, is rightfully insulting to an immigrant like Arnold. Good for him for speaking so frankly.

Posted by Dr. Zaius at June 16, 2007 02:27 PM