By R. Cort Kirkwood
August 27, 2002

(AgapePress) - The only thing worse than undermining American culture for ideology is undermining it for money, which is what American banks have been doing with Spanish-language tellers and automatic teller machines.

You know the drill. Shove your card into the slot, then press 1 for English and 2 for "Espanol."

The banks trumpet these new "services" as if they were doing us a favor, rather than turning a profit in flushing English and American culture down the crapper.

But make no mistake about it. In the culture war, the banks have gone over to the enemy, the latest defection being a regional outfit called First Citizens.

The Bank's Excuse
The irony in that name is that most of the bank's Spanish-speaking customers may not even be citizens -- but that little truth aside, this is what the bank had to say about its recent move to Spanish:

"The Spanish-speaking population in First Citizens' market continues to grow and become an integral part of our communities," said a written statement released on Monday. "We're pleased to extend the convenience of our extensive ATM network to provide greater financial services access in our communities."

The corporate moonshine translates as follows: First Citizens will maximize profits on the destruction of English and American culture.

Why English
Those more "tolerant" than the rest of us, enlightened bankers, for instance, may want to know how using Spanish to "help" immigrants travel the road to assimilation could possibly be bad.

Answer: Offering Spanish with tellers or ATMs not only hinders assimilation but also promotes the segregation of foreigners into enclaves where they needn't learn English, which forever keeps them alienated from American culture.

Thus, pushing Spanish for profit isn't helping immigrants; it hurts them by keeping them isolated and apart.

Consider this: Across America on Sundays, Catholic churches offer Masses in Spanish. It sounds nice to let Hispanic immigrants palaver with the Lord in their own tongue. But again, it's not nice, it's wrong. Spanish masses promote separation.

What better way for Hispanic immigrants to learn English and integrate into American culture and society than attending a church service where the prayers are substantially the same each week? Even better, let the rest of society immerse them in English. Let's bring the two communities together by dumping the English and Spanish Masses and going back to Latin -- but that's an argument for another day.

Point is, neither our bright businessmen nor praying priests thought about these things, although you'd think segregation by language would enrage this politically correct establishment and everyone else.

But alas, "diversity" and "multiculturalism" have supplanted unity and integration as the new crusade.

Language Underpins Culture
These latest fads are grave problems on two counts.

First, Americans no longer believe their own culture is superior to others, so they cannot and will not defend it. They fear the charge of racism and wish to appear "tolerant," so they swallow the cultural toxins of "diversity" and "multiculturalism." Yet the survival of American culture depends on the primacy of English.

Second, immigrants who do not learn and use the language of the nation to which they immigrate cannot assimilate. If they reject the language, they reject the culture and assimilation, and those who encourage them to wallow in the linguistic ghetto undermine the culture as well.

American banks and other institutions abet the linguistic balkanization of the United States. They are either profiteers or conspirators in the war against English and American culture.

That makes them cultural traitors.