Robert Levy

As I explore the present, I can’t avoid comparing it to the past. The names change. The places and faces are never identical. But like a false backdrop behind the camera in a Zoom call, it’s only cosmetic. Essential reality never changes. For instance, on March 7, 1965, a group of voting rights demonstrators blocked traffic as they walked across Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. The marchers did not have a permit; so, the police ordered them to disperse. The marchers disobeyed the police and marched anyway. The result was called Bloody Sunday. Similarly, a group of Canadian truckers blocked the…

What most Americans want is to live in a nation where everyone civilly communicates with one another. It has often been said that a common language is a necessity for a successful nation. While the rule has its exceptions in places such as Canada and Switzerland, even those countries have established dominant languages the mastery of which is a condition precedent to success. This argument became important in most of the United States until almost the close of the last century. Students were made to study and pass English courses from kindergarten through high school. Even children for whom English…