The circus is on in California. But for all its strange and bizarre acts, it brings some bright and serious news. Yes, the Terminator wants to be the Governator. What an idea! If an opponent get harsh, he simply contemplates a role for them in Terminator 4. What a compliment! If any of his critics is foolish enough to take him up on his offer, he will cream them straight to oblivion. We care! We want Arnold to win. We want chaos supreme! He is not capable of learning from that other heavy guy in Minnesota, Jesse Ventura. What an idea! A whole term for the Governator with subtitles. Let the public get used to it. That will put an end to this petty quibbling over the English-first movement. You can speak English first or last so long as you are translating your heavy accent. We immigrants would be winners in that. If Arnold wins, anyone with an accent will have arrived. In fact, Cruz Bustamante may have polished his English accent far too much for his own good. He may keep his Hispanic vote, but lose the honor of having subtitles plastered over his chest. And Arnold could open the doors for all of us. So could Arianna, if only she could hide her smarts and play the game of politics. Arnold is spinning the revolving doors for all immigrants, fresh of the proverbial boat, fresh of the ESL (English as Second Language) classes, to fight the political machine just with our charms. We will bring the world closer to you. We will make this a true democracy. If some of us are smart, we will say the same good thing twice, once in our heavy accents and then in subtitles. And if we are not smart, you would never know because our handlers will make the subtitles appear smarter. You would wish Dubya had that advantage. He cannot hide his lack of smarts because everyone can understand what he is saying. That ain’t happening with Arnold, or with Arianna or any one of us. We want Arnold to win, because we want to take this make-believe world of immigrants to a new level and tranform this democracy. Groucho Marx once asked plainly, “Who are you going to believe, me or your eyes?” Think Arnold asking the same question without any sense of humour. And then think of the voters. Who are they going to believe? We are different. We think differently. We think in a language that requires subtitles. It is the language of the revolution of the immigrants. Now all we need is a bunch of immigrants who think sensibly. We do not want easy subscribers to the Right wing ideology. Why is it that all the immigrants jumping into politics these days seem to be taking the wrong Right turns? We want the language that takes inspiration from Arnold, but speaks for immigrants, for the interests of a population that requires universal health care, solid protection on Civil Rights, a protection from cultural and judicial biases, a healthy multiculturalism and then an outlook that considers the entire humanity as made of the same kind, not in compartments, not as targets of bombs and not as docile followers. Then we will have arrived. So go Arnold, win and then clear the brush for the rest of us. |