I want to say first and foremost that I am not a racist or a xenophobe. There, I said it and got that over with.

I am the son of immigrants who is very proud of his heritage, who made an effort to learn its language and culture, but I consider myself an American first.

My parents were the storybook typical immigrants who started with practically nothing and spoke limited English. They, in my obviously biased opinion, reached their version of American dream. They assimilated into their new country and eventually started a successful business.

This gets me to initial grievance and question, asking what has changed in recent years that requires the need for English as a second language classes in our public school system. Historically our school system has served our immigrant populace well in mainstreaming them in society as soon as possible.

It is almost reminiscent to the days of segregation. Why is a particular group in need of special help and assistance? That alone, is not kind of demeaning? I know that question is totally non-PC, but I am truly curious. Why is it really needed, especially in regards to children, who adapt, learn easily, and have smaller vocabularies?

This program is probably prohibitively expensive, especially in these lean economic times.

In a way ESL is somewhat discriminatory towards other ethnic groups, what makes them special and actually is a disservice when the eventual goal is assimilation and to become successful in society.

I am tired of seeing the hyphen. We are all Americans and have always been the much-heralded diverse and multi-cultural society and I am wary of seeing the breakdowns of ethnic groups in statistics.

I think we should strive to move from this focus, and move to where Martin Luther King would have envisioned, with an emphasis on character rather than skin color.

Mark Pitzner
Burien