Come to Think of it...Kudos to LPGA: US Athletes Should Speak English

This is America, dammit.  A land where English is supposed to be the official national language.  Open to all who legally want to come, but speak the national language and obey our laws, that's all we ask.

Yet you hear it all the time - we're a country of immigrants so we need to bend over backwards to make sure people that come here from other countries can share in the wealth and prosperity of the country like our forefathers did.

But what these bleeding hearts fail to realize is that our forefathers did not have the advantages of street signs with blinking hands, telephone operators in multiple languages, and so on. No sir, they had to learn the language to succeed. That's the difference.

So when the LPGA announced on Tuesday that it will require its member golfers to learn and speak English and will suspend their membership if they don't comply, I applauded this decision. The hell with political correctness for once - damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead.  English is the language. One of your responsibilities as athletes is to speak to the media and we speak English here, so learn it. Or else. End of story.

But it's actually not as rough as it sounds.

"Hopefully what we're talking about is something that will not happen," Libba Galloway, the tour's deputy commissioner, said of the potential for suspensions, according to Golfweek. "If it does, we wouldn't just say, 'Come back next year.' What we would do is work with them on where they fell short, provide them the resources they need, the tutoring ... and when we feel like they need to be evaluated again, we would evaluate."

Also, players' English proficiency won't be measured until the end of 2009, giving players plenty of time to comply.

Look, before anyone gets all huffy over this being some attempt to target Korean players, what this really is about is marketing. The economy is bad and sponsors are being lost. People need to understand.

And so I ask: Why can't this same policy be expanded to include all professional sports in the US? Why should baseball players be allowed to come here from Japan or Venezuela, for example, and not be required to learn the language? Much of the heart and soul of communication is lost through a translator. Plus, the player just doesn't seem to be able to relate to kids when they can't speak English.

Listen, part of being a good teammate is being able to interact with others, provide assistance when necessary and lead when feasible. But how can a foreign-born player be a leader when he can't speak English? Lead by example, maybe. But when it comes time to say something about another player's behavior you don't like, it can't be done unless both players speak the same language.

Furthermore, language barriers can cause games to be lost and is dangerous. A recent example was when Dice-K and Varitek, the Red Sox catcher, couldn't communicate on a pitch sequence that almost led to the umpire getting beheaded by a pitch after Varitek was crossed up.

I mean, can you imagine a NASCAR driver thinking that "pit stop" was something you use to curtail hair growth under your arms? Oh wait, they don't allow anyone other than white trash with mullets into those events, never mind.

Hey, I am not against people from other countries coming to America legally. But they should learn the language. Come to think of it, this action by the LPGA is a good start. Let's hope it catches on.

Note: A quotation from the following ESPN news story was used to compile this report.