Ah, a columnist's dilemma: Which of two stories about Sen. Barack Obama should I do for this week?
Do I go with the one about Jesse Jackson, Obama and what Jackson said about Obama's genitalia? Oh, it's tempting. Jackson making a fool of himself is always fodder for any columnist, and the good reverend hit the mother lode of foolery this week.
Jackson was miffed at what he said was Obama's "talking down" to black people. Then the reverend - what church would have this guy as a pastor continually baffles me - uttered into what he thought was a closed microphone that he'd like to cut off two of Obama's body parts.
The reaction has been harsh, especially from black Americans, many of whom are now all juiced and in a tizzy about the possibility of America electing its first black president.
But when Obama first announced he was running for president, weren't there some blacks who questioned his black bona fides?
Elmer Smith, my colleague and buddy at the Philadelphia Tribune, frequently notes that black Americans are the nation's only ethnic or racial group with a credentials committee. Jackson obviously felt he was part of that committee, with the sworn and solemn duty of neutering any black American found lacking adequate credentials.
But enough of that Obama story. I'll go with the other one: The good senator is taking heat for his suggestion that Americans need to learn Spanish or another language so that America can become a multilingual country.
Frankly, I don't know what to make of Obama's critics on this one. America already is a bilingual English- and Spanish-speaking country, and has been for decades. Doubt it?
How long has Puerto Rico been a commonwealth of the United States? People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, with all the rights of U.S. citizens. And the last time I checked, Puerto Rico was Spanish-speaking.
Here's another reason I can't criticize Obama's comments about Americans needing to learn foreign languages: For at least the past 10 years, I've said continually that all American students should graduate high school fluent in at least two foreign languages - I suggested French and Spanish - and possibly even a third. Of course, whenever I say this, people look at me as though I've lost my mind, probably because they realize that many American schools struggle to teach our kids to read and write standard English.
