Coke Ad Is the America I Know

I missed the Superbowl because I had something more important to do - I was playing board games with friends - so it wasn't until today that I saw the famous Coca-Cola ad that has angered conservatives so much. My reaction was that it sounded a lot like everyday life here in Southern California.

San Francisco's Chinatown. (2006)

On a daily basis I will hear spoken English and Spanish. Frequently I hear Arabic or Chaldean Aramaic (I can't tell the difference between them), Vietnamese, Tagalog, Japanese, Hindi, and Chinese spoken by my neighbors in this polyglot community. Tourists add a countless variety of other tongues.

An American patriotic song in Yiddish. (1911)

America has always been this way. New Yorkers heard Italian, Yiddish, and Irish Gaelic to name just three of the many languages to flow out of Ellis Island. Chicago speakers added Italian, German, Polish, and various other Slavic languages to English. In Minnesota, where my father was born, immigrants brought their Scandinavian languages of Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish. Louisiana and Maine residents will hear their neighbors speaking French.

Polish language signs in Chicago. (2013)

I don't speak any of these languages, I have enough trouble with English, but I feel sorry for pitiful people like Allen West and his ilk who cannot appreciate the multicultural wonder that is America. They are such shallow, empty people.

America the Beautiful sung in Cherokee.