Cutting the Mother Tongue

Did I just dream the new millenium? I still have vivid visions of people bumping and grinding to the tune of Jennifer Lopez' "Waiting for Tonight" or techies fearful of the proverbial millenium bug, aptly aliased as Y2K. Didn't I go to Spain and spend 3 months there wandering the streets of Madrid, Salamanca, Barcelona, etc.? Didn't I get hitched and unhitched? Didn't I go back to school and graduate? Didn't I learn and relearn languages I have yet to use? Did I just dream that people were free to live where they pleased, to worship who they wished and to speak the language they were most comfortable with? Then, if I didn't dream that countless heroes have died to set us free, how come Ross, a well-known discount shop here in the US is reprimanding their Filipino employees for using their native language, Filipino, when speaking with fellow Filipinos? When I heard this from one of the Filipinos employed there, my right eyebrow could not help but arch up to the high heavens. I thought we were over this,people? Are we faced with yet another breed of racists, are we up against a new kind of prejudice, and are Filipino Americans the new target of racial bullies that have found a "weaker" (and I am using this term loosely) people to play the push and shove game with? How come the Mexican Americans are not told to stop using their mother tongue when talking to one another. I have been to that same shop so many times and have personally heard them speaking Spanish to co-workers and customers alike. I thought that this was the land where people were considered equal and that each one of us shared the same rights and privileges, or maybe I'm too naive and believe every bull I'm told. It's true what they say, that not everything is black or white, This time we're talking about the gray scale that lies oh so sadly in the middle. Misplaced and displaced voluntarily or by force, struggling with heads bowed down, stripped of every sense of pride one feels for their mother land. Hold your head up high, speak up and stand your ground. For these people I cry just a little. For these people my heart breaks just a little.