20061213 Say It In Broken English

Say it in Broken English

December 13, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff (668 words)

http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=978&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1247802&om=1

I was watching the current TV series “Studio 60” when this column came to life. In the curious and paradoxical world of word associations, there was an oblique reference to Anita Pallenberg in the show.

Ms. Pallenberg was a protégée of the early “Rolling Stones” and Marianne Faithful; who cut one of my all time favorite albums, “Broken English,” in October 1979. (One song, “The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan," was used in Ridley Scott’s 1991 movie “Thelma and Louise.”)

In a later conversation with my wife (pray for my wife) I segued into the current discussions about the history of English as the predominant language in Carroll County. English speaking Europeans came to Carroll County slowly at first, but in the end it appears that the English speakers write the history books.

Before 1744, the predominant government in Carroll County was the Haudenosaunee Nation – the “Six Nations.” The Haudenosaunee played a key role in the evolution of American democracy and paradoxically, they are why we speak English today.

Much of our current way of life is owed to the heritage and legacy of the Haudenosaunee Nation. Several main roads in Carroll County have their beginnings as Haudenosaunee trading routes. And several towns in Carroll County - Patapsco for example - had their beginnings as Haudenosaunee settlements.

It was not until after the Treaty of the Six Nations was signed on July 4, 1744 with the Haudenosaunee Nation, and the dispute over the Mason-Dixon Line was settled in 1767 that settlers started to come here in greater numbers.

It was near present-day Linwood, that the first recorded structure in the territory was built around 1715 by John Steelman. In 1744, approximately 65 families lived in Carroll County.

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 signaled the end of the North American portion of a global war between France and England, the French and Indian War, 1754–63.

It was one of the last pieces of the puzzle enabling settlement in Carroll County with relative freedom from violence. The last piece, of course, was the American Revolution, 1775-83.

But the very first “settlers” were the Algonquians who arrived around 800 B.C. The original Algonquians divided into a number of distinct tribe-nations, which formed a multi-nation government under a constitution that dates to approximately August 31, 1142.

The Algonquians called themselves the “Haudenosaunee” meaning “People of the Longhouse” and their government was one of the first true participatory democracies in history. It also incorporated full political and leadership rights for women.

The French term for the Six Nations confederacy was “Iroquois.” The term is considered a racial slur by many Native-Americans. The original Carroll Countians spoke one of many dialects of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic family of North America.

The Six Nations consisted of “nation-states” made up from different areas governed by the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and the Tuscaroras. The Six Nations extended from Labrador to South Carolina.

Many historians to this day credit the multi-cultural and multi-lingual participatory democracy as exemplified by the Haudenosaunee Nation to be the inspiration for our nation’s founders’ ideas for our system of government.

Other historians have vigorously contested this theory as anecdotal and supposition. Read: history is written by the victorious. However, there is evidence, for example, that both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in particular used material delineated in a famous speech made by the great Haudenosaunee “sachem” (chief,) Canassatego, in 1744 at the signing of the Treaty of Six Nations.

In the Constitutional Convention of May through September, 1787, the basis for the “federal system” of government advocated by Messrs. Jefferson and Franklin was based on the Haudenosaunee system of government.

Today it is a paradox that for 75 percent of Carroll County’s history, we did not speak English. But to this day, the English speakers are (re)writing history.

And Marianne Faithful; four decades later, she is currently victorious over many personal challenges, living in Paris and enjoying yet another successful re-write of her singing and acting career – and performing in French.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org

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Often, when I consider the immigration discussions in Taneytown, I think of Marianne Faithfull’s “Say it in Broken English.” (I had the opportunity to see Marianne Faithful in Fells Point – quite a number of years ago and it sounded more like this.)

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Related:

Immigration Gumballs

This clip from the longer video, Immigration by the Numbers, features Roy Beck demonstrating the catastrophe of the huge numbers of both legal and illegal immigration by Third World people into the modern nations. He uses standard statistics and simple gumballs to show this disaster in the making.

Video was done by roy beck:

http://www.answers.com/topic/roy-beck

Full video on google:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5871651411393887069

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"Five Easy Pieces"