I’m still not quite happy with The Line on KNME (7pm Fridays). What brings me back is the hope the guest panelist will make it all work better for me. Friday night, the combination of Janice Paster and Susan Conway did just that. Afterwards, I wrote theline@knme.org :

There is one important defect in comparing the assimilation of European immigrants of the early 1900’s with immigration today. They had just left Europe, and clearly so. An Irish immigrant in Boston had a long way to go “home”; a Mexican immigrant in Las Cruces does not; a native New Mexican in Las Vegas has been “home” for centuries. Hispanics have been in the southwest and west longer than the United States itself or any English speakers. It makes for a significantly different set of facts.

Janice Paster is such a great addition to the line up; she’s cool, articulate and bright. I appreciate much about Margret Montoya and I think you do well to have at least one Hispanic perspective; can’t you have both Montoya and Paster? Are two-fifths too much yin?

Susan Conway is also an excellent counter-balance to John Dimdahl. Let’s see her again.

Dimdahl said the ACLU argues an employer cannot make employees speak English. Nonsense — why didn’t one of the others challenge him? The issue is employers trying to *prevent* their employees from ever using something other than English — even during breaks. That’s a very different matter. But Dimdahl gets his sly digs in, no matter how far from the truth.mjh

Search blog for Dimdahl.