Date: 2007-09-20
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. in my own district. I have an outstanding example of the best of American business. One of the stores. of my district. Lowes. a store in Citrus Heights. is one of the best in the country. I think they serve the community well. But I would like to talk about an experience my wife and I had this last Saturday here at the Lowes store in Northern Virginia. in Alexandria. We were going there to buy an appliance that we needed. While we waited for it to be taken out of inventory. I went outside in the parking lot where I saw two large vans that were identified as DeWalt vans. That is the name of the company that provides the power tools that are sold at Lowes. And I have purchased at least one in the past and .thought I might be interested in purchasing another. So. I went out to the big display they had where they had roped off a part of the parking lot to see what they had. to see what I might want to purchase. I was given a flier. I have a blowup of that flier here. When I was handed the flier. I noticed that it was in Spanish. I asked if .I could have an English translation or English flier. I was told they didnt have any. But I was told that I could look at the pictures to see what they had on display. I commented that I thought I was in the United States. I was born here. I was taught English in the schools. At that point in time. whoever was doing a bit of the program got on the mike and started speaking to those who were assembled. He spoke in Spanish. I then went inside. As we were making the purchase. I asked to see the manager of the Lowes store thereon Jefferson Highway in Alexandria. Virginia at about 1:30 in the afternoon. The manager came up to me and asked what my complaint was. I suggested that I thought it might be a good idea that they also have English available to those of us who might want to purchase their product. He first told me that wasnt his problem. it was DeWalts. Of course. DeWalt. as far as I could tell. you only could purchase at Lowes. Then he looked at .me with some chagrin in his face and some upset that I would bring it up and said. "Well. if you want me to apologize because it is in Spanish. okay. I apoldgize." There was no attempt madeto try and service a customer who wanted to buy a product. who wanted to have something -explained to him in English rather than looking at the pictures.. Now. I understand if I am in another country where English is not the predominant language. I would not be offended if somebody handed me a sheet and said. "I am sorry we dont have something in English. but you can look at the pictures and see what we have." But to be made to feel like a foreigner in your own country within just 30 miles of our Nations Capitol seems passing strange. I dont object to the celebration of other cultures. We have half Irish and half Swedish- in my background. I understand that many of us in America enjoy the celebration of St. Patricks Day. Many in America and the State in which I was born. California. celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Individuals who come from other backgrounds. whose ancestors have come from other countries. we rejoice in the diversity of America. We rejoice in the fact that we are a country of immigrants. But when we attempt to deal with the difficeilt questions ofinimigration. both legal and illegal. and I have been involved in trying to create laws in that for the last 27 years. and when we talk about the issue of multiculturalism in this society. how do we. somehow. create a society thatis made even better by the tremendous contributions of people from around the world. different cultures. ethnlcities. languages and backgrounds? We still have to -understand. We have to have some unifying -elements in this society precisely because we have so. many backgrounds. One of those unifying elements. in my humble opinion. is a common language. that common language being English. I think when things like this occur. I wasnt identified as a congressman. I was just a plain old customer. as was my wife. this is the kind of thing I think that irritates so many Americans who believe we have just given up on attempting to bring us together with a common American culture brought together by anumber of different things. one of which. importantly. is our language. I would hope that not only in this body would we reflect on that. but I would hope some of our commercial enterprises. such as Lowes. would reflect on that. as well.