Senator Obama has rebuked critics who claim that after 30 years of association with extremist, anti-American pastor,  Chicago-based Trinity United Church of Christ, Reverend Wright now widely recognized as the G-D America pastor, surely he must share the G-D America pastor's views, or at least sympathize with them.  The G-D America pastor's inflammatory sermons, widely distributed in the media, are simply a caricature and the remarks are taken out of context, he contends.  Of course, after the G-D America pastor called the Senator's bluff, the pastor was thrown under the bus.

Then there is the issue of Michelle Obama not being proud to be an American.  Of the Senator's use of a pin with the US flag, then not using it, then using it again.

Or what about what the relationship between Senator Obama's  and what Chicago Sun Tribune reporter Tim Novak's  calls the Senator's Slumlord  Patron  Rezko - The response from the Senator's campaign was:  "Senator Obama does not remember having conversations with Tony Rezko about properties that he owned."

Or what about the Infamous San Francisco "Guns and Faith" comments?  Apparently the Obama campaign is uber-sensitive to what it claims is unwarranted harsh criticism due to contextual factors and or amnesia.

Most recently, the Senator unequivocally stated that he was embarrassed to see that Americans can only say merci beacoup, whereas Europeans speak various languages.

Trying to avoid the mistake other critics make, we are trying to find the right context for Senator Obama's remarks:

The Senator claims that he is an experienced community organizer in Latino Communities.  Just last week, the Senator met with Latino Leaders.  Does this mean that in such a long association with the Latino Community he has not heard anyone speak Spanish?  Or is it that the Senator is so familiar with Spanish, that he does not consider the language either foreign or European?

Surely as a community activist, the Senator would have known about the Federal Voting Rights Act,  which require cities to adopt a foreign language policy.  For example, the City of Mission Viejo Section  pursuant to Section 13307 of the Elections Code of the
State of California resolved to have candidate statements printed in Chinese and Spanish for the  November 4, 2008 election.


What about San Gabriel Valley's "China Valley"?  In 1970, Monterey Park,  was about 50 percent Caucasian, 34 percent Hispanic, and 15 percent Asian, with the majority of the Asians being Japanese.  In 1977 developer Frederic Hsieh,  announced to the town's incredulous Chamber of Commerce, "You may not but Monterey Park will serve as the mecca for Chinese business."

 Then there is the Indian and Vietnamese Experience in Silicon Valley.  Silicon Valley is home to The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a global not-for-profit network of entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship, which recently held  the premier and largest convention for entrepreneurs, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. 

So before we decide how to characterize the Senator's embarrassment about foreign languages, we are searching for additional context - considering that arguably  in California, one is exposed to more foreign languages than in the European Union.  Does the Senator not consider foreign born, American citizens American?  Or in the case of Latinos, is Spanish not a foreign Language?

Depending on the context we receive, for example, we can argue that the money local, federal and state government spend printing multi-language voting pamphlets  is a total waste - the savings from not having to take such action, for instance, can help erase the California budget deficit.

Context spoken here!