Official Movement Day: Celebrating Another Year
“After months on the turbulent sea, where the gentle swaying produced a constant feeling of nausea and the sun persecuted every step, the pilgrims were thrilled to have landed.The perpetual fear that the gentle swaying would turn into a vicious storm, tossing the ships like a toddler throwing his favorite toy in a tantrum, vanished.The land, in comparison, was so peaceful.The greenery hummed with vitality and promised sustenance and happiness. Their home in England didn’t suit them anymore.
They would make their lives here in the spring of freedom and equality.They walked farther inland, breathing in the invigorating air, ready for their new lives to begin, and came upon a large fence, seeming to demarcate a territory.From the other side, a native approached dressed in animal furs and stalked the earth with an earnest intent.As the pilgrims breached the fence, the native ran at them and pulled out his handcuffs.He arrested each one of them, reciting gibberish.
The message?If you live in America, you speak American. An idea sprouted as a pilgrim looked at the native’s distinctly moving hands and his ability to somehow convey meaning despite his incomprehensible sounds.The pilgrim tried to tell the native to take them to their leader, but the native could not make sense of the perfection of the English language, polished over centuries of learning and the intelligence localized to Europe.So the pilgrim began to move his body with the sound and flow of the words, putting meaning in movement rather than sound.After a few seconds, the native caught on.
The pilgrims were taken to the Indian chief and movement as communication was put into effect.And that’s how the official language of the United States became Movement,” the teacher mimed through graceful motions to her class on American Movement Day last Friday. The institution of Movement as the official language of the United States has set it apart from the instability of Europe and Asia.Movement, while somewhat subjective, is universal.Students in America do not have to devote years of study in school to learn multiple languages.American citizens from an array of differing backgrounds and cultures can communicate via Movement.
Without this waste of time, American students have the top math and science scores in the world, making 56 years in a row last August.In addition, obesity in America is close to nonexistent.With the necessity of physical activity to communicate, how can they?As such, America has a comparatively low health care cost.The small percentage of diabetes and heart disease makes the creation of the healthcare budget a breeze. With the celebration of another successful year with the once radical idea of Movement, we remind ourselves of the path we could have taken.English, like that in England, could have been our official language.We could have suffered from cultural insensitivity and a feeling of innate superiority in comparison to others.As the president tastefully mimed last May, “With movement, there is never the question of assimilation.Everyone has the ability to retain their own culture, and there is never the statement that people living in America must speak English.”
