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Letters: Failure to Launch; Spanish Speakers

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host:

Time now for your comments.

Recently, we aired a story about 20-somethings still living at home with their parents.

Unidentified Man (Still Living With Parents): When I was younger, I always thought I'd be out of here by 21, 22, but it just doesn't work out that way.

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

We are a nation of wimps, writes Steven Nabida(ph), of Dallas, Texas. Americans used to work through the hard times and make the best of it. That made us tough and prepared us for the future, he writes. Now we just spend our way through our problems, and we become weak. What a shame.

WERTHEIMER: Recent college graduate Kimberly Stack(ph), of Tampa, Florida, defends her generation.

Ms. KIMBERLY STACK (Still Living With Parents): I was forced to move back in with my parents, not so I could save or spend more, but because I couldn't find a job that would cover basic expenses. I paid for college by myself, which caused a minor accumulation of credit card debt, and a major accumulation of student loans.

WERTHEIMER: And here's an addition to our story on how corporate lawyers handle government requests for private customer records.

We cited a USA Today report saying Bell South gave customer calling data to the government without a subpoena. Bell South says we misrepresented its position on that subject. A spokesman says the company was never asked by any government agency for that information, that Bell South has not turned over any information that was not demanded by a subpoena, and that the company never authorized any third-party with access to the data to give it to the government.

INSKEEP: We also have some corrections this morning. In a report last week we said that Senator Byron Dorgan serves the state of South Dakota. We were off by 180 degrees. He serves North Dakota.

We also misstated the age of Senator Robert Byrd, who turns 89 this November.

WERTHEIMER: Some listeners wrote in to correct an exchange between Chile's new President Michelle Bachelet and a student of the American middle school she once attended.

Unidentified Female Student: I wanted to know how you feel being the first woman president in all of the Americas.

President MICHELLE BACHELET (President of Chile): It's an enormous responsibility, I would say.

INSKEEP: Chile's president did not correct the student, nor did we. In fact, the first woman president of the America's was Argentina's Isabelle Peron, who took office in 1974. There've also been women presidents in Panama, Bolivia, Guyana, Ecuador, and Haiti.

WERTHEIMER: We got a flood of comments in response to Jorge Ramos. He is the Spanish language news anchor who said there's no stopping the growth of Spanish in the U.S. Here's listener Sam Kamel(ph), of Washington, D.C.

Mr. SAM KAMEL (Listener): (Voicemail message) I'm a first-generation son of an Egyptian father and French mother. I grew up speaking French at home and learning English at school. But I object to the notion that language in the U.S. is a simple matter of choice. Despite our many differences, only a common language has the power to provide for communication that fosters understanding, reconciliation, and peace. To leave such an important factor up to demographic tides is unwise and unsound. Viva la France. (Unintelligible). But here's to English in the U.S. of A.

INSKEEP: And here's to your feedback. If you'd like to reach us, just go to npr.org and click on Contact Us.

(Soundbite of music)

WERTHEIMER: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.