{image1}With the local Latino community growing by leaps and bounds and the Spanish language commonly spoken all over the country, should Milwaukeeans who don't already speak the language make more of an effort to learn it?

E-mail us at soundoff@staff.onmilwaukee.com and if picked, we'll post your response next Sunday. Only submissions that include your full name and where you live will be considered.

Last week's question: Did the Oscars truly recognize the best films of the year?

Matt Hasselman
East Side
No way. The best films are never in English.

Chris Haworth
Milwaukee
While I don't necessarily disagree with the movies chosen to be nominated, I do disagree with how/why the "Academy" chooses its winners. "Million Dollar Baby" was a good film, but was it deserving of all the accolades it received? No. The Academy always falls prey to its undying self-affinity, political correctness and old standbys.

Cate Blanchett won because she portrayed a beloved Hollywood icon in Katherine Hepburn. The Academy loves performances that exemplify one of their own. No question she did an excellent job but was it far and above the other nominees?

In the past few years, the Academy has been making up for years of non-political correctness in awarding Oscars to minorities. A few years ago, Denzel Washington easily should have won for "The Hurricane" (his best performance in any movie he's done), so they made up for it by giving it to him for his performance in "Training Day" which wasn't anything special. Now the Academy is going overboard. Was Morgan Freeman truly better than Alan Alda in "Aviator"? Was Foxx better than DiCaprio? As much as I don't like DiCaprio personally, his performance as Howard Hughes was second-to-none.

And for some reason, the Academy loves anything that Clint Eastwood does, whether it's directing, acting, etc. But the Oscar should have gone to Marty Scorcese who has been continually and consistently overlooked by the Academy every time he is nominated.

Until the Academy allows for some non-Hollywood types as voting members, it will always succumb to its own vanity and contrived politically-correct image.

Natasha Lindow
Waukesha
Although I enjoyed the movies that were nominated this year for Best Picture, including my pick, "The Aviator," I do believe that some films from 2004 were snubbed by the Academy. First of all, I thought that "The Passion of the Christ" should have been nominated as well as "Farenheit 9/11." Those were definitely the movies that everyone was talking about, as well as everyone paid to see in the theaters. I don't believe that any other movies caused as much controversary as these two. It was really a great year in movies, and I understand that there's only five films picked for nominations, but I just feel that "The Passion of the Christ" should have at least been nominated.