As I went to my creative writing class today I knew that all 15 people attending would be speaking and writing in English. The class is being conducted at a community college (Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California). The background of the people attending is varied.
The one thing we all have in common is language. Perhaps some do speak another language. One Caucasian lady told us that she accompanied her husband to Taiwan for a one year job. She probably learned some Standard Mandarin as that is the language common to most people living there. However, she has spoken to all of us in English. Two Asians are in the class. Based upon their appearance they are most likely from China. They only speak English in the class and for all I know that may be the only language they speak.
English is not the official language of our country. We have no official language. That is a problem for our nation. Recently this country has become divided by language. By not having English language competency many people do not consider they are part of this country. Those immigrants who retain their native language are continuing to consider themselves part of their homeland. More than 10% of Californians speak little or no English.
Both government and business are to blame for this situation. Some Bank web sites are in both English and Spanish. When you telephone most businesses they give you a Spanish option. Election ballots are now in Spanish everywhere in the United States. Los Angeles County now offers ballots in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. The argument for this is that many citizens do not understand English sufficiently enough to understand ballot measures. “Thousands of Americans are voting in foreign languages, even though naturalized citizens are required to know English.” How did they pass the test to become citizens? The Hoover Institution documents this issue (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3574512.html) in an article dated in 1996. Federal law required California’s Yuba County to spend $12,000 printing voting information in Spanish even though there was no request for the documents. Oddly, the State of California has an amendment to its constitution making English the official language. CALIFORNIA STATE CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE III, SECTION 6.
I am sorry to note that my position is not popular with Democrats. Newsmax.com reported on this issue (http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/6/28/230903.shtml?s=us).To my dismay the Speaker of the House supports the idea of ballots in multiple languages. What could Nancy Pelosi have been thinking when she supported this idea?
Debates for President are in English, laws are written in English, our primary TV stations are broadcast in English, English is the language used for all communication between towers and commercial aircraft in all countries in the world, many countries print their postage stamps with both their native language and English.
Wolf Blitzer of CNN has asked all the candidates, in the debates of both political parties, if they favored making English the official language. All the Republicans support the idea but all the Democrats except former Alaska Governor Mike Gravel oppose it.
There is hope for a change. Representative Peter King of New York, has introduced HR 769, a bill to make English the official language of the United States of America. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma has introduced a companion bill, S 1335 in the Senate. Pro-English (http://www.proenglish.org/issues/offeng/769.html) is an organization dedicated to “working to educate the public about the need to protect English as our common language and to make it the official language of the United States.”
The principles of Pro-English are a list I whole heartedly support and so should all Americans:
- In a pluralistic nation such as ours, the function of government should be to foster and support the similarities that unite us, rather than institutionalize the differences that divide us.
- Our nation’s public schools have the clear responsibility to help students who don’t know English to learn that language as quickly as possible. To do otherwise is to sentence the child to a lifetime of political and economic isolation. Quality teaching of English and America’s civic culture should be a part of every student’s curriculum. The study of foreign languages, as an academic discipline, should be strongly encouraged.
- All candidates for U.S. citizenship should be required to demonstrate knowledge of English and an understanding of our system of government, at a level sufficient to vote in the language of our country English.
- Naturalization ceremonies, including the Oath of Citizenship, must be conducted in English.
- The right to use other languages must be respected.
Coast Contact 