Republicans want EEOC to speak only English

[Dennis Baron]

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Republicans in Congress want to stop the U. S. Equal Employment  
Opportunity Commission from taking action against employers who make  
their workers speak English, according to the Associated Press.

A group of English-only Republican senators was outraged by the  
announcement that the EEOC is suing the Salvation Army for firing two  
clothing sorters in its Framingham, Massachusetts thrift shop because  
the Spanish-speaking immigrants were unable to comply with the  
organization’s English-only policy.

But Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who objected violently when  
a CD of the “Star-Spangled Banner” was released in Spanish last year,  
wants to prevent the government’s antidiscrimination agency from  
discriminating against faith-based groups who make their employees  
speak English.

“Did the EEOC go after the Catholic church when it made priests say  
the mass in English instead of Latin after Vatican II?” Alexander  
asked reporters last week, adding, “No it did not. So why can’t the  
Salvation Army do the same thing?”

Alexander also pointed out that, like the Catholic church and the  
Salvation Army, the EEOC conducts all of its business in English, not  
Spanish or Vietnamese. “Quod erat demonstrandum,” he concluded. To  
which independent but secretly Republican Sen. Joseph Lieberman of  
Connecticut added, "Dayenu."  ....


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Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

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