<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;">Drop language bill</SPAN></FONT></SPAN><SPAN style=""><A href="http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060531/OPINION/60530004/1014"><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0021E7" face="ArialMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;"></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><A href="http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060531/OPINION/60530004/1014"><SPAN style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#0021E7"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0021E7" face="ArialMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;">http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060531/OPINION/60530004/1014</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;"></SPAN></FONT></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><SPAN style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:ArialMT"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3333px;">We should have pride in our country and in the things that make us Americans, including our common language. But America has never been a country in which only English has been spoken, so it’s with regret that the Senate passed a bill earlier this month proclaiming English the national language.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT"></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT"><O:P></O:P></FONT></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT">The Senate measure, which was approved 63 to 34, wants to “preserve and enhance” the role of English by restricting federal communications or services to English without altering current laws that require some documents and services in other languages.
We don’t need a language law, though, for a few good reasons.
For one, English is the predominant language in the United States, and nothing in more than 200 years of nationhood has threatened its unofficial status. Up until the 1980s, few even thought about the need for a national language declaration.
The proposal, if it becomes law, also is an affront to this country’s diversity.
Many Native Americans still speak their native languages. They are proud of their languages, as they should be, and it doesn’t make someone less of an American if they do not speak English.
But the simple fact of the matter is that most people naturally will assimilate and lose their native language, and if not them, their children. Again, that’s something that has been happening throughout our history and is happening right now at a rate greater than ever.
But English-only supporters raise unfounded fears that somehow things are different today and English will be squeezed out of existence. It won’t, even given the diverse world we live in. Just because the merchandise signs at Lowe’s are in English and Spanish and product assembly instructions are printed in four or five languages, it does not mean suddenly the Senate will become bilingual.
And lastly, opponents to the national language bill are correct — if made law, the Senate’s bill could eventually negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress.
We are and have been a big country, big enough to accommodate many people with many ideas and languages. Their presence doesn’t affect the status of English — it never has — but the Senate’s national language bill does make us look small-minded.</FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT"><O:P></O:P></FONT></SPAN></P><P class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT"> </FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="ArialMT"><O:P></O:P></FONT></SPAN></P><SPAN style=""><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial-BoldMT" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><B>Originally published May 31, 2006</B></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </BODY></HTML>