Make English The Official Language!

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the American Daily (Stow, Ohio)

Make English The Official Language!
By Dave Gibson (04/18/05)

Can you imagine the wave of immigrants coming to America around the turn
of the 20th century, choosing not to learn English or worse yet...allowing
their children to wallow in their laziness and never learn English? Those
immigrants (mostly Europeans) assimilated and carved-out good lives for
their families. However, too many of today's immigrants seem to believe
that we should adopt their language and culture.

Many school districts, particularly those in the American Southwest now
offer "English as a second language" courses. U.S. Public Schools are
filled with children who cannot speak a word of English! Of course, the
most predominant language amongst new immigrants (many of them are
illegal) is Spanish. Can you imagine a Mexican school teaching Spanish as
a second language?

I know that I am not the only English-speaking American who has grown
tired of sitting through a litany of Spanish instructions, each time I
have the misfortune to phone a customer service line. Beyond the
irritating effects of having a foreign language forced upon us--it is
costing private businesses as well as the taxpayers untold sums of money.

Around the country, municipalities are being forced to hire bilingual
police officers, teachers, and social workers. The language barrier is
becoming so vast that many cities and counties have no choice but to hire
extra employees, fluent mainly in Spanish.

There is one politician who is trying to stop the erosion of our language.
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has introduced the English Language Unity Act. The
measure would make English the official language of the United States. It
would also require immigrants to be able to speak English with some degree
of proficiency, before being granted citizenship.

It is not the first time Rep. King has introduced this bill. Hopefully,
the Congress will have the good sense to pass it this time...But don't
hold your breath.

It is not only current English-speaking U.S. residents who would benefit
from the bill, but new immigrants would as well. As Rep. King said:
"English is the language of opportunity."

Chairman of U.S. English Inc. ( a non-profit organization, devoted to
making English the official language of the U.S.) Mauro E. Mujica recently
said: "More than 92 percent of the nations in the world have an official
language policy to facilitate communication and assist assimilation. Yet
the United States clings to a costly and divisive system of providing
services in multiple languages, including Social Security information in
16 languages and ballots in 28 languages. By doing so, we have taken away
some of the incentive for immigrants to learn English, and for English
language learning assistance."

There are currently 329 languages spoken in the United States.

The English Language Unity Act of 2005 would force all U.S. government
agencies to conduct their business in English. Thus, any immigrant seeking
assistance from the U.S. taxpayers would have an incentive to learn the
language very quickly.

It is completely absurd to think that I as an American, could re-locate to
say China or Honduras and expect never to learn the predominant language
and succeed. Any new immigrant to the U.S. has a much better chance at
success, if they are able to speak English. Why is that so difficult for
our politicians to understand?

Contact your Congressman today and urge him to support the English
Language Unity Act!


[Moderator's note: One wonders where this writers gets his statistics
about how many countries have "official languages."  One also might ask
how it is he constantly gets Spanish messages on help lines, or how many
US government agencies conduct their business in other languages.  I never
have Spanish forced on me! (hs)]

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