E Pluribus Unum, Comprende?

[Harold Schiffman]

E Pluribus Unum, Comprende?
November 21, 2007: 08:05 PM EST


Nov. 23, 2007 (Investor's Business Daily delivered by Newstex) --

The Culture: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants employers who require
English in the workplace to be sued for discrimination. Workplaces
like the House of Representatives? To continue this editorial in
English, press one. Supporters of open borders like to point 15ut we
are a nation of immigrants, which is true. But until recently, the
newest immigrants were largely legal ones who didn't just come to
America, but also wanted to be part of America -- to be Americans.
America was called a melting pot of different cultures and
ethnicities. The process of becoming an American was called
assimilation. That included learning English. Lately we've seen the
balkanization of America, a kind of cultural apartheid run amok.
Efforts in this regard have included bilingual education, multilingual
ballots and now the insistence that a common language is racist and
discriminatory. The American melting pot has become a smorgasbord.

Earlier this year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
filed suit against a Salvation Army Thrift Store in Massachusetts that
fired two Hispanic employees for speaking Spanish while sorting
clothes. The two women, one from the Dominican Republic and one from
El Salvador, were given a year to learn rudimentary English. They
refused. The EEOC line is that language skills are not relevant to the
job of sorting donated clothing, so therefore the store was in
violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars discrimination on the
basis of national origin.

But is such a requirement any more discriminatory than, say, a dress
code that bars an employee from wearing a native costume?
When it comes to requiring English on the job, the courts have already
ruled in Massachusetts. In 2003, a federal judge in Boston upheld the
Salvation Army policy requiring workers to "speak English to the best
of their ability." Unnerved by such lawsuits, Sen. Lamar Alexander
sponsored legislation protecting employers from lawsuits for having
English-only job policies. The measure passed the Senate 75-19 in
October, and the House passed it 218-186 earlier this month. Some 30
states have passed bills making English their official language.
Speaker Pelosi this week vowed to keep the measure from being
implemented after members of the Hispanic Caucus objected.

Those who insist that driver's licenses for illegals are necessary to
let them move freely on our roads do not insist that learning English
is necessary for immigrants, legal or illegal, to move freely in our
society. Speaking at last year's Cinco de Mayo celebration at the
White House, President Bush said, "America has thrived as a nation
because we've always welcomed newcomers, who in turn embrace our
values and our way of life." Then he added an important caveat: "Those
who come here to start new lives in our country have a responsibility
to understand what America is about and the responsibility to learn
the English language so they can better understand our national
character and participate fully in American life."

In 1906, Congress passed and President Theodore Roosevelt signed
legislation requiring people seeking to become naturalized citizens to
demonstrate oral English proficiency. In 1950, that requirement was
strengthened to include reading and writing English.
So why do we have multilingual ballots and bilingual education? "The
one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin," Roosevelt
observed, "or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a
nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling
nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also learn one language,
and that language is English."

As we have said, the official-English movement and requirements for
speaking English on the job are not anti-immigrant. They are
pro-assimilation. To want people to be able to reap the full benefits
of American society is not discrimination. If assimilation is an
immigrant's goal, then learning English is not an option.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-21160351.htm

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