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June 18, 2006
English only?
The battle over legally establishing English as the official language of the United States is heating up. From the left, the arguments against it range from the predictable, pejorative and inflammatory calls of racism to the more subtle position of “why bother, it’s already the default official language.” This second stance is highlighted in Gregory Rodriguez’s op-ed in the Los Angeles Times (Sunday, June 18, 2006). Mr. Rodriguez (a senior fellow at the New American Foundation) argues that because English is the dominant language in the country and is predicted to become more pervasive here and around the world, that there is no need to codify its position within the United States.
This argument ignores the legal inroads already made by non-English speaking people the United States. Ballots, courtrooms, police officers and numerous other public services are now required to meet the needs of those who have chosen to not learn English. This shifts the burden from non-English speaking residents to the government and has advanced rapidly from accommodating “major” languages—most prominently Spanish—to requiring courts to provide translators for virtually all languages and dialects spoken, no matter how obscure. Beyond the financial and administrative burdens of such a policy, it signifies another step away from what used to be our greatest asset as a nation – being a melting pot. This issue – melting pot vs. tossed salad - is also addressed by Mr. Rodriguez.
The real problem with Mr. Rodriguez’s argument against codifying English’s de facto status as our official language, is that the status is far from being clear or permanent. Similar arguments were made in the early stages of establishing and maintaining a legal definition for marriage. Why bother? It has always been the standard and will always remain. The problem is that it is not true. Those who support “traditional marriage” are now belittled as radicals by the press, and it won’t be too many years before the barriers to same sex marriage are removed. While those who support same sex marriage deny the obvious, once the initial barriers are down, all bets are off. How can you deny marriage “rights” to polygamists, cousins, even what are now considered under age? All those who want to bend or break the rules for marriage subscribe to the same arguments.
Having no standards is a problem we must face as a nation. Because so many in our country view standards as unfairly limiting, racist or some form of phobia, those who support standards must be heard, be counted and be active in converting these reasonable yet unwritten societal guidelines into law.
Comments
I do not think that people who want English as the official language are racists. I agree with them on certain situations such as English only ballots. Since understanding English is a requirement for citizenship, I don't see why ballots have to be in several languages. Base on personal experience, I don't think that bilingual education is as good as English immersion.
It is not true, however, that immigrants choose not to learn English. When my family came to the U.S., my siblings and I had no trouble learning English quickly. However, my parents worked 12 hours in chinese restaurants. My father only came home once a week because by the time he got off work the buses had stop running and he didn't have a car. Native Americans don't seem to understand that if an immigrant have the time and money to learn English, he didn't need to come here in the first place. Sure my father would like to read Hemingway like us but he couldn't really go school. The first generation of immigrants don't come here with a goal to assimiliate, they come so that their children can assimiliate and have a bette life. The truth is the 2nd generation will speak English and subsequent generations will not speak the language of their ancestors. My children refused to learn Chinese when they were small. The two eldest now realize the advantage they would have if they had learned Chinese.
Whether English is the official language or not, we have to use common sense to deal with our diverse population. To me it is common sense to have English only ballots. It is also common sense to me to give police officer candidates with bilingual skills special preference in hiring. I am not in favor of affirmative action by race, but knowing Spanish in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood is a plus just like good hand coordination is important in dentistry. I would hate to have somebody like my father not get help from the police when he needed it because he did not have a chance to learn English.
Posted by: Wolverine at June 19, 2006 09:37 PM
Scott, to me the biggest problem with the failure to encourage the English language is that it takes away one of the greater incentives to assimilate. If I can live without learning the language why should I. Non English speaking immigrants (legal or illegal) deprive themselves of the freedom to learn and explore since their information about everything in this country is filtered through special interests.
Posted by: at June 19, 2006 12:37 PM