Colonel Harry Riley and Others Say Yes

Should English Be the Official Language of the United States of America?

Colonel Harry Riley and Others Say Yes

Kathleen McDade, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jan 18, 2008

English is an official language of at least 50 countries. None of those countries is the United States of America. Are you surprised? The U.S. has never had an official language. At the very beginnings of the nation, in 1780, John Adams proposed an official, government sponsored academy of the English language. According to an ACLU briefing paper, the proposal was "rejected as undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty" by the Continental Congress. The Founding Fathers apparently saw the use of ancestral languages as a right, and didn't want the country to have a single official language, just as it has no official religion.

Since then, however, every time the U.S. goes through a recession and job prospects dwindle, an anti-immigrant backlash begins. Many white, English-speaking Americans would rather the immigrants just go home and leave the jobs to them. Along with this backlash often comes a push to adopt English as the official language of the U.S. - thus excluding people who primarily speak other languages, whether they are U.S. citizens, legal residents, or illegal residents.

I've been aware of the English-only movement for several years, but it recently came to the front of my mind because of an email that's making the rounds. It's a message from one retired Colonel Harry Riley, which tells about 32 or 33 (depending on your email) senators who voted against an amendment to the immigration reform bill which would make English the official language of the U.S. According to Riley, voting against this amendment was un-American and traitorous, and we should all remember this at election time, especially since four of the senators voting against the amendment are running for President.

Uh huh. Sure. Now, I accept that people have opinions different from mine about English being the official language of the U.S. I'm not in favor of the legislation that's most recently been before the Senate, but I'm OK with a healthy debate on the issue. If people want to tell me about how much it costs the government to print forms and documents in languages other than English, that's a reasonable argument. If people want to say that requiring people to learn English is a good thing, because it helps them to be more productive citizens, I'm willing to listen.

I'm not OK, however, with this idea that opposing English as an official language is unpatriotic. That is not a logical argument, and in my view, not even an important argument. That's the problem I have with Riley and his supporters.

There are people willing to make the more reasonable arguments I mentioned. U.S. English is an organization that advocates for English as the official language of the U.S. They have pages of fact sheets and logical arguments for this. I don't agree with all of their reasoning, but at least it is there.

U.S. English says that official English promotes unity, empowers immigrants, and creates common-sense government policies. Let's see how those arguments stack up.

Official English: Promoting Unity
The idea is that if everyone speaks the same language, it facilitates melting-pot style assimilation. If we provide government services and paperwork in other languages, there's no incentive to learn English. If people don't learn English, they develop their own cultural enclaves instead of assimilating. If they develop cultural enclaves, we get racial and ethnic conflicts! Making English the official language is supposed to prevent this.

I have a problem with expecting everyone to assimilate into one culture. Cultural backgrounds are part of who we are. Why should we not promote and celebrate them - even to the point of forming enclaves? As long as people are willing to respect the laws of the land, I don't see a problem with this. And I don't know of any language-based racial and ethnic conflicts that have taken place in the U.S.

Official English: Empowering Immigrants
Not a bad idea. If immigrants can learn English, they can get better education and better jobs, and be more productive members of society. The problem is that while English-only legislation does aim to encourage (or force) people to learn English, it generally doesn't include any provision for the ESL classes that will teach people the language. That's unfair - and it also makes me wonder whether the point is not to make people learn to speak English, but to make the non-English-speaking people go away.

Official English: Common-Sense Government
This is the money argument. U.S. English says that the government should not be duplicating its services in multiple languages, and that if we eliminate this, we'll save money, which can be used for those ESL classes. Logical idea, but I've yet to see this actually put into any legislation. Also, I'm not sure that teaching people English completely eliminates the need for forms in other languages. Even native English speakers can have trouble understanding government forms - it's got to be even more difficult for people who speak English as a second language. Providing forms in other languages would help ensure that people fill out important forms correctly.

Now, what are the arguments against English as an official language? I've stated my responses to U.S. English's reasons, but there are other reasons to oppose English-only legislation. The ACLU, naturally, is one of the chief opponents of English-only legislation, arguing that it abridges people's rights and perpetuates stereotypes.

Official English: Abridging People's Rights
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution promises people equal protection under the law. The ACLU argues that adopting English-only would deprive people of this right - they might not be able to defend themselves effectively in a courtroom, for instance.

Official English: Perpetuating Stereotypes
English-only legislation does not explicitly promote stereotypes, but the movement does have the effect of making people look down on people who speak languages other than English. Many people will assume that all Spanish-speaking Americans are illegal immigrants who shouldn't be here, for instance, and the push for English-only just reinforces attitudes like that, by implying that speaking another language is a negative trait.

Official English: What to do?
What's the solution? Personally, I see no reason why we can't have English as an official language AND support and help people whose primary language is not English. Recent legislation has included language stating that the government is not required to provide other-language materials and assistance, and has not included funding for ESL classes. I'd be in favor of legislation that makes English the official language of the U.S., does not eliminate other-language assistance, and funds additional ESL classes so that more people can learn English. Heck, I don't think I'd even mind if people were required to take the ESL classes - as long as they don't go as far as telling people (especially children) that they can't speak their native languages.

If we must legislate this, let's just come to an agreement and do it. In terms of importance, I rank this right up there with flag burning. Our government shouldn't spend too much time on this when we have more important things to think about, like global warming and the Middle East.

SOURCES
American Civil Liberties Union, "ACLU Briefing Paper Number 6: English Only",
TruthorFiction.com, "Senators Voted Down English as the Official Language of the United States",
U.S. English, Inc., "Making English the Official Language",