What is the official language of the United States? English, right? Wrong. There is no official language.
Wave after wave of immigrants came here for two centuries and learned English in order to work and become informed citizens. English became our one unifying bond and throughout this evolution most of us assumed English was the national language.
Few are aware that legislation must be passed to make it so. The Language of Government Act, HR 123, before Congress would make English the official language of the government. The huge cost of printing government forms and conducting business would be done in one common language, English. The act does not mean another language cannot be spoken privately as detractors cry.
Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, an immigrant and language expert, launched the common language movement in 1983. Successive leaders of the movement and major supporters are those with an Hispanic heritage who understand that as a diverse immigrant country we must have a unifying language.
Yet bills before state legislatures in the last 10 years have been fought by interest groups calling them discriminatory. Little media attention was paid until recently when Dade County, Fla., repealed its English language ordinance, and a non-elected government bureaucrat in Tucson, Ariz., conducted a U.S. citizenship ceremony in Spanish.
Bilingual education programs are carried on not short-term for transitional help, but continually. And they cost states millions of dollars annually. Yet polls indicate a majority of immigrant families support teaching children English so they can enter the mainstream in their adopted communities.
As Americans we prize our multicultural roots and diversity, but to thrive as a country we must have a common language of communication. Recent figures reveal that immigrants to the U.S. speak 120 different native languages. I hope all concerned citizens will encourage their congressmen to support HR 123.
