Regarding the proposals by Robert Dole, Pat Buchanan, et al., to make English the official language of America:
Your proposals do not go far enough! A truly rigorous law would go beyond making English the offical tongue–it would insist on correct English.
Under such a law there would be legal sanctions for the incorrect use of the language, such as:
– Anyone who mixes up “who” and “whom” would be fined by the grammar police (first offenders could get off with a warning).
– Those who don’t use the apostrophe correctly will be sent to remedial language-education camps run by English professors.
– The wrong use of the subjunctive would be grounds for deportation.
The only drawback I see to this modest proposal is that a lot of people whose native language is English might flunk the test.
