Vegas
04-03-2007, 01:14 PM
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=260406765174701
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
He might have put it better, but Newt Gingrich was right in stressing the importance of a common language for our democracy and the advancement of our citizens. It's especially true for those new to our shores.
Addressing the National Federation of Republican Women on Saturday, the former Speaker of the House backed English as the official language of government and objected to the fact that election ballots must be printed in up to 700 different languages "depending on who randomly shows up" to vote.
In a Rasmussen poll last year, some 68% of Americans agreed with him. After all, English is the language of most public debate. It is the language the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is also the language of corporate America and the economic ladder all must climb.
We've noted that requiring English ballots is not a civil rights issue. The law lets non-English-speaking voters to take an interpreter into the voting booth with them. The issue is whether or not we should encourage full assimilation into the American way of life.
Speaking at last year's Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House, President Bush said that "America has thrived as a nation because we've always welcomed newcomers, who in turn embrace our values and our way of life."
But 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."
It may have been that last passage Gingrich had in mind when he rather indelicately advocated that we "replace bilingual education with immersion in English, so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."
Former Wisconsin Congressman Toby Roth used to talk about a foreman on a south Texas ranch, Ernesto Ortiz: "My children learn Spanish in school so they can become busboys and waiters," he quoted Ortiz as saying. "I teach them English at home so they become doctors and lawyers."
Ortiz understood that English was the language of the American, and the American dream.
Also last week, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed legislation making Idaho the 29th state to adopt English as the official language, with common-sense exceptions such as in health care and judicial proceedings. Under the law, all state meetings, publications and transactions are to be done in English.
Last month, H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act of 2007, which would make English the official language of the U.S., was introduced by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and 26 of his colleagues. Last year, in a letter to colleagues, King said bilingual ballots "divide our country, increase the risk of voter error and fraud, and burden local taxpayers."
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, as well as speaking, English. So why do we have multilingual ballots and bilingual education?
"The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin 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," said Roosevelt. "We have but one flag. We must also learn one language, and that language is English."
E pluribus unum.
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
He might have put it better, but Newt Gingrich was right in stressing the importance of a common language for our democracy and the advancement of our citizens. It's especially true for those new to our shores.
Addressing the National Federation of Republican Women on Saturday, the former Speaker of the House backed English as the official language of government and objected to the fact that election ballots must be printed in up to 700 different languages "depending on who randomly shows up" to vote.
In a Rasmussen poll last year, some 68% of Americans agreed with him. After all, English is the language of most public debate. It is the language the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It is also the language of corporate America and the economic ladder all must climb.
We've noted that requiring English ballots is not a civil rights issue. The law lets non-English-speaking voters to take an interpreter into the voting booth with them. The issue is whether or not we should encourage full assimilation into the American way of life.
Speaking at last year's Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House, President Bush said that "America has thrived as a nation because we've always welcomed newcomers, who in turn embrace our values and our way of life."
But 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."
It may have been that last passage Gingrich had in mind when he rather indelicately advocated that we "replace bilingual education with immersion in English, so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."
Former Wisconsin Congressman Toby Roth used to talk about a foreman on a south Texas ranch, Ernesto Ortiz: "My children learn Spanish in school so they can become busboys and waiters," he quoted Ortiz as saying. "I teach them English at home so they become doctors and lawyers."
Ortiz understood that English was the language of the American, and the American dream.
Also last week, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed legislation making Idaho the 29th state to adopt English as the official language, with common-sense exceptions such as in health care and judicial proceedings. Under the law, all state meetings, publications and transactions are to be done in English.
Last month, H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act of 2007, which would make English the official language of the U.S., was introduced by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and 26 of his colleagues. Last year, in a letter to colleagues, King said bilingual ballots "divide our country, increase the risk of voter error and fraud, and burden local taxpayers."
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, as well as speaking, English. So why do we have multilingual ballots and bilingual education?
"The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin 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," said Roosevelt. "We have but one flag. We must also learn one language, and that language is English."
E pluribus unum.