No, but no one's accused the GOP of focusing on anything other than beating President Obama. Just another wedge issue from the folks that talk about OBAMA's divisiveness! I can see anyone employed by Rosetta Stone language education software having their jobs on the chopping block (insert snark here)!

The stated goal of the Republican party is to make sure President Obama has one term. The unstated and only purpose of the Republican party is to preserve and increase wealth for those who already have it at all costs.

Once again, I am absolutely amazed that anything done, anything at all, can be construed as somehow a personal attack on President Obama. The discussion about having English as our designated national language has been around probably longer than Obama has been alive, let alone President. I for one, would like to see it resolved once and for all, and then we can perhaps move onward in other areas. How much money is spent in this country to create informational materials, signage, etc in multiple languages? And how much is spent by our government who can't, quite frankly, afford anything right now. Learning a foreign language is a benefit to all, but being compelled to adopt another language is a different matter. The logic that the majority of the world is speaking, or will be speaking, a given language is not justification. In fact, among scientific circles, in the areas of medicine and technology, the English language has proved the most adaptable to creating new terms and meanings for new discoveries...All of our founding documents are in English, Each individual state has English constitutions, laws, etc...Lets allow the House and Senate to at least take credit for finishing one item of business.

Now this is a worthless move...

Esta es una idea ridicula. El Partido Repulbicano es el proxentismo

This is out there with "In God We Trust,"

and what to do with Churchill's bust.

Maybe jobs will be created by making signs that say "English ONLY Spoken Here."

That will be balanced by all the bi-lingual employees who will be out of work.

Do Republicans continue to tell us that their party is a "big tent?" Every time they do something like this their tent shrinks even further.

I can still express my cultural heritage in English. I can still eat the same foods, wear the same clothing, worship as my ancestors did. However, aside from where my family came from, the overlying reality is that I am an American citizen, and language is a defining point to unify that citizenry.

ksw62118

You are aware I hope that we consider ourselves to be a bilingual nation and that our government operates in both French and English.

@ Ideo. Totally aware working for a company that has Canadian branches and having to have applications with both French and English. My point was you have two official languages so what is the issue with the US having one.

ksw62118

sorry for the late response, I was just making sure of what you meant.

Chinese students are educated in a universally understandable form-standardized-Chinese to go along with the regional dialects that their families may use. The difference in dialect is often accentuated by difference in pronouncing words, but look identical when put on paper, so a standardized language would cure more confusion than it would create.

Okay....my family represents most of Eastern Europe-German, Polish, Russian....and they all learned English coming into this country and going through the process of becoming citizens. Nobody was offended to learn English. The cultural language might still be spoken at home, but children were urged to comply in school and do their work in English and master the language. Effort were made to re-inforce lessons at home. Neighbors would help their non-english speaking neighbors to learn the functional aspects of the language. You could go to the market, get a bus, fill out a basic employment form. And there was not one bit of signage in Polish, German, Prussian, White Russian, Russian, nor were ballots offered in those languages, nor school books or text books. People at least managed the basic day to day stuff without having to have special government programs to teach them a second language.

ksw, I am pretty sure I already answered your question.

@ Wayne you did not answer the question about why it is good for Canada and other countries but bad for the US? I am pretty sure they have citizens who have come from other countries that vote.

Okay, Canada has two official languages as I suppose you know. Considering the history of the Canadian people this is completely reasonable. The law is meant to be inclusive, not exclusive. My Canadian grandfather was all for it, and said that both languages are a very important part of Canadian culture. I have been to Quebec, and there they work to exclude the English language. They have painted out all English on street signs and have ordered businesses to remove all signs with English on them. These laws are exclusionary and divisive. I do not support them. What you are looking for in the United States is the same kind of divisive thinking that is working out rather poorly in Quebec. If you have any more questions I will answer you if you are nice and polite.

@ Wayne You still did not answer the basic question. Why is it ok for other countries (take out Canada if you like) to have an official language but not the US? Are all those countries divisive as well? Sorry if you think that is not polite to ask.

You asked about Canada and I told you about Canada. Now that Canada doesn't suit your argument, I am not supposed to use it. The only argument I could use that would suit you would be one which agrees with you, but then it isn't an argument. In brief, we need laws that bring people together, not laws that pull us apart. The strength of this nation is its diversity. You evidently feel that we should encourage laws that discourage diversity. That is too bad. Learn to coexist! If you truly love your country, you need to love the diversity that is the United States.

In short, it is not okay to have such a law as the House is proposing. I do know that I am upset that Congress is spending time on laws stating our motto, "In God we trust." It is ridiculous, and I am a Christian. This language bill is meant to put another wedge in the national psyche that will accentuate our differences in a very negative, pugnacious manner. What is fair in such laws? Well, in Canada, the intent of having two official languages was to encourage harmony. You seem to think that is a poor reason to institute a law. If the intent is to discourage diversity, I am firmly against it.

You still did not answer the basic question. What makes the US different from other countries who have an OFFICIAL language. I think it is a poor argument that having an official language encourages division or is racist. Most countries have an OFFICIAL language and may encourage learning a second language. I have no problem with that, in fact I think that is very beneficial.

With the US being the melting pot for many countries how would you propose a cost effective way to include all of the languages. Would you expect to have Spanish, Farsi, Mandarin, etc....?

Your utopian view is well intended but not realistic.

In this case, we cannot have two official languages without disenfranchising many people. You are telling them they are unworthy of a part in the American dream because they don't speak English. The best policy is to have no law about an official language at all.

To pass such a bill with the idea that everyone will suddenly drop their native tongue to jump on the "English only please!" band wagon would be Utopian by definition for some people in a twisted sort of way.

Wayne I guess you still cannot answer the simple question of what makes the US different than other countries? Sounds like partisan politics to me.

And you are not partisan. HA!

As far as I know, the Canadian people are still pretty well divided over the language issue, some supporting the French, some the English, some supporting the straddle the fence approach to things....and the battle has gone on since I was a little kid in grade school reading weekly readers...and you know what, I always thought that it was wonderful that English was our language and we didn't have to fight about it...boy, what a surprise when I grew up and found out that nobody had found it necessary to make it official, and now, we have learned nothing from the pangs of our Canadian neighbors.

Mandarin is the standardized and grammatically purest form of Chinese and hence was the language of the educated in history and used pretty universally in their school system now. Just as in German, there is a standardized, formal, grammatical rules applied language used throughout the country to educate their children, but at home, they speak as their region does.

Constitution forbids an official religion, but I supposed we could do a shoe or a vehicle....after all, it is our government who spend alot of money with things like heart health awareness month, dental awareness month. You do realize that you can go through all 365 days in a calendar and not find a single day that hasn't been dedicated to one ridiculous thing or another. All of this took up the time of our elected officials and nobody griped.