English

I was born in California and as a child, watched Sesame Street (a new show at the time) which was pretty much half in English and half in Spanish. In fact, I could count higher in Spanish than I could in English as a child. About half our neighborhood was of Latino descent and a lot of the kids were my friends. Today, I have two teenage daughters and they will both be in high school next year. My youngest is going to take Spanish as her foreign language and I've asked her to bring her books home so I could learn it with her. Obviously, I have no problem with Spanish or speaking Spanish. Having said that, this is the United States of America and the predominate language for the last 225 plus years, has been and still is English. Making English the official National Language makes sense.

What I would like to know, Mr. Reid, how does that make me racist? I could not believe it when he said that! No one said Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Yiddish, Croatian, Russian, German and so on and so on could not be spoken, we would merely like English to be recognized as the National Language! Nathan Tabor put it this way:

Be afraid folks. Be very afraid. Thursday’s travesty on the Senate floor is just one more example of Democrats kowtowing to special interest groups, in yesterday’s case, illegal immigrants.

Senator Jame Inhofe (R-OK) proposed an amendment to the overhaul of a new immigration bill that would declare English as our national language.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid declared that Inhofe’s proposed amendment "…is directed at people who speak Spanish," an interesting charge in light of the fact that Inhofe himself is fluent in Spanish. Reid’s statement, however, totally ignores the thousands of Chinese sneaking into the West Coast or the tens of thousands of Eastern Europeans who operate in the underground economy of illegal workers from New York to Chicago. When in doubt, Harry, play the race card.
The Conservative Voice

What's the matter Harry, are you afraid that by uniting everyone with a common language, thus perpetuating our "melting pot" reputation, will deprive you of votes somehow? No, you can do that all on your own with your crazy ideas! Here is how my Senators voted:

Ohio: DeWine (R-OH), Yea Voinovich (R-OH), Yea

How did your Senators vote? Find out here: Senate Roll Call Vote on Salazar Amendment

President Bush who was the governor of Texas (where Spanish is spoken predominately along the border towns and more) and where he, as a state leader, often communicated with his fellow Texans in Spanish, stated that English should be learned by all immigrants, so that they can assimilate into our society. Does that make him racist? Not to my mind.

Charles Krauthammer, who is French Canadian by birth, reminds us that dual languages really don't work and can actually cause strife, even rioting, as it did in the 60s. I see dual languages as creating an "us and them" mentality instead of uniting people in one language. I think there is enough strife in our country right now, why add to it by making English and Spanish required learning for new immigrants?

Update: Mark (thank you Mark!) pointed out that I had sited the Salazar Amendment instead of the Inhofe Amendment which was more strongly worded and was passed by a much wider margin. See how your Senator voted: Senate Roll Call Vote On Inhofe Amendment

Crossposted: A Rose By Any Other Name