President Trump just signed a new executive order that designates English as the official language of the United States, which reverses an order from Bill Clinton. Thirty states have already endorsed English as their official language.
It is worth going back in time to review why Americans should have English as our official language. Here is what Phyllis Schlafly, the founder and president of Eagle Forum, wrote in 1995:
How do we make Americans out of people who come here from so many other continents and cultures? Surely the best, quickest, most obvious, and most efficient way is to teach them to speak English. The English language is the admission ticket to our social, political and economic mainstream. Without it, immigrants will be forever relegated to menial jobs.
The movement to legislate English as our official language has nothing to do with what language you speak in your home, church, club, or business, or what foreign languages you may care to learn. It has to do only with what language is promoted and paid for by the government.
Few Americans realize that current federal law requires ballots to be printed in non-English languages if just 5 percent of the population in a voting jurisdiction speak a language other than English. Why are we doing this? A naturalized citizen must “demonstrate an understanding of the English language, including the ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language.” Only citizens can vote, so there is no reasonable excuse for non-English ballots.
A bureaucratic boondoggle called “bilingual education” has kept immigrant children segregated from English-speaking teachers and children, and consigned to a foreign-language ghetto where they are taught all subjects in their native tongue. It’s a sort of language apartheid, leading to the emergence of a permanent, non-English speaking subculture within America.
Of course, English should be our official language. The language of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution is fundamental to our national identity. Without it, we will cease to be one nation.
The English language is amazingly large and adaptable. New words and meanings are created every year. Unlike most of the languages of the world, English offers speakers precision with its large and rich vocabulary. When native speakers of other countries meet, the language in which they communicate is usually English. With this new executive order, Americans should no longer have a failure to communicate!
