California Conservative

Some good news, albeit only symbolic.

CNSNews reports: An amendment to the Senate immigration bill would make English the “national language of the United States.” The Senate voted 63-34 to adopt the amendment, which was offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

The measure declares that there is no affirmative right to receive services in languages other than English, except where required by federal law. In other words, the amendment is mostly symbolic — it will not change the way the government prints documents or conducts business.

Also on Thursday — confusing the issue — the Senate also voted 58-39 in favor of a second, weaker amendment, offered by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). The Salazar amendment declared English to be “the common and unifying language of the United States.”

Inhofe’s strong amendment is getting the most attention, however.

Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, called the Inhofe amendment racist, regardless of its intent. Sen. John McCain worried about making English the “official” language. “It gives the idea that any other language is excluded,” he said.

How far have we fallen?

If describing an effort to recognize English as our nation’s “official” language constitutes racism, than maybe we should start paying our taxes in pesos — because it must be equally racist to force a national currency upon us. What would they say to that?

But advocacy groups such as U.S. English and English First hailed passage of the Inhofe amendment.

“Today’s vote heeded the voices of the vast majority of Americans who believe that English is a crucial part of being an American,” said Mauro Mujica, chairman of the board of U.S. English.

He said Thursday’s “historic” vote making English the national language corrects a longstanding oversight.

U.S. English points to a 2005 Zogby International poll showing that 79 percent of Americans support making English the official language of the United States, including more than two-thirds of Democrats and four-fifths of first- and second-generation Americans.

Politicians tailor their opinions according to the polls, which really makes you wonder what’s going on in Washington? The public opinion polls on immigration are one example, and this is another.

The majority of Americans overwhelmingly want genuine reform, curbing immigration (both illegal and legal), and they also want to recognize a national language. And yet many elected officials ignore them, as they have done for decades.

But the time has come for accountability: the melting pot is now boiling.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 19th, 2006 at 10:21 am and is filed under Activism, Culture, Domestic Policies, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.