English, Our Common Bond Throughout its history, the United States has been enriched by the cultural contributions of immigrants from many traditions, but blessed with one common language that has united a diverse nation and fostered harmony among its people. As much by accident as by design, that language is English. Given our country's history of immigration and the geography of immigrant settlements, it might have been Dutch, or French, or Spanish, or German; or it might have been two languages, as is the case in Canada, our neighbor to the North. But English prevailed, and it has served us well. Its eloquence shines in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution. It is the living carrier of our democratic ideals. English is a world language which we share with many other nations. It is the most popular medium of international communication. The Spread of Language Segregation The United States has been spared the bitter conflicts that plague so many countries whose citizens do not share a common tongue. Historic forces made English the language of all Americans, though nothing in our laws designated it the official language of the nation. But now English is under attack, and we must take affirmative steps to guarantee that it continues to be our common heritage. Failure to do so may well lead to institutionalized language segregation and a gradual loss of national unity. The erosion of English and the rise of other languages in public life have several causes: • Some spokesmen for ethnic groups reject the "melting pot" ideal; they label assimilation a betrayal of their native cultures and demand government funding to maintain separate ethnic institutions. • Well-intentioned but unproven theories have led to extensive government-funded bilingual education programs, ranging from pre-school through college. • New civil rights assertions have yielded bilingual and multilingual ballots, voting instructions, election-site counselors, and governmentfunded voter registration campaigns aimed solely at speakers of foreign languages. • Record immigration, concentrated in fewer language groups, is reinforcing language segregation and retarding language assimilation. The availability of foreign language electronic media, with a full range of news and entertainment, is a new disincentive to the learning of English. U.S.English: A Timely Public Response In 1981, Senator S.I. Hayakawa, himself an immigrant and distinguished scholar of semantics, proposed a Constitutional Amendment designating English as the official language of the United States. Senator Hayakawa helped found U.S.English in 1982 to organize and support a citizens' movement to maintain our common linguistic heritage. U.S.English is committed to promoting the use of English in the political, economic, and intellectual life of the nation. It operates squarely within the American political mainstream, and rejects all manifestations of cultural or linguistic chauvinism. Our Guiding Principles Our goal is to maintain the blessings of a common language-English-for the people of the United States. These principles guide us: • In a pluralistic nation such as ours, government should foster the similarities that unite us, rather than the differences that separate us. • The nation's public schools have a special responsibility to help students who don't speak English to learn the language as quickly as possible. Quality teaching of English should be part of every student's curriculum, at every academic level. • The study of foreign languages should be strongly encouraged, both as an academic discipline and for practical, economic, and foreign policy considerations. • All candidates for U.S. citizenship should be required to demonstrate the ability to understand, speak, read and write simple English, and basic comprehension of our system of government. • The rights of individuals and groups to use other languages and to establish privately funded institutions for the maintenance of diverse languages and cultures must be understood and respected in a pluralistic society. What Others Are Saying "We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house." Theodore Roosevelt "People can live with language differences, as Switzerland has shown. But if these differences are politicized, as for example in Belgium, Canada and Sri Lanka, a nation can be torn apart. Sri Lanka has decided on English as a national language, so that speakers of Sinhalese and Tamil can communicate with one another and with the world outside. Can we not be warned by the experience of other nations? Can we not unite on English as our national language by law as well as by custom so that our nation shall not be torn asunder in the decades and centuries to come?" S.I. Hayakawa "...the valid historical basis and modern rationale for conducting governmental affairs in English is clear: the national language of the United Sates is English. Judge Edward R. Neaher, United States District "You can be born here in a Cuban hospital, be baptized by a Cuban priest, buy all your food from a Cuban grocer, take your insurance from a Cuban bank. You can get all the news in Spanish-read the Spanish daily paper, watch Spanish TV, listen to Spanish radio. You can go through life without having to speak English at all. ...It works because citizenship is what makes us all American. Language is not necessary to the system. Nowhere does the Constitution say that English is our language. |