Speaking of the power and importance of language, Winston Churchill once said:
The English language is one of our great sources of inspiration and strength,and no country, or combination, or power so fertile and so vivid exists anywhere in the world.
Churchill knew that language, more than just the means for communicating information, is the fabric of nations -- their culture, history, art, music and commerce. He knew also that the power of shared language has forged a bond among all the English-speaking peoples of the world. In crisis after crisis throughout much of our history, we see a “special relationship” with those who share our values and language -- Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries. Yet in recent decades the fabric that has united us with English-speaking countries around the world is being destroyed within our own country.
Thirty-six million immigrants, a third of them illegal, live among us today. That number equals all those who previously came during the nearly 400 years between the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the presidential election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1960. These millions of current day immigrants, 90% of whom come from Third World nations, are demanding that we recognize their languages, culture, and history while, in some misguided spirit of multiculturalism, we remain silent about our own.
Our first act of national surrender occurred when President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166 effectively making our country a multilingual one. His order requires that any entity receiving federal funds must provide services in any language. For example, doctors, hospitals and clinics that accept Medicare or Medicaid must provide, at their own expense, interpreters for any language spoken by any patient, even illegal aliens.
The financial cost of this invasion is staggering. We’ve spent billions of dollars on bilingual education that nurtures a permanent, non-English-speaking culture. Schools in New York City teach students in 82 languages. The 1974 Supreme Court decision, Lau v. Nichols requires that “special assistance” be given to non-English-speaking children. It’s estimated that this assistance alone costs American taxpayers $15 billion each year.
Yet, the cultural costs to our nation far exceed the financial costs. The melting pot has become a salad bowl of competing ethnic groups that are sometimes ignorant and contemptuous of our national history, purpose, and ideals. It is vital that we secure our borders and assimilate those immigrants that have come to our shores. Their first obligation, if they want to stay and reap the privileges of being Americans, should be to learn English. How can anyone hope to succeed and prosper without learning our shared language and accepting our shared culture?
Perhaps President Theodore Roosevelt foresaw our time when he said “The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also have but one language, and that language is English.” Now, more than ever, we need leaders like Theodore Roosevelt.
The English language is one of our great sources of inspiration and strength,and no country, or combination, or power so fertile and so vivid exists anywhere in the world.
Churchill knew that language, more than just the means for communicating information, is the fabric of nations -- their culture, history, art, music and commerce. He knew also that the power of shared language has forged a bond among all the English-speaking peoples of the world. In crisis after crisis throughout much of our history, we see a “special relationship” with those who share our values and language -- Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other English-speaking countries. Yet in recent decades the fabric that has united us with English-speaking countries around the world is being destroyed within our own country.
Thirty-six million immigrants, a third of them illegal, live among us today. That number equals all those who previously came during the nearly 400 years between the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the presidential election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1960. These millions of current day immigrants, 90% of whom come from Third World nations, are demanding that we recognize their languages, culture, and history while, in some misguided spirit of multiculturalism, we remain silent about our own.
Our first act of national surrender occurred when President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166 effectively making our country a multilingual one. His order requires that any entity receiving federal funds must provide services in any language. For example, doctors, hospitals and clinics that accept Medicare or Medicaid must provide, at their own expense, interpreters for any language spoken by any patient, even illegal aliens.
The financial cost of this invasion is staggering. We’ve spent billions of dollars on bilingual education that nurtures a permanent, non-English-speaking culture. Schools in New York City teach students in 82 languages. The 1974 Supreme Court decision, Lau v. Nichols requires that “special assistance” be given to non-English-speaking children. It’s estimated that this assistance alone costs American taxpayers $15 billion each year.
Yet, the cultural costs to our nation far exceed the financial costs. The melting pot has become a salad bowl of competing ethnic groups that are sometimes ignorant and contemptuous of our national history, purpose, and ideals. It is vital that we secure our borders and assimilate those immigrants that have come to our shores. Their first obligation, if they want to stay and reap the privileges of being Americans, should be to learn English. How can anyone hope to succeed and prosper without learning our shared language and accepting our shared culture?
Perhaps President Theodore Roosevelt foresaw our time when he said “The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also have but one language, and that language is English.” Now, more than ever, we need leaders like Theodore Roosevelt.
