One Language, One Culture, One Nation: Senator McConnell Makes A Good Point!!

America is facing a rapid erosion of its national identity. Followers of the left-leaning political correctness movement are daily chipping away at the time-honored traditions and customs that are foundational to our country and to our way of life. Their push for a multi-lingual society threatens our cherished English language and our American culture.

The English language is a defining characteristic of our nation. Our forefathers fought for an America united by a common language. Those who came from other countries seeking a better life, including my grandparents and others like them, knew they had to learn English to succeed in their new homeland. They understood that their future depended on their ability to communicate and that the American dream was widely available to those willing to make the effort to become full-fledged citizens.

Unfortunately many of today’s immigrants have a different attitude. Rather than adopt our English language to better communicate with the rest of us, some now demand that we accommodate them in their native tongues. Even law-breaking illegal aliens have come to expect this, and many misguided politicians reinforce that wrong-headed attitude by calling for special accommodations for government-sponsored services.

Worse yet, Senator Glenn McConnell is being harshly criticized as a "xenophobe" for saying that the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles should stop giving driving tests in foreign languages, since by law English is the state's official language. It is incredible that government bureaucrats responsible for road safety would ever implement such an impractical policy in the first place. For the safety of all drivers, should we not require that all drivers be able to read road safety signs and warnings?

Our national language should not be undermined. Rather than print government documents in a patchwork of languages, we should expect those seeking services to communicate in English. Call it tough love, as it can only help those who want to become viable and functioning members of our economy and our society.

The importance of communicating in English was underscored a few months ago at a Columbia restaurant. A non-English-speaking worker, unable to read labels, mistakenly served customers a highly caustic cleaning powder in place of sugar. Unfortunately, several customers consumed the poison and were hospitalized with internal injuries.

As tragic and unlikely as this example seems, there are many other scenarios that could easily produce more disastrous consequences. For example the airlines industry relies on clear, concise communication. Imagine the tragedy that might occur if a pilot and an air traffic controller were unable to communicate. Worse yet, think of the absolute absurdity of trying to arrange for multi-lingual communication among U.S. military troops on the battlefield!

Patriotic Americans must take the high ground in this debate. We must make every effort to strengthen the fabric of America rather than to unravel it like some wish to do. Our commitment to our common culture and our shared language should not be sacrificed to satisfy some misguided socially engineered view of multi-culturalism and ethnic tolerance. America has always been a diverse nation, but historically our common English language has helped us understand each other, overcome differences, and draw us together.

Our hope should be for the United States to remain united. To achieve that end we must insist that English is our only national language and that everyone on our soil continues to respect our country’s rule of law. Anything less would be a disservice to our common heritage and a disgrace to those who toiled and sacrificed to make the United States of America the greatest nation on earth.

Our English Language Unites Us

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.