Voting on making English the official US language (Was: "Hm...")

[KenWittlief]

The only possible logic I can see to this law came to me while reading Tristans post. In Canada they do have two official languages, and if you want to sell products in Canada you must use both on the labels.

So maybe this attempted official language law here is a pre-emptive 'before its too late' attempt to stop cities or states from imposing their own multi-lingual laws.

Imagine if the state of California decided that anyone who sells products in their state must label them, and provide users manuals in English and Spanish?

or that all schools must teach Spanish as a second language, or all teachers must be fluent in Spanish? ....

This is the only thing that makes any sense at this point - not that the US government feels the need to establish an official language, but they sense some people may be on the verge of springing multi-lingual language requirements on the American public, business and local governments?

and this is a pre-emptive way to nip it in the bud? The state of California (for example) could not require state employess to be fluent in Spanish if the 'official language' of the United States is English.

[Madison]

The bill reads, "To declare English as the official language of the United States, to establish a uniform English language rule for naturalization, and to avoid misconstructions of the English language texts of the laws of the United States, pursuant to Congress's powers to provide for the general welfare of the United States and to establish a uniform rule of naturalization under article I, section 8, of the Constitution."

There's nothing there about shampoo labels.

Read the full text here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00997:

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

Read the full text here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00997:

Having skimmed through that bill, I can see there have been attempts to preclude certain essential services from being rendered only in English. (See the proposed 4 U.S.C. §163(c)(1-7).) That much is a welcome departure from the rhetoric that's been flying in the political arena.

Also, the naturalization requirements are apparently intended for citizens, and not mere resident aliens. That can't really be construed as a roadblock against immigration.

So the bill seems to contrast sharply with the rhetoric. On one hand, the bill is pretty tame. On the other, the cries for Ameri-centric legislation are ever louder. Now that the issue is a little cloudier, I'd be interested in the specifics of the opposition to the bill.

[KenWittlief]

The bill reads, "To declare English as the official language of the United States,

the comma at the end of this part of the sentance means this section stands on its own

the rest of the sentance is "and" "and" "and" ... implying a list with the rest of the commas

"To declare English as the official language of the United States," pretty much covers everything that happens in the US that the government may be involved with

education, state government, and trade regulations (labels on boxes).

Goto Canada - look at the signs, and the labels on all products - they are not only French in Quebec and English everywhere else. Its required by law.