Friday, January 26, 2007

Momentum builds for English as official US language

The effort to make English the official US language is gaining momentum, with legislation about to be introduced in Congress, and already being considered in seven states. Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican is expected to reintroduce the English Language Unity Act in February.

"The states have been wonderful on this," said Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of English First, an organization that supports making English the official language. "The problem isn't getting bills passed, it's getting them enforced."

King had 160 co-sponsors for his bill in the last session of Congress, and it is described as having broad, bipartisan support. English-language laws have been introduced by state legislators in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey and Oklahoma, and similar legislation is expected to be introduced in other states before the end of the month.

Said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of U.S. Englishm a group that supports making English the official language, "I hope the jump-start that this issue has received will pay dividends in the near future by making English the official language and knocking down the linguistic barriers that divide our society."

4 comments:

  1. We need this action. Go do it.

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  2. pobre gringo. no catcha ada. Haven't you heard most countries have second languages.

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  3. That's right Gianni. Most countries do have a second language. Know what it is??? It's English, the language of opportunity the world over.

    But, in fact, we don't oppose second or even third languages. What we oppose are federal mandates that force cities, towns, schools and hospitals to provide language services in every language under the sun.

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