(Redneck) English-Only Bill
Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore) continues to do his best to protect our fair state from unwanted, incipient, and highly dangerous influences, like bilingualism. With the support of his senate gringo, Anthony Sykes (R-Oklahoma City), House Joint Resolution 1042 is heading back to the House before it ultimately ends up on a ballot. Sykes, quoted in the Tulsa World, says, "The resolution states that English is the common and unifying language of the state and that all official actions of the state will be in English."
Rep. Terrill, of course, has a long history of protecting Oklahoma against "undesirables," authoring one of the most draconian anti-immigrant bills in the U.S. What is truly odd about all of this, though, is how our state legislators bend over backwards to make sure Native American languages are overtly protected against any potentially negative effects the bill may cause. But this sudden interest in the preservation of Native American tongues (admirable though it is) is nothing less than pure political pandering. The targets of the bill are clearly Spanish-speaking men, women, and children. The bill is not designed to benignly "encourage" non-English speakers to learn English; it is, rather, a blatant attempt to prevent Oklahoma (ironically a non-English name) from sounding a little too much like Mexico for the comfort of some.
Why do I have the feeling that Representative Terrill and Senator Sykes will not be attending any Cinco de Mayo activities this year?
Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore) continues to do his best to protect our fair state from unwanted, incipient, and highly dangerous influences, like bilingualism. With the support of his senate gringo, Anthony Sykes (R-Oklahoma City), House Joint Resolution 1042 is heading back to the House before it ultimately ends up on a ballot. Sykes, quoted in the Tulsa World, says, "The resolution states that English is the common and unifying language of the state and that all official actions of the state will be in English."
Rep. Terrill, of course, has a long history of protecting Oklahoma against "undesirables," authoring one of the most draconian anti-immigrant bills in the U.S. What is truly odd about all of this, though, is how our state legislators bend over backwards to make sure Native American languages are overtly protected against any potentially negative effects the bill may cause. But this sudden interest in the preservation of Native American tongues (admirable though it is) is nothing less than pure political pandering. The targets of the bill are clearly Spanish-speaking men, women, and children. The bill is not designed to benignly "encourage" non-English speakers to learn English; it is, rather, a blatant attempt to prevent Oklahoma (ironically a non-English name) from sounding a little too much like Mexico for the comfort of some.
Why do I have the feeling that Representative Terrill and Senator Sykes will not be attending any Cinco de Mayo activities this year?
In the long run, it is a very easy thing to call yourself the last superpower all the time and the president of the United States as the leader of the free world, if all that means, is establishing a non-contact military force in a country or dropping bombs. It is quite another thing to act like a world leader.
ReplyDeleteIf the USA really wanted to be a force for good in the world, committed to this goal in a peaceful mode, then every elementary school would be giving Chinese, Arabic, Farsi and Portuguese language lessons. Spanish? Not to finance language programs is very short-sighted indeed. On the other hand, half of the students today can barely speak their native language.