OT - A Country of Illiterates and "Survivor" Watchers Decides on a Language
- From: "mozark" <swooning@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 20 May 2006 13:34:35 -0700
This one's for that crazy right-wing nut, "g@lycos":
===============================================
US Senate declares English the "national language"
by Joe Walsh
20 May 2006
The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to make English the "national
language" of the United States. The measure, added to the Senate
immigration "reform" bill, is the but latest in a series of
reactionary, ignorant and short-sighted moves aimed at shoring up the
right-wing base of the Bush administration and the Republican Party,
with the most far-reaching and anti-democratic implications.
The proposal is a sop to right-wing and fascistic elements who are
working to whip up intolerance and hatred against immigrants in
general, and Hispanic Americans in particular. It underscores the
deeply undemocratic and unconstitutional essence of all of the measures
being enacted in the name of "securing the border."
The United States has existed for more than 200 years without any such
official elevation of English by the federal government. No such
measure was written into the US Constitution by the founders. A
proposal by John Adams in 1780 to establish an official academy devoted
to English was rejected at the time as undemocratic.
Not even at the height of the mass immigration from Eastern and
Southern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, when millions of
people speaking dozens of foreign languages flooded into the US, did
the American ruling elite feel the need to enact this form of
discrimination and disenfranchisement. Why now?
The answer can lie only in the profound crisis and decay of American
capitalist society, the immense growth of social inequality, which has
riven American society between the broad masses and a financial
oligarchy, and the efforts of an increasingly discredited ruling elite
to shore up its rule by appealing to backwardness and moving toward a
police state. The American economic and political system is incapable
of integrating its diverse population and providing for their basic
needs.
The measure was passed by a vote of 63 to 24, with the support of all
but one Republican senator. Nine Democrats voted for the proposal. It
directs the federal government to "preserve and enhance the role of
English as the national language of the United States of America." It
further declares that no one has "a right, entitlement or claim to
have the government of the United States or any of its official or
representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services in any
language other than English."
This in a country where nearly 16 percent of the people, a total of 47
million, speak a language other than English at home. The Senate
measure is directed first and foremost against 35 million Hispanic
Americans, who comprise 13.4 percent of the population and the
country's fastest-growing segment, in ethnic terms. The US is home to
the 5th largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. But the move
would also have a devastating impact on Haitian-Americans and many
other national and ethnic groups.
Among its provisions is an English proficiency test for foreigners
applying for residency in the US. Currently, such a test is required
only for those seeking citizenship. The English proficiency requirement
for citizenship would be made more onerous, with applicants being
required to demonstrate as well a knowledge of American history and
government.
There are not a few prominent American corporate leaders and
politicians, including the current occupant of the White House, who
would have difficulty meeting such a standard.
The measure stopped short of declaring English the official language of
the US, which would all but ban multi-lingual services and government
communications, but it is a major step in that direction. It would not
alter current laws that require government provision of certain
materials and services-including ballots and emergency
advisories-in other languages, but it could be used to negate
executive orders, regulations, civil service guidelines and other
multilingual ordinances not sanctioned by acts of Congress.
Pro-immigrant groups point out that the measure would vacate executive
orders enacted under the Clinton administration that mandated
multilingual services and communications by a number of federal
agencies, and could undermine court orders and local ordinances for
multilingual services.
The Senate measure is, moreover, an encouragement to state and local
authorities to enact similarly discriminatory policies. Already 27
states in the US have passed laws proclaiming English their official
language.
The implications of the measure are vast. Non-English-speaking
Americans could find themselves unable to communicate with hospital
officials, unable to read a host of critical documents, confronted with
insuperable obstacles in their attempts to carry out the elementary
functions of daily life. Their attempts to exercise such basic
democratic rights as registering to vote could be frustrated.
The measure would promote further attacks on bilingual education,
depriving millions of Hispanic and other immigrant youth from obtaining
the basic skills and training needed for decent employment, let alone
access to culture and the arts.
That this proposal is an expression of a vast social and cultural
decline is underscored by the astonishing fall in language proficiency
among English-speaking Americans. The same political representatives of
the ruling elite who claim to cherish the English language have
overseen a disastrous rise in illiteracy within the general population.
According to a government report released in 1998, over 90 million US
adults, nearly one in two, are functionally illiterate or
near-illiterate, lacking the minimum skills required in a modern
society.
That study reported that 44 million American adults, out of 191
million, could not read a newspaper or fill out a job application.
Another 50 million could not read or comprehend above the eighth grade
level. There is no reason to believe that conditions have improved in
the intervening years.
Is it likely that a ruling elite which starves the schools of funds and
refuses to provide resources for art, music or other forms of culture,
producing a virtual epidemic of illiteracy, would provide the vast
resources that would be needed to enable non-English speaking Americans
to become proficient in the "national language"? The answer is
obvious.
In any event, the official elevation of English to a privileged status
is an intrinsically antidemocratic measure. It is discriminatory and
exclusionist. Its reactionary essence was reflected in the remarks of
senators who backed the amendment to the immigration bill.
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, declared that the
United States was "a fragile idea based on a few common principles
and our national common language." His invocation of "our national
common language" is pure invention, at odds with both the spirit and
letter of the US Constitution.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, was more open in
voicing the racist and anti-Hispanic motivations behind the proposal.
Citing recent demonstrations of millions of Hispanic immigrants
demanding a fair and humane policy toward undocumented workers, he
spoke of the need to "enhance our common language," adding, "That
is a good thing to say because when the demonstrators are in the
streets and waving the Mexican flag, some of us have to respond to
that."
As with President Bush's proposals to militarize the US-Mexican
border, prompted by the most short-sighted calculations of political
expediency, the official designation of English as the national
language has massive and ultimately tragic implications which are
barely considered by the right-wingers who promote it. This appeal to
American chauvinism and nativism can only heighten national and ethnic
tensions, initiating a process that leads ultimately to open conflict
and violence among various ethnic groups.
Throughout Europe today, reactionary governments are stoking up
linguistic, religious and cultural differences in order to divert their
populations from the widening class chasm between rich and poor and
justify ever more repressive measures. Now the American ruling elite is
embarking on the same course of action, in a country where the
implications are, if anything, more explosive than in Europe.
As with the vicious anti-immigrant policy announced by Bush in his
nationally televised speech last Monday, the response of the Democrats
to the English language measure in the Senate was one of conciliation
and capitulation. Unwilling to oppose the Republican measure on a
principled basis, the Democrats submitted their own amendment to the
immigration bill declaring English the country's "common and
unifying" language. The Democratic-sponsored measure specified only
that "existing rights" to bilingual government services would not
be curtailed, thereby implying, at the very least, an agreement to
oppose any further extension of bilingual rights.
This watered-down version of the Republican measure also passed, by a
vote of 58 to 39. Senate leaders said one of the two competing English
language amendments would be included in any final immigration bill
that emerges from negotiations with the House of Representatives.
That body passed a bill last December that would make undocumented
workers felons and subject to criminal prosecution all those who
harbored or aided such "criminals," including doctors, teachers and
church officials. There is little doubt which version of the English
language measure will be supported by the reactionaries who control the
Republican House.
Opposition to all forms of discrimination on the basis of language is a
fundamental democratic principle. It must be upheld. But as with all
other basic rights-freedom of speech and political expression, the
right to due process, the right to privacy, the right to vote and run
for political office-it cannot be defended against the drive of the
American ruling elite toward dictatorial rule through the Democratic
Party. Both parties of American big business are complicit in the
assault on democratic rights, because this attack is a response to the
crisis of the capitalist system which they both defend.
.
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