(A quick disclaimer before I dive into this post – I hate, hate, HATE political discussions. No matter how well-meaning you may be when you start the discussion, they almost always seem to end in some variation of the following conversation:
PERSON 1: Suck it!
PERSON 2: No, YOU suck it!
I get frustrated by situations where people who should normally be able to understand each other and have a simple, civil discussion, devolve into shouting husks of rage. So I try my best to avoid those debates. That being said, I do have a topic to discuss, so I’ll ignore the giant red warning flags waving me off road and just charge on in full speed ahead.)
I was listening to the radio today during lunch when a political ad came on. The candidate-who-approved-this-ad sounded like an old woman, but I didn’t catch her name or what she was running for. I was too distracted by the political causes she stood for, specifically one towards the end of the commercial – she wanted to make English the national language. Now, normally I’m a political dummy, but I do know that plenty of politicians have brought this up before, although I couldn’t recall anyone being so overtly for it, and that’s what caught me off guard. So much so that I ended up thinking about it in the car for a while, and then some when I got home, until I eventually decided that as much as I like English, and being able to speak it to everyone around me (at least in this country), I don’t think having it as our national language is a good idea.
Why, you ask? Let me tell you.
To me, this argument seems to stem from the immigration uproar that’s been constantly playing on the fringes of our political consciousness for over a decade now, and I don’t mean patrolling the border for illegal immigrants. I’m all for keeping people out of the country who are trying to get in illegally. There are rules in place, and those rules need to be followed. So if you’re caught breaking them, punishment needs to be involved somehow. No, what I’m talking about is the subtle undercurrent of racism in our culture and the staunch desire many of us have of avoiding change. I’ve always thought that this country is great because of one overriding reason – we embrace that which makes us better than others. We cherry pick the best pieces of other cultures and incorporate them into ourselves, adjusting on the fly without being burdened by centuries (or even millenia) of tradition or expectations. We all learned how America was the great ‘melting pot’ back in school, right? How we took people from different parent nations and mixed them up into a brand new whole? Well, there you go. We learn, we adjust, we evolve.
The US started as a pack of ex-Brits who wanted their freedom. Then we took in some of the french lurking on our borders. In the early 1800s we had an influx of Irish, then some Germans and Italians. On top of that, we had black slaves scattered throughout the country that eventually became free men and women, and large amounts of Mexican and Asian immigrants in the west and southwest. We took people in from all corners of the world, almost all of whom showed up for the promise of a better life. Our country and our political system allowed for that, and our culture grew and evolved because of that.
But now, I get the strange sense that a lot of people think we’re done. They seem to think that we need to lock down our society and culture EXACTLY as it is because it just can’t get any better. There aren’t any other good ideas out in the world, or new things to learn, or to understand. We have pizza, teriyaki chicken, and tortillas, so we’re all good now. Somehow, people think our culture won’t survive a large influx of Hispanics, or Muslims. They think it’ll die, or be so radically changed that it won’t have any place left for those of us who grew up here and enjoyed a Christian-white-male-centric society. But I don’t believe that. I’m pretty sure that just like we did with the massive influxes of the last several centuries, we will absorb those people, and the best parts of their culture, and we will be better for it.
In other words, change can frightening, but it can also be great.
And that’s why I think this English as a national language idea is a terrible one. It sends a message that we’re content with the status-quo, and that we don’t think our culture can ever get any better than it is right now. That’s a terribly arrogant assumption. Not to mention the fact that English is one of the most rapidly evolving languages in the world anyway. If we make English the national language, do we lock it down, exactly as it is right now, and only allow that version of the language to be the standard forever? I’m not even sure how we legislate something like that, or if we need to waste our time concerning ourselves about such a thing.
But, I’m digressing. The issue here isn’t English as a national language. The real issue is our fear of change, especially during a time when the entire world is changing… fast. History is littered with examples of civilizations that weren’t able to adjust as the world around them became faster, smarter, or just more determined, and they became chapters in a textbook because of that. If you’re a student of science (which I like to think I am), you’ll know that when the world changes, you either evolve, or you fade away. This particular issue, and the implications it carries, strikes me as the calling card of those who want to just fade away.
Tagged with: Politics
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I have to say, this is probably one of my favorite politic debates (because I find it comical the arguments that arise in favor of the institution).
The key word in addressing the topic is FEAR. The irony of course is the debate is about creating a “national” language is that the true definition of a nation is “an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages.” As our country is the culmination of its independent influxes of immigration; it is not nor will it ever be a nation.
The topic of creating a national language was very prevalent directly following the attacks of September 11th but subsided with the end of the first Bush presidential term. As we have since lost soldiers overseas and are now withdrawing that presence, there is an innate fear in the people that by bringing our troops home, there will be an influx of negative stigmata following as we are no longer keeping it within the bounds of other countries.
This fear causes people to look beyond an intelligent understanding of how to unify a group of people and spawns the emergence of blinding ignorance thrusting onward about making it a key component of our country that our “national” language is English. The concept that a decree of language will unify the country is absurd. Those unable to step back and recognize what our country has been created from and what holds us together will flock together whilst driving those that can further from caring.
The only thing I can surmise is that in some twisted thought pattern, those arguing in favor think that by making English the national language, those that do not speak it as a primary language just won’t come here, which is laughable. The universal dream of coming to America to make it, pulling oneself up by their proverbial bootstraps hasn’t gone anywhere, but United States born Americans have never believed in it so dismiss the thought that anyone else might.
As you said, our country is built on the intertwining of culture and ritual from a variety of lands – changing that would change not only the core of our country and existence but the reason we fight for its founding.
Ok – my rant is complete.
Scottish should be the national language. That’s “change” I could vote for.
LOL! the irony of this debate in our political culture….I was in San Diego for my mom’s retirement a couple weeks ago and got into a discussion with my former teacher (who is now a principal) about his school and new things they are doing. they have a new initiative for dual language, where students will be taught both English and Spanish from kindergarten…
There are tons of countries that do this already, I am wondering that as more of these schools pop up what the reaction will be
The obvious problem is which other language do you choose to teach your children. Obviously English is first, but if are from where I am in the US (Michigan) then realistically you could teach them French, Swedish/Norwegian or Spanish and it would help them more or less the same in terms with interacting with the non english speaking locals.
We have french canadians who do business in the US all the time, those from Quebec really do appreciate you speaking french to them. We have locals in the UP who have been there a couple hundreds years who simply don’t regularly speak english (scandic groups that didn’t really “join” the rest of the US ever)
So arbitrarily picking spanish assumes that we will continue to primarily speak to spanish speaking people. But from a business, actual world interaction perspective….maybe Cantonese or Mandarin would be better choices. Or Japanese for that matter.