English is the official language of the US?

Dammit WGB - I have agreed with you several times today

 

England created the sport and called it soccer. They, as they always do, appropriated “football”
fútbol from Spanish cultures. It should always be called soccer for those that speak English. And we should remind them that appropriating cultures is wrong, when they dare try to “correct” us!

 

Funny, but I’m pretty sure you have it backward on the timeline. England and Ireland called it football before other places, and France even banned it. Funnily though, if anyone in England complains to you about calling it “soccer” you can blame them as it came from England (shortened way of saying “association” in “association football.”

 

Lol....

 

I agree that language shouldn't be somehow enforced that you have to USE English all the time. But even Norway requires you to learn Norwegian to be a citizen unless you are either under 18 or over 67. It is a good idea for all citizens to speak the same language.

5 Ways to Obtain Norway Citizenship: Requirements for Becoming a Norwegian Citizen in 2025

 

I’ve agreed twice with you today on separate threads.

 

Thread reminds me of my MIL. She was in the US 40+ years, a dear lady that raised 4 great kids yet never really leaned English. Her broken English wasnt much better than my broken Spanish but we communicated. She relied greatly on her husband/family who all spoke Spanish.

Interestingly, she voted for trump the first time around.

 

good for her

 

A constitutional republic founded on a document, written in English, priding itself on being a nation ruled by laws--which of course, are written in English....

Declaring English as it's official language, seems about as common sense and overdue, as Declaring an intention to spend less than we earn/collect.

Thats coming from a second gen English as a second language lawyer.

No reason on the planet this should be controversial.

What's more, it should be law of the land, not merely a declaration via EO.

 

Well she basically voted for who her husband told her to vote for. He passed and I don't believe she voted in 2020.

3 of her 4 kids are well educated Dems tho.

 

And yet, Trump's Condos in Sunny Isles have signs all over them in Spanish and Russian Cyrillic. Go figure.

 

I think your last line hits the right note. Trump’s excessive unilateral ruling (something the Republican’s rightly criticized during Obama’s presidency) risks destabilizing some functions of society. To ask for a rational reason why some new law shouldn’t be invented is to ignore the possibility that there are parts of the world we simply don’t understand. To me, this is the greatest value of conservatism, recognizing the wisdom of institutions that have stood the test of time, even if we can’t explicate exactly what makes them work. I think Edmund Burke, the father of conservatism, put this well, when used the analogy of a very old building that had been built up gradually over time:

The old building stands well enough, though part Gothic, part Grecian, and part Chinese, until an attempt is made to square it into uniformity. Then it may come down upon our heads altogether, in much uniformity of ruin; and great will be the fall thereof.​

So I can’t answer why making English the official language would be any problem, but I suspect neither could you answer why it would be a problem not to do this. And if none of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, or Lincoln saw fit to interfere here, I think any president would be in great company leaving this alone.

 

I'm good with leaving well enough alone, but after the last decade and a half of the rabidly angry, hateful, destructive, malignant neo-progs looking to take a wrecking ball to everything, it seems mooring down certain pillars has become necessary--and certainly the very language that we share, which has indeed come under scrutiny (imagine how creative the twists of meaning of words can be made if we threw in the monumental flexibility of 'translation' into the equation, after centuries of jurisprudence already demonstrating the vastness of potential of 'interpretation', within the confines of a single language....)--is about as necessary as any.

And again--our nation is founded on a written agreement, whose terms are laid out in English, and which have been refined over centuries, in English.

Nothing could be more basic, more elementary, and more appropriate, than formalizing that which has been understood from the nation's inception, when we are infected with a cancer that seeks to attack our very being at every point of vulnerability it can identify.

I mean..."gay @$%$&n marriage" was oxymoronic forever... 2 genders was axiomatic, forever... "fiscal responsibility" has become a punchline ...communism was once rightly universally seen as a horror to be crushed, not entertained... God was universally beloved and considered not just good, but the very anchor of goodness ('In God we trust" our motto)... Islamists killing Jews, and antisemitism considered evil now defended by that aforementioned cancer...)...

On and on, the basic foundational concepts that we all agreed upon, have been attacked..

So yeah, declaring English as our official language seems a damn good start, to re-anchoring the pillars of our society, if not civilization itself.

 

Im definitely with you that a lot of the liberal program has not had proper regard for long standing institutions. But as Denis Kucinich once said, an eagle needs to wings to fly, and it was useful to have a party of change to battle with the party of tradition. While we can certainly find some regrettable examples of “progress”, certainly few would want to defend all of our nation’s norms from 100 years either.

Tucker Carlson actually made this point in his book, that the left historically was an important counterbalance to the tendencies of the right, but have recently lost their way. I think he may have a point, but I am also seeing the right make this same move. If the Republicans are willing to disrupt so many functions of society, even if in the name of somehow saving them from the left, we won’t have anybody left to defend the institutions that have stood the test of time. And I realize that you believe there is good reason to make this move, but all radical leaders have had good reasons for their actions too. One of the beautiful parts of the USA is that we naturally possess 50 small laboratories to try experiment with changes. Seems like many states are already on this case.

 

I don’t have a problem with making English or national language. It makes a lot of sense. My concern is the practicalities related to it. Will we suddenly stop making forms in other languages? Providing interpreters at critical services? Stop mirandizing people in other languages, etc.?

 

Everything was called football in the beginning. It's origins come from something called "Town Ball" which dates back several centuries. Look it up. It's absolutely crazy (see link below).


In fact, the might have a game of football where it was soccer for one half and rugby for another. Eventually the two split, and the word "soccer" was invented to differentiate it from rugby and reference the FA (Football Association). Was originally "a-soc" then became "soccer". Essentially short for Association Football.

Ironically, they now all wretch at the word they invented.

 

Designating English as the Official Language of The United States

Sec. 3. Designating an Official Language for the United States. (a) English is the official language of the United States.

(b) Executive Order 13166 of August 11, 2000 (Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency), is hereby revoked; nothing in this order, however, requires or directs any change in the services provided by any agency. Agency heads should make decisions as they deem necessary to fulfill their respective agencies’ mission and efficiently provide Government services to the American people. Agency heads are not required to amend, remove, or otherwise stop production of documents, products, or other services prepared or offered in languages other than English.

(c) The Attorney General shall rescind any policy guidance documents issued pursuant to Executive Order 13166 and provide updated guidance, consistent with applicable law.

 

It’s reasonable to have english as the language of the government

Business? No.

68 million in USA don’t speak english

 

100%. My grandparents came to the US not speaking English. My father didn’t speak English until the 1st grade - he said he was totally lost initially and by the end of the year was fluent in English too.

Passing all these laws requiring multiple languages makes things initially easier, but slows down access to the culture at large. We don’t require the use of pesos or lira and folks seem to pick use of the dollar quickly - because it’s part of the fabric of our society.