McConnell Defends the English Language

Some welcome and long overdue legislation is emanating in the SC State Government. Here is the Charlotte Observer:

The head of South Carolina's Senate has a message he wants to send to non-English-speaking immigrants looking to use state or local government services: No hablamos español.

Sen. Glenn McConnell's proposal, among dozens of bills filed in anticipation of the coming legislative session, would require that all government paperwork and videos use only English.

"If you go in and fill out something, it's going to be in English," said McConnell, a Charleston Republican. "There's nothing unfair about it. They have to do what everybody else has done who's immigrated here -- learn the language."

Of course, you have the critics:

Printing documents only in English won't help people learn the language, said Raul Gonzalez of the Washington-based National Council of La Raza.

He called it discriminatory legislation that, if passed, would likely be challenged in the courts and end up costing taxpayers.

Actually, failing to encourage those who come to our country to learn our language and culture is itself discrimination, since you are saying Hispanic immigrants aren't smart enough to learn our way of life, like so many millions before them. Plus, those who support having a bilingual services are fostering "two Americas", divided rather than united, and encouraging future violence of the type some Europeans countries are enduring with Islamic immigrants.

My message to our legislators: this is not racially motivated but a way to provide legal visitors to our country a chance to enjoy the blessings of liberty. They come to the US for a better way of life, not more of the what they left behind.