The language of the United States of  America is English. 

It's been that way for hundreds of years.  For now let's leave immigration laws alone and step back and look at the language issue.

English is the language our Founding Fathers spoke.  It's the language our thousands upon thousands of troops who fought and died for this country spoke.  It's the language that immigrants that made their way to the United States for centuries learned to speak.  It seems common sense to me that if I'm going to go to another country, live there, and build a better life for myself and my family, that I would at least learn the language that is spoken there.  Respect alone would compel me to do that.  It would never occur to me to ask the government to translate things into the language of  my country. 

Here is where the problem is.  Somewhere along the way, in the last few decades or so, we lost sight of an important portion of what being an American, or living in America is.
We Speak English. 

That's not to say that large portions of our population don't speak other languages too.  After all, most all of us came from somewhere else and most of us spoke a different language, practiced different religions, and had many rich and wonderful cultural heritages.  These are all very valuable and should be preserved, honored and respected.  However, English is the language spoken in the United States of America, and it's the language that immigrants have been learning  for centuries as the language of the country they came to.  Respect your roots, history and culture.  That's your individual right as a citizen of  this country.  But you must learn our language.  English.

Here is an excerpt from a letter that Theodore Roosevelt wrote on January 3rd 1919:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American ... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...  and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."


Read another view on the "Mexican Standoff"


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