NEWT AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

(sigh)

Yesterday I read about Newt Gingrich's recent push for legislation making English the official language of the United States. I was ecstatic! FINALLY someone has the guts to say what most of us have been thinking for a long, long time -- that individuals immigrating to this country should adopt the English language and immerse themselves in OUR culture. They don't have to abandon their own, but living and working in the United States should require them to be proficient in our language. Gingrich feels that all federal documents should be in English only and that citizenship training should provide ample American history courses. How can anyone disagree with this?

I've written about all this before, and I remain appalled at the extent to which we have succumbed to the Spanish language. Remember the Lowe's signs which have Spanish and THEN English? Remember the pizza place that accepts pesos in payment? Remember the companies whose answering services first say, "For English, press 1"?

I hope Gingrich's proposal elicits interest and that legislation will indeed be passed making English the official language of the U.S., and I further hope that the immigration debacle will be at the top of our list of issues to resolve. As soon as we figure out how to resolve Iraq.

(sigh)