Why English should be the official language of the United States

Introduction

The lobbying group known as U.S. English has been dedicated in trying to make English the official language. The State and Federal government is trying to declare English the official language.The United States has several problems but you would not think English is one of them. "Census figures show that 97 percent of Americans over the age of five are fluent in English." There are 23 states that adopted English as their official language. Newt Gingrich said," without English as a common language, there is no (American} civilization. U.S. English wants to reduce the teaching of bilingual education and replace it by teaching new immigrants instead. The real question is what the impact of the English language might be. (Human Events 1995)

Discussion

I think English should become the official language of the United States. It is very important in the aspect of getting a job. It is also important in the area of communication. If you can not speak English it would be hard to get a job where communication is involved. The example I came up with is law enforcement. Being a police officer would be much easier if everyone would speak English. The officers are now required to take more classes on different languages. These classes could be eliminated if everyone was required to speak English. For this reason especially I believe English should be the official language of the United States.There is no doubt that the United States is a diverse nation.(Campbell,12)

Meanwhile, it is also true that a common language binds a people. We need look no further than our neighbors to the north for evidence of what can happen without one: Canada is officially bilingual, which has brought about burden, conflict, and the prospect of secession by Quebec. This sounds far removed from anything that would happen here, but in our country's early history there was a real fear among Pennsylvanians of the language of German immigrants taking over. Had the government acquiesced to speakers of German, we may have found ourselves in a similar situation.(Grimes,78)

We can see the influx of immigrants. Generations ago most immigrants eagerly embraced English, certain that their future was dependent upon doing so and adopting the "American Way of Life." Today, many immigrants resist English and even U.S. citizenship. Many newcomers cannot speak English and some oppose learning the language of America.

Opponents say that we need not make English official, we should rather encourage non-English speakers to learn English. City governments churn out documentation in Spanish at a cost of thousands of dollars per year. This does not encourage non-English speakers to learn English. According to a Department of Labor study, churning out materials in other languages actually discourages immigrants from doing so. (Grimes,78)

Opponents also claim that making English official would be mostly symbolic. This is perhaps true -- it would be a very important symbol. It would send a message to all who want to participate as citizens that there are responsibilities ...