I got a survey in the mail yesterday from a company called
U.S. English (note the use of the .org extention despite being a lobbying group.) Basically they are asking for money to lobby for a few bills:
HR 997 by Steve King (R-IA);
HJ Res. 43 introduced by Tom Tancredo (R-CO), a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the US and lastly
S 557 from Tom Coburn (R-OK) to overturn Clinton's
Executive Order 13166 which allows the government to spend money on translating ballots and other things. I also have a few more goodies and some of the questions after the flip.
First, let me say that I get stuff like this because I donate to my local Sheriff's Department and the company that they use sells my info to tons of people. But I like the cops, I have stuff I want safe (like my stereo and my street and my local parks) and I think that the folks in blue deserve my support so I keep doing it.
Anyway, back the US English folks: The letter they send starts with the alarming line, "America is rapidly becoming multilingual." No it's not. America is multilingual. Second, is this supposed to scare me? Am I supposed to pray "Dear God, please keep Jimmy and Sally safe and give me the guidance to help my friends and family and please don't let me hear any Spanish tomorrow."?
Actually, we soon get to the meat of the letter. Apparently the Federal government spends 27 million dollars a year translating documents. As they put it, there are over 1000 polling places that use ballots with foreign languages on them. And the DMV administers tests in other languages as well. This is what they're doing? They don't want Americans to vote or drive if they can't speak the language? Because you can't do either of these things if you're not an American citizen. How is this different from a literacy test?
Here is the stuff that relly pisses me off. Question from the survey: "Are you concerned that Americans are increasingly being made to adapt to the languages of the Hispanics, Vietnamese, Chinese, and other foreign-language speakers who are immigrating here in greater and greater numbers?" I think the appropriate answer here is "mu", but I said no because they didn't have a mu box. I speak English only. I can kinda follow general conversations in German and Spanish. I don't remember ever thinking I needed to learn another language to go to the grocery store or vote or drive or do anything.
Another question: "In the past, the federal government has used your tax dollars to pay for foreign language road signs. Do you believe this is a good policy?" First, no, they haven't. They used all of the tax money I've EVER sent in to buy part of one Patriot Missle that missed it's fucking target. Second, the only place I've ever seen this is in Chinatown, and that was so that people who wanted to go to Chinatown would know when they got there and could take a picture in front of a street sign that had Chinese on it. It's called tourism.
Anyway, you can call your reps on these bills or go and screw with the US English folks. There's plenty more hypocrisy and half truths on their site.