The Balkans, U.S.A - judge strikes down Arizona law making English the official language

National Review, March 5, 1990

The Balkans, U.S.A.

FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGE in Phoenix recently struck down an amendment to the Arizona constitution making English the language "of all government functions and actions," adding a new kink to the tangled question of bilingualism.

America has traditionally tolerated a degree of local option. The official languages of the state of Hawaii are English and Hawaiian; when you drive north from Boston, you encounter great green signs proclaiming "WELCOME TO" and, in lower case, "Bienvenue a'" New Hampshire. The market has also been relied upon to speak to people in the tongues they want and need. Recent proposals, in southern California, to require English on private commercial signs are clearly out of line. But the supermarket manager who suspended a cashier in Miami for speaking Spanish on the job was equally within his rights; if it hurts his business, that's his problem.

The Arizona law, however, was meant to address the issue of national cohesion at the level of politics. The problem is real. America has experienced waves of immigration in the past. What is new today is a political program of de-assimilation: the assertion that newcomers have nothing to learn about the society they wish to join-that the necessity of learning is, in fact, an infringement of their rights.

The practical effects of such aggressive parochialism would be cultural apartheid. That doesn't bother the operators who insist that Spanish or oriental languages be given parity with English. A balkanized America would give them built-in political leverage.

The cutting edge of the bilingualism issue is education. The obvious solution is immersion in English since immersion is the quickest way to learn any language. Teaching children math in Spanish ensures they will spend their lives in the Rio Grande Valley.

State-enforced pluralism may be inspected in Yugoslavia. The United States, which has far more ethnic groups, has so far managed to avoid that fate.