S.I. Hayakawa, R I P

National Review, March 30, 1992 by Tim W. Ferguson

I. "Sam" Hayakawa made a reputation with his feistiness and left an impression with his gentleness.

I didn't meet him until 1988, five years after he had departed the U.S. Senate. He had been elected after facing down radicals at San Francisco State University. A lot of other college presidents could have handled campus bullies the same way, but they didn't have the fortitude of this five-foot-six Nisei.

The Senate might have seemed the perfect place for one of the planet's great semanticists. It didn't turn out that way. Hayakawa, by then in his early seventies, got a reputation for drowsiness. Not that there was much for a freshman senator to do anyway, except logroll for sewer projects and the like. To use one of his favored oaths, there was a lot not to "give a good goddamn" about.

After he was scared off from seeking a second term, Hayakawa took up a cause that had been a signature of his from his time in office, the establishment of English as the official language of the United States. Again he was pitted against the Left, in what has become one of the litmus tests of "political correctness." Formal recognition of multilingualism is part of the insisted-upon end to racism, sexism, and homophobia in America.

The wider public has never understood what is wrong with prescribing English for civic purposes in this nation. An initiative campaign that Hayakawa led to this effect in California won overwhelmingly, as similar drives have in a dozen states. Yet in the political culture, including some cosmopolitan conservatives, the reaction has ranged from skepticism to hostility.

I had come to witness a U. S. English meeting when I was introduced to Hayakawa. Although tired after an evening session, he gained enthusiasm in his characteristically soft voice while expressing a love of our language. In his case, at least, the goal was to share its power and beauty more widely, not to exclude. -Tim W. FERGUSON