Iowa makes English official; advocates believe that English is the glue that unites social groups and nurtures civic responsibility

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 1, 2002 | by August Gribbin

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack has signed a bill into law declaring English the state's official language of government proceedings, making it the 10th state since 1995 to enact such legislation and the 27th overall. "I recognize that the bill is not without controversy," says Vilsack, a Democrat up for re-election next year. "My hope is that we will look beyond the controversy and put politics behind us so we can focus on our commitments and responsibility to improve education for all our children."

Eighty-one percent of Iowans support the measure, which lawmakers developed during two years of debate. But the influential Des Moines Register has labeled it "an embarrassment" and "an exercise in arrogance" perpetuated by a "bunch of yahoos in the Legislature." Certain activists in both political parties and across the social spectrum find the notion repulsive. Some say it is thinly veiled racism.

The reaction in Iowa reflects the situation in the nation. Polls repeatedly have shown that Americans like the idea of designating English the nation's official language, especially if the legislation is written in a way that doesn't deride those who can't speak the language.

The movement's harshest critics say the effort is pursued by bigots who oppose immigration and feel threatened by diversity. The American Civil Liberties Union calls English-only laws an abridgment of the rights of those who are not proficient in the language. Its literature contends that the laws "perpetuate false stereotypes of immigrants and non-English speakers" and are "contrary to the spirit of tolerance and diversity" of the Constitution.

"The people feel as intensely as ever about making English the official language," says Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of English First, a 150,000-member nonpartisan and nonprofit advocacy group. "Bills to make it so are being introduced all the time in Congress and in the states because four out of five Americans favor it." But the federal government is pushing multilingualism, Boulet says, and as long as it does state laws won't be enforced.

English First has targeted Executive Order 13166, a Clinton-administration proclamation that calls for "improving access to services for persons with limited English proficiency." Under the mandate, the government provides funds and an array of services for persons who do not speak English. Opponents say the order is inordinately expensive to enforce and has proved impossible to execute effectively -- there are just too many immigrants speaking too many different languages and too few translators. Additionally, they argue that the Clinton decree is counterproductive because it reduces immigrants' incentive to learn English and fosters the fragmentation of society.

The argument is an old one. Benjamin Franklin used it when writing in favor of an English-only America. In 1780, John Adams suggested that the Continental Congress create an academy to "purify, develop and dictate usage" of English. Theodore Roosevelt made an argument often quoted by English-only proponents, saying: "The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also learn one language, and that language is English."

State laws establishing English as the official language vary considerably in their provisions. Generally, they require that all official documents be presented in English. But some states prohibit government agencies from doing business in languages other than English. Others limit bilingual-education programs and disallow courtroom translators and multilingual emergency hot lines.

The Iowa law orders that all state and local government documents, proceedings and publications be in English. But it makes exceptions for driver's licenses, language instruction, population counts and documents related to commerce, tourism and public health.

AUGUST GRIBBIN WRITES FOR Insight's SISTER DAILY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.