English as the US Official Language

There is a reason the "civil rights" groups work to prevent English from being the official language in the US. In order to become a self sufficient, successful person in the US you have to speak English. Self sufficient and successful people don't need the "civil rights" groups. Anything that reduces a person's need on the "civil rights" leaders takes money out of their pockets. Bigots of old times passed laws making it so certain segments of society couldn't become educated.. Bigots of today are far more evil. They don't make laws to keep people down, they convince the people that they shouldn't have to learn.

The USA should have English as its official language. There would be a lot less confusion and tax dollars saved by not having to constantly compensate for those who don't speak English. If the USA made speaking basic English one requirement for naturalization there would be fewer immigrants and the ones that did come would be able to become a functioning part of our society instead of existing here as a subculture. It would help promote unity among the citizens of the USA instead of division.

No, I don't think so. The Native Americans who were here first didn't speak English. Plus, there are a lot of people who speak Spanish, too.

You don't know how much I agree with you! I lived in a community were Spanish was the main language at least certain parts of the city. I would go to stores and occasionally ask questions to the store employees, but many of them did not know English. You would think if you are running a business you would want your employees to at least basic English, i mean Spanish is nice for a second language but you should be required to learn English. I would get so pissed at the employees because they couldn't answer a simple question, then of course my sister dimes in "Wtf, learn English your in America".... not sure if they understood that either. I mean its pretty bad when you Hispanic friends get mad at people because they don't speak English, oh I forgot to mention my community was predominately Spanish speaking. I think the schools there waste SO much paper just to write things in both English and Spanish, my mom gets so pissed about that. I know one time my friend called Taco Bell to get the corporate number and a person answered the phone that didn't know English. My friend does know Spanish but she wasn't going to speak it to them since they SHOULD know English since they were answering the phones. So all she got out of that lady was, "no" "yes" "ok" and "sorry". I guess it doesn't help either that my town has tons of illegals that are then thrown into job positions illegally and they wonder why their customers get pissed when they have to call over a English speaking employee all the time. Being illegal is a separate issue but it does tie into the English speaking gap.

I live 60 miles from the Quebec border, but, do you know what the second language on our auto checkouts at stores, packaging, etc are? you guessed it, Spanish. My daughter's high school reduced the foreign language department to one language due to budget cuts. Can you guess which language was eliminated? French. Can you take a wild stab at what the one language remaining was? You guessed it again, Spanish. I have lived in the north country for 25 years. In all that time, I have never met a resident who spoke only Spanish. If I moved to Mexico, I would expect to have to learn Spanish. If I moved to Denmark, by immigration law, I would have to learn Danish. I am sick and tired of being labeled a bigot or racist because I think English should be the official language of the United States. How many languages do we need to put on packaging? If one ethnic group can complain enough and get their language on a label, why can't another? or 3? Or 10?

I definitely agree that english should be the official language of the united states but i don't agree in the 2nd question... the ability to speak english makes you a human being, not an american... you don't have to be an american in order to speak english....

I am writing in English right now am I not. You wrote your discussion in English did you not. I speak in English and I bet you speak in English. When I turn on the TV it is in English. When I go into a business I speak to them in English and they speak back to me in English. Every founding father of this country spoke English. Every document that they penned was writen in English. I think you know where I am going with this, but I will go right ahead and say America is an English speaking country and that should be the law. Last time I check Mexico has an offical langauge, called Spanish.

i live in canada and we have 2 official languages (english and french) i believe that in order to even come to this country, you should know at least one of them fairly fluently! so i guess i agree with you on this one!

Yes, I do and I really don't know why anyone would object to it. If I moved to a country that was not English-speaking, I would learn the language before going! I can't imagine expecting everyone to speak English for me. When I worked at Social Services, we had forms in Spanish, too. When I was doing interviews, I asked a client if she spoke English and she said no. I handed her a form in Spanish to fill out. In a few minutes, she asked me what it said. I figured out that she did speak enough English to communicate, her problem was that she couldn't read Spanish or English. I think some people perceive it as an advantage if they don't speak English. I say this because one day I interviewed a client who had an interpreter. The next day, the interpreter pretended not to speak English when he applied. I wonder how much money local, state and the federal government spends on printing forms in Spanish? Whatever it is, it's too much. English should be our official language period.