Online NewsHour: English as the official language

MAKING ENGLISH OFFICIAL AMERICAN LANGUAGE (House of Representatives - July 10, 1995)

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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shaw). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Roth] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROTH. Mr. Speaker, I was interested in the dialog that just took place here.
We Americans are very fortunate because we represent the most diverse country in the world. We are a people from every corner of the globe, every religious, every ethnic, every linguistic background right here in America. Yet we are one Nation and one people. Why? Because for over 200 years, the history of our country, when people came here, they adopted English as the official language. While we were from every corner of the globe, and every background, we are all Americans because we have this common glue, this commonality.
Today in America we are splitting our country up. We are no longer the melting pot, but we are becoming, as the anti-English establishment would have us, as a salad bowl. I don't believe America is a salad bowl. I don't believe in hyphenated Americans. I believe we are all Americans. That is why this issue of the English language is so important.
Teddy White, who has written "The Making of a President" any number of times from 1960 on, before he passed away, he wrote this book, "America in Search of Itself." He talks about as we come to the new century, to the new millennium, that his greatest concern is for America breaking up into groups.
Arthur Schlesinger has also written a beautiful little book I would like to recommend, "The Disuniting of America," where he talks about the cultural changes and, for example, what bilingual education is doing to American citizens and what is happening in America today. It is very well done, and I recommend that to our citizens.
Recently, I think, closer to home, right here in the House of Representatives, our Speaker has written a book, and for the people who read the Speaker's latest work, the Speaker understands this problem very well because in chapter 15 of the book, he talks about America breaking up into groups, and English as the American language.
The Speaker points out that there are nearly 200 different languages spoken here in America. He makes the observation that nearly all business, politics, education, and commerce is conducted in English.
We want Americans to have an understanding of other languages, but that is a different issue. I have 3 children. All of them have taken foreign languages or are taking a foreign language today. The point is, is that we have to keep our commonality and our common glue, so that if people want to speak one language at home or promote their culture, keep their culture, I think that is great and laudable and we want to continue that. But we have a melting pot here in America, so we do not break up into groups.
Look what is happening in Canada, where you have the heart being taken out of that country. Here in America, we have our country breaking up into groups and we cannot allow that to continue.
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Mr. WELDON of Florida. If the gentleman will yield, I would just like to share with the gentleman that my mother grew up in an Italian home and she learned to speak Italian along with her 3 sisters and her brother and they were all proud to go out on the streets and learn English. My mother went on not only to get a good command of English but to get through the public school systems of the city of New York and get a college degree and go on to become a teacher. She was a strong advocate for English as a common language in the United States, because she saw firsthand the importance of knowing the language and the need to know the language to be able to get ahead. She taught me the importance of what you are talking about. That is why I am a sponsor of the bill of the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Roth], and I am proud to be a sponsor of that legislation.
Mr. ROTH. I thank the gentleman and I appreciate the testimonial, because what the gentleman is saying, I think, is what many, many Americans can say, that when our immigrants came, they adopted English as their language so we became a melting pot.
What is happening today, thanks to the misconceived policies back in the 1960's, we have whole sectors of our society now being brought up in school in bilingual education. Most of the time the kids do not have an education in either language.
Mr. KINGSTON. If the gentleman will yield, I am on the Committee on Appropriations. We have spent a tremendous amount of time reducing spending. Along the way I saw a statistic that we spend $242 million, I think, on one program for bilingual education.
Does the gentleman know how much we spend totally?
Mr. ROTH. On State, national and local, according to USA Today in a recent article they did, it is something like $12 billion we spend on bilingual education. There is nothing that harms youngsters or holds them back, makes them second-class citizens as much as bilingual education.
We have got to have people melt into our society. That is why this bill is so important.

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