Okay, online acquaintances know my position on this.

Trying to pass a law to make English the "national" language is a waste of time, energy and resources desperately needed in other areas.

First, even linguists have a problem defining what a language is. Shall we have a language police? Great. Just what we need. We're trying to come up with an internet police to stamp out "obscenity"! Great, again. Something that the Supreme Court couldn't agree on, and still we're worried about naked people online.

Second, what will constitute "non-English"? Tai Chi? Karaoke? Sushi? Enchilada? Falafel? One of the wonderful things about natural language is the ability to absorb new terms in a split second, including foreign words, either taking them directly (albeit usually in one, narrow context)-- talibun in Arabic means, gasp!, "student". "Jihad" has multiple meanings - not just "holy war". It can also just mean "struggle", especially the struggle of the individual to lead a righteous, holy life.

Charles Krauthammer in Time asks for English to be the national language, using his own bilingual, Canadian background as evidence why we need it. Read it. It makes no sense to me. I just heard an NPR interview where the interviewee said that the U.S. is probably the only country where it is thought to be a bad thing to speak 2 or 3 languages! AMEN! Laissez les bon temps roulez! Jetzt geht's los! Totsugeki!

Lastly, why now? Jeez, we haven't had a national language policy before, oh, that's why the U.S. is the worst, poorest, least educated, most technologically impoverished country in the world, right?

I really think it's just a reactionary, rightist distraction to real problems.

I want the next political wave in this country to sweep away all the useless energy diverted to struggles regarding such unimportant issues as gay marriage, national language, persecution of immigrants. Yes, I'm getting madder and madder. I'm not struggling financially, so I think I'll devote a good deal of my extra income to progressive politics.