The Senate continued in its raft of modifications to the Immigration bill today by voting on some provisions relating to English.  Lots of semi-panicked reports from the Lefty Press wants to make you think they did something radical… like making English the Official Language of the United States.  If you are like many Americans you probably thought it obviously already was.  But you’d be wrong because the multiculturalists have been busily beavering away for decades creating all sorts of laws, rules, and regulations forcing the government and just about everyone else to accommodate people’s foreign languages so they can move here but never be required to learn our language.  Multiculturalism is the law, and the Left is busily making this nation a so called "salad bowl" rather than a "melting pot" as fast as they can get it done.  There’s a lot of power for them being the representatives for a bunch of splintered "minority" groups.  Nice huh?

What did the Senate vote for today?  A bit of a half move in that direction, then a step back from that:

WASHINGTON - English would be declared the "national language" of the United States under a measure the Senate approved Thursday, a largely symbolic move that supporters said would promote unity and encourage assimilation by immigrants.

The measure would not reverse government practices of providing some materials and services - including voting ballots and emergency advisories - in other languages. But it would establish that people have no right or entitlement to ask government officials to provide services or materials in other languages, unless authorized by law.

Minutes after adding the provision to the immigration bill it is debating, the Senate passed a second amendment with less pointed phrasing. Declaring English the country’s "common and unifying" language, it specified that the "existing rights" under which the government provides bilingual services and assistance would not be diminished.

Lawmakers said negotiations with the House would determine which of the two measures remains in a final bill overhauling the nation’s immigration laws.

The first bill was initial going to flat out establish English as the Official Language of the Nation, but the proponents were persuaded it was just to "harsh" and "extreme".  Get that?  That’s the overwhelming accusation from opponents of English as the Official language.  That its mean, or harsh, or even worse "exclusionary and biased" to people of other cultures.  The Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D) said it is "racist", though its unclear what race has to do with language when the largest nation of English speakers is now India.

These accusations are made even though the cold hard fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of citizens speak English and that anyone in the nation who can’t is seriously harmed by being limited in their participation in our society.  The Senate couldn’t muster itself to finally do what should have been done ages ago and make English the Official Language because its…. mean?  To whom?

Surely not to the immigrants who will benefit for the rest of their lives by being able to fully take advantage of our nation’s many opportunities.  Challenging at first surely, but wouldn’t you expect that if you chose to move to a foreign land where they speak a language you don’t know?  Wouldn’t you rightly expect that you would need to learn that language quickly, and want to?

As for being oppressive or biased to people from other cultures who have come here to become citizens, well that’s just a loony charge.  Could you imagine, in a million years, going to live permanently in Mexico and expect for that entire nation to provide for you so you never have to learn to speak their language?  Or France?  Russia?  China?  Angola?  Any non-Western nation not plagued by the self hatred we call Multiculturalism?  Nobody else tolerates such things.  Why should they, it’s just crass and rude, to move into someone else’s land and refuse to learn how to do as they do enough to join them and become one of them.  None of the nations of the people who come here would tolerate it, and neither should we.  Its an insult, an overweening act of ego that hearkens back to the days of Imperialism.

What is racist and oppressive is the effort to keep these people separate, to isolate them from the rest of society so they remain vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.  What would people say if laws were passed which forbid immigrants from learning English?  It would rightly be seen as a tool of oppression used to keep them economically and politically weak.  The effort to "protect" immigrants from having to learn and speak English is just a hidden form of this tactic.

Requiring everyone who settles permanently in America to learn English isn’t harsh.  It is the kind and just thing to do, the right thing to do for everyone and especially the immigrant.  Fostering their fear of the new and helping them to form their own permanent ghettos is harsh, crippling their potential for joining fully as a citizen is discriminatory.

The Senate, the House, and the President should end this shame by passing a law making English the sole Official language of the nation, require all immigrants to learn it, and fund schools to teach it.  There’s massive support for this out in the country, hopefully they get the message this time.