further signs of empire

Faced with human rights scandals, trillion-dollar deficits, rampant corruption, and a rising death toll, our Senate finally decided to do something:

They declared English the national language of the United States. Or maybe the common language. Something like that.

Sigh. What exactly does this get anyone? Nothing.  Then again, what harm could it do?  Plenty, actually. From the amendment:

Unless otherwise offered or provided by law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English.

Which is all well and good until you realize that this opens the door to effectively deny non-English-speakers who are legitimately in the country any assistance when, say, facing the charge of, say, Driving While Brown.  Perhaps I’m just being oversensitive, but I’ve learned that it’s never too early to oppose stupid policy.

2 thoughts on “further signs of empire

  1. Grrr. What, is it illegal now to be anything but white, middle-class, conservative, and male?

    Strike that. I don’t want to know the answer.

    (Ooo, but if it is, then all the white, middle-class, conservative men out there get to feel like “bad boys” when they, oh, say, eat Chinese food or talk to women. So let’s not be grim! Someone’s getting tickled by this!)

Comments are closed.