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  • MONDAY MAY 22 2006 10:00 AM

They Should Have Called it an Irony Snare

Submitted by politicalsuicide

Edited by Rahodeb

As the President seeks to distract attention away from one war against brown people (Iraqis) to another (immigrants), his pals in Congress are pulling out all the stops. Last week, the Senate passed amendments designed to make English the "national language" and the "unifying language" of the United States. Over the years, there have been many attempts to do this, but with half of Republicans in a xenophobic froth these days, we're closer than ever to federally-mandated English. (For the President's own sake, implementation should be delayed until January 2009.)

Winning votes through racism is old hat, but the language debate has produced one of the finest examples of irony in the Bush age. After the Senate amendments passed, White House press secretary Tony Snow said:

"...what has come out of that is a description of English as the national language. And I think — and we have supported both of these.



But Bush's Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales on Friday had a different take:

"The president has never supported making English the national language."



And how did the White House reconcile opposing statements on language from two prominent administration officials?

Later on Friday, the White House weighed in to clarify Gonzales' remarks, saying the President does not believe in English as an "official" language.

"The attorney general got caught in a linguistic snare. He took 'national' language to mean what we describe as 'official' language.



Maybe it isn't such a good idea to elevate English when the Attorney General can't differentiate between "national" and "official," and when the White House press operation can't avoid the hilarious pratfall that is explaining the confusion with the phrase "linguistic snare."

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Comments
Westley

Westley

Vatican City
April 2004

MAY 24, 2006 07:59 AM

Max16Characters said:
I fail to see how making English the national language is racist.


I'm not sure who this response is for, but if it is directed at the story, that is not what he said.

aegies

aegies

Oakland, CA
June 2004

MAY 24, 2006 12:43 PM

Max16Characters said:
I fail to see how making English the national language is racist.



i fail to see how legally requiring someone to speak english is anything but.

Max16Characters

Max16Characters

Korea, Republic Of
March 2003

MAY 25, 2006 03:18 AM

aegies said:

Max16Characters said:
I fail to see how making English the national language is racist.



i fail to see how legally requiring someone to speak english is anything but.


Yes, it's clearly racist to require people who wish to become citizens of a country to learn the language. whatever

aegies

aegies

Oakland, CA
June 2004

MAY 29, 2006 10:58 AM

Max16Characters said:

aegies said:

Max16Characters said:
I fail to see how making English the national language is racist.



i fail to see how legally requiring someone to speak english is anything but.


Yes, it's clearly racist to require people who wish to become citizens of a country to learn the language. whatever



i don't notice a lot of people speaking native dialects here. nor do i see a large amount of caucasion people speaking spanish in california, arizona, new mexico, or texas. or any native mexican dialects for that matter. do any other first world developed countries require you to speak a specific language?

reprobate

reprobate

New Orleans, LA
December 2002

MAY 29, 2006 11:08 AM

Max16Characters said:

aegies said:

Max16Characters said:
I fail to see how making English the national language is racist.



i fail to see how legally requiring someone to speak english is anything but.


Yes, it's clearly racist to require people who wish to become citizens of a country to learn the language. whatever



Which language? This country was founded by the English, Spanish, French and Dutch, to say nothing of the hundreds of Native American languages and dialects. That English is the de facto language of this nation is an artifact. The overwhelming majority of our citizens are not descended from English speakers. There is no justification for it save jingoism and convenience.

s5

s5

STAFF

San Francisco, CA

MAY 29, 2006 11:40 AM

reprobate said:
Which language? This country was founded by the English, Spanish, French and Dutch, to say nothing of the hundreds of Native American languages and dialects. That English is the de facto language of this nation is an artifact. The overwhelming majority of our citizens are not descended from English speakers. There is no justification for it save jingoism and convenience.



And even putting aside the past, there are some areas of the US where speaking english does you very little good. It's only a matter of time until the number of english speakers and spanish speakers are about equal.

UpTight

UpTight

I'm lost
December 2003

MAY 29, 2006 11:42 AM

Of course if a white, English speaker went to Mexico and started moaning about Spanish being the official language, he'd be a "cultural imperialist".

Please folks - stop running your country down. Britain embraced this same self-loathing after WW2. It damn near finished us off. Learn from our mistake.

If you don't, America can eventually kiss its superpower status goodbye (which I'm sure would make the self-loathers very happy)



[Edited on May 29, 2006 by UpTight]

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