George Rebane
Only lightly camouflaged conspiracy theories come to mind when I hear the latest reports of the government abetting efforts to again minimize the role of English as the prime unifying force in this wonderful polyglot that has always been America. The disunity and political strife in multilingual countries has been the norm over centuries of human conflict. The latest effort to cultivate this disease at home comes from the Obama justice department as reported by the U.S. English Foundation –
The state of Alabama, which passed an Official English law in 1990, is now being investigated by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for failing to provide court interpreters in civil cases for people who cannot speak English, regardless of their legal status.
In an effort to force multilingual policies on states wherever they see fit, officials at the DOJ are suddenly enforcing Title VI of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and claiming Title VI should apply to limited English proficient speakers in America – and if they succeed in Alabama, at least 40 other states could be forced to comply as well.
Title VI of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 provides that no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, however, the umbrella of national origin is increasingly being extended to cover limited English proficient people in America. As a result, Title VI is now being inappropriately interpreted and applied to force states to provide documents and services in languages other than English.
And all this is becoming an issue with the DOJ a mere 46 years after Title VI was enacted. And the timing of attempting to hamstring the states with this enormous increase in all litigation costs is occurring when the states are looking at over one trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities that are coming due. The mullahs in Teheran could not come up with a more sinister plot to poison our already fragmented body politic in a time of economic crisis. And we are to believe that this is being done by our own federal government at a time when it itself is in a state of historical disarray.
I interpret this DOJ action as of a piece with what has been coming out of Washington for the past year. Our first post-American president is clearly busy planning for the post-American world. The Progressive movement has been at it already for the past century. It shivers me timbers to think of what will be left of the America so many of us remember and still love when the post-American era comes to pass. For the sake of my children, I don’t want to hasten that day.
(The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. Amazon describes the book –
“This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else.” So begins Fareed Zakaria’s important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the “rise of the rest”—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.”)
