![]() ![]() Arizona is one of several states that have passed "Official English" or "English Only" laws. On March 25 of last year the Supreme Court agreed to review a case involving an Arizona law that would require public employees to conduct government business only in English. The debate was intense, acrid, and partisan. The vote was 259 to 169, with 223 Republicans and thirty-six Democrats voting in favor and eight Republicans, 160 Democrats, and one independent voting against. House of Representatives approved a bill that would make English the official language of the United States. The very idea of language as a political force - as something that might threaten to split a country wide apart - is alien to our way of thinking and to our cultural traditions. WE have known race riots, draft riots, labor violence, secession, anti-war protests, and a whiskey rebellion, but one kind of trouble we've never had: a language riot. ![]()
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