David

I'm not sure if the bill should be dismissed as "symbolism" because almost any talk in the past that has even attempted to officially recognize English has been thoroughly shouted down and dismissed as "racist." No amount of sober discussion of how proficiency in English translating into success in American business and culture was brooked. For the last several decades the ascendency of "multi-culturalism" has held sway in public schooling, academia, universities, major media and government. We have been told we must treat all "cultures" equally and that Americans that speak only English are snobby, racist, colonialists.

I live in Southern California where we have immigrants in large numbers from all over the world. Russian, Armenian, Iranian, Vietnamese, Tongan, Samoan, et al. Yet, it is our Spanish speaking population that got "bi-lingual" education in public schools...

and were promptly kept in second-class citizenship due to their inability to mainstream into English.

But any attempt (until recently) to mandate English-only instruction was met with a two-pronged argument ... the racist one, of course, and the other is that NO LAW made English "official" so all languages should be "equal" in America.

Pushing English as the official language should be on the right step to counter these arguments and make assimilation into American culture the expected norm for immigrants.

Actually I dont dissagree with you. I just think the bill as passed was halfassed.

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