by Craig Andrews

Created on: July 11, 2008

Cultural diversity should be embraced but not at the expense the country's survival. As we all know America is a composite of cultures and until recent years primarily glued together by a common language. The ramifications for dissolving that glue may be observed around the globe.

In the formative years immigrants to US were prideful to take on the common language of English in their new home. The ethnic pockets existed where cultural roots were cherished and maintained, but people came together willingly in common language during business, school, and the workplace. This social cohesiveness served to help break down barriers of prejudice based on ethnicity. It may not have always been successful but at least it was a potentially workable mechanism. In a multilingual society ethnic groups may show disdain and even suspicion of those speaking in a different tongue in their presence. Beyond this, the requirements upon the primary and secondary educational institutions to satisfy multilingual curricula can cause destructive budgetary effects that ultimately drive up taxes for all. This fracturing of budgets for social programs different groups serves to promote competition and resentment when perceptions of inequality grow. When these perceptions fester over many years the pockets of ethnicity with their own language seek their own governmental controls.

Where has this been demonstrated with potentially catastrophic results? One of the major examples is Canada and the use of French and English as their languages. French speaking Quebec flirted with succession from Canada and having its own currency. The cost and inefficiencies of such a scenario boggle the mind. Belgium has a Flemish and French speaking population, and it's stature in the world has not benefited from its multilingual affliction anymore than Canada has. Clearly, if the United States doesn't declare and maintain English as its national language we are destined to repeat history.

In the US where local governments have tried to satisfy the foolish thought that immigrants shouldn't be required to learn the language of their new home, public monies have been strained and the benefits have not been overwhelmingly realized. The strains are felt by hospitals spending money on extra staff to handle non-English speaking patients, by schools paying for additional teachers for Spanish, by local governments paying for bilingual traffic signage and by governmental departments printing documents in two or more languages. Ultimately these strains are paid for by the average taxpayer, which helps to promote resentment of the many being forced to pay for the laziness or reluctance of the few.
Once a society becomes obsessed with a different fairness for each language group where does a country draw the line? Conceivably each ethnic group could demand its own recognition on public documents, roads, and governmental representation. For a country to move forward efficiently and competitively it must move as a team, while still allowing the individual to seek their own potential in the society's mosaic. America has allowed this of its immigrants. Now is not the time to mess it up.

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