Couldn’t Have Said It Better
“I cannot imagine that the framers of the 1964 Civil Rights Act intended to say that it’s discrimination for a shoe shop owner to say to his or her employee, ‘I want you to be able to speak America’s common language on the job,’ “
Disaster relief would also be more of an effort if one needed a translator’s intervention before goods and services could flow and needs articulated to be met. I mean, we’ve all seen how Washington, FEMA and local goverments play ‘telephone’ during a catastrophe ~ they’re ALL speaking ‘English’ but there’s little comprehension as it is.
Toss a foreign language into the gumbo and stand by.
…After testy negotiations, the Hispanic Caucus finally agreed to let the tax bill proceed after extracting a promise from Ms. Pelosi that the House will not vote on the bill funding the Justice and Commerce Departments unless the English-only protection language is dropped. “There ain’t going to be a bill” with the Alexander language, Mr. Baca has told reporters.
Sen. Alexander says that if that’s the case, “thousands of small businesses across America will have to show there is some special reason to justify requiring their employees to speak our country’s common language on the job.” He notes that the number of EEOC actions against English-only policies grew to some 200 last year from 32 a decade ago. In an attempt at compromise, he has offered watered-down language that would still allow the EEOC to file many actions, but he says House Democrats rejected it.
I can only infer that the Democrats intend to compel me to learn a second ( or third or fourth) language to be able to communicate with a counter clerk with whom I’m conducting business. I just don’t see how that’s my responsibility.
Nanny State | tree hugging sister | 
November 19, 2007 9:58 am
Subscribe
More reasons why the government always creates more problems when it tries to solve others.
The government has no business regulating any language usage whatsoever, beyond providing interpreters for people in criminal courts.
Once we have the government dictating languages, then we’ll start getting language cops and then we’ll be no better than the frogs.
As for the root of this problem, this is more evidence why people should not need government approval before hiring or firing workers. It’s none of the government’s business who I hire or not. If I buy a restaurant in Texas that caters to Spanish speaking people, then those employees better be able to speak Spanish. If I buy a business that caters to English speaking people, then my employees better be able to speak English. I have no desire to justify those requirements to some idiot bureaucrat.
Exactly.
Mr. Cow strikes again!
(Pun: Vaca (cow in espanish) is pronounced “baca”…)
Baca’s a bad, bad word in Japanese, Mojo.
Does anyone remember the story of Babylon. It was brought down by a mixture of languages. Does anyone see the parralel?
Does anyone remember the story of the tower of Babel? . It was brought down by a mixture of languages. Does anyone see the parralel?