In March of this year, President Trump signed Executive Order 14224 establishing English as the official language of the United States of America at the federal level for the first time in our nation’s history. The order revoked an Executive Order made by President Bill Clinton in 2000 which required federal agencies to provide language assistance to people with limited English proficiency.

That Executive Order led the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to issue guidance for all federal agencies to offer documents, services, and materials in languages other than English.

In practice, the original guidelines were extremely strict, and required every agency to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access to people with limited English proficiency.

It is always so strange to see how so many Americans, particularly those on the left, go up in arms when America attempts to give itself some form of national identity.

It’s easy to point to every other major first world country on the planet to show just how different the United States is, and for seemingly no reason. In France, the official language is French. In Germany, the official language is German. In Italy, the official language is Italian. In Canada, both English and French are the official languages. As a general matter, there is no national equivalent to the Limited English Proficiency requirements that the Department of Justice originally had in place prior to Trump’s executive order.

The fact is, 78% of Americans speak English as their primary language, while 14% speak it as their second language. There is an extremely small number of Americans who do not speak English. Yet, all of our federal agencies have been required to invest millions and perhaps billions over the past two decades in labor costs and other costs in order to make their resources available in other minority languages.

Under the DOJ’s new guidance, the previous multilingual access rules will be minimised or eliminated for non-essential multilingual services. They have instructed agencies to review their programs and to determine which ones can operate exclusively in English. They have also required that any translations and multilingual support must be justified by law, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other statutes specifically which mandate non-English services. In fact, the DOJ has clarified that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act will no longer treat lack of language access services as automatic evidence of discrimination, rather there must be intent to discriminate.

America is a melting pot of all races. In the United States alone, there are over 500 different languages currently spoken. And a bit more than one in five Americans speak a language other than English at home, with the most common being Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

But here’s the real question we must all confront; Yes, America is unique. We are freer, more powerful, and stronger than many nations because of the rights we enjoy and the limits we place on government. We are a nation built by people from different lands. These are the foundations of our greatness. But being different doesn’t mean we shouldn’t define who we are.

Even in the Bible, in the story of the Tower of Babel from the book of Genesis, we’re given a clear illustration of the power of a shared language. After the Great Flood, humanity spoke a single language and worked together to build a tower that would reach the heavens. Their unity made them unstoppable, so much so that God intervened, confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. He said: “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” Their project collapsed because they could no longer understand one another. The message is clear: when people speak the same language, they can achieve great things together. The United States, too, is a nation with incredible potential, and we should recognise that an official, shared language is a strength, not a weakness or a political talking point.

Recognising some form of national identity doesn’t mean favouring one race, one religion, one culture, or one language over others. It simply means acknowledging that, like every other nation, we have the right and the responsibility to decide what unites all Americans.

Just as we are united under one flag, we should remember that it’s important to be united by one identity, too. Choosing English as part of our national identity is the easiest and most obvious piece of identity to recognise. It doesn’t exclude people of different races. White, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and countless other peoples speak fluent English. Only a tiny minority of people who live in the United States do not speak English. And it would be a complete farce to say that excluding that small fraction of a percent of people who live here and yet don’t speak the primary language of our country would be a means to discriminate against them. If an English speaker moved to a nation where English isn’t spoken, we would say they should have made a better decision. Why should moving to America not be treated the same?

There are currently more than 30 states and five US territories which already have laws designating English as the official language. At this point, this Executive Order is a mere formality.

Our founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written in English. Congress writes its laws in English. The Supreme Court, and just about every court in this nation, writes its judgements in English. Every single facet of government and business communication is conducted in English. So, to say that English does not define America would defy all logic.

* Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.


** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

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