English should be our official language

Language has been a major area of debate here in the United States. Democrats have been pushing the idea that people should be welcome in this country regardless of the language spoken. Republicans want everybody to speak English.


Let me provide a quick heads up. I intend to use two languages to help explain the point that I am trying to make. Spanish is the biggest language outside of English for us. Icelandic is a far less common language. These languages are being used as examples. I am not trying to make broader comments about these languages.

If democrats truly care about the rights of those who speak other languages, then they can't treat speakers of one language above another. You can't tell speakers of Icelandic that they can't have the same services available to them as Spanish speakers purely due to their group comprising a smaller minority.

In order to treat everyone the same regardless of language, the government would need to accommodate all languages equally. They would need to translate all laws to Spanish, Icelandic, and thousands of other recognized languages. Websites would also need to be translated. All official government documentation would need translation.

To make matters worse, we would need to be more accommodating for things that have always started in English. For example, laws could be originally written in Spanish or Icelandic.

For a language-neutral government, English couldn't even be selected as an official intermediate language. You would need translators between English and Spanish, Spanish and Icelandic, and Icelandic and English. This would result in exponential growth for each language added. That's just the federal government. States would face the same requirements. For states, that would be a much bigger burden.

Imagine for a moment that you had street signs that had to be posted in every possible language that people could need. Not only would such a sign be an eyesore, but nobody would be able to find their language among the long list. For a driver, finding the correct language could be a distraction, and people could legitimately lose their lives.

Also along certain streets and especially freeways, important alerts can be posted for drivers. Currently, these are posted in English. In order to treat all people the same regardless of language spoken, all languages would need to be included. Some people might be around long enough to see these alerts posted in multiple languages, but very few would see the information needed because the language spoken by a driver would be unlikely to appear while that driver can read the sign.

How about other services? Should each post office, regardless of size, have to hire thousands of staff members to ensure understanding with anyone? Should public transportation include interpreters for every language on every single bus? Should this spill over to the business segment? Should any business that can't accommodate Icelandic be shunned?

All people should be treated as equals. From a global perspective, there should be no discrimination based off of language spoken. From a national perspective, this is just too impractical. I would even say it's impossible.

Even the Democrats, the party pushing for equality among those who can't speak English, treat people differently if their language isn't spoken by enough people. How much written by the Democrats has been translated to Icelandic? Compare that to how much they translate into Spanish. If you have two people, one who speaks Spanish and another who speaks Icelandic, do you honestly believe that they will receive equal treatment from the Democrats?

Personally, I believe that English absolutely should be our official language. Since it's impossible to treat all languages as equals on a national level, equality would be far easier to pursue with common expectations.