Sides are drawn in fight over 'official' language

Battles are brewing in Massachusetts and across America over legislation to make English the official language.

While English-only legislation has passed in 17 states, a federal court in Phoenix on Feb. 7 struck down Arizona’s law, declaring that it violates freedom of speech.

Opponents of such legislation in Massachusetts are bracing for a bill filed early this year to make English the official language of the state. They believe the issue will be on the 1992 ballot as a statewide referendum, as promised by English-only advocates.

Proponents say legislation is needed to preserve English as the official language of government. They also oppose bilingual education, saying it holds immigrants back rather than helps them integrate into society and get good jobs.

Opponents say the movement is divisive, racist and is designed to punish and hold back those who are not fluent in English.

Large wins for English-only legislation are common. Most people think they are voting to help immigrants learn English and assimilate into American society, said Martha Jiminez, policy analyst at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in Washington.

And opponents charge that the real issues are racism, anti-Hispanic and anti-Catholic sentiments.

“English only is a very easy sell. Who can be against English? It’s patriotic,” said Sue Armsby, speaking for People for the American Way, a Washington group opposed to the English as the official language movement.

“What is not immediately obvious is the racism and divisivness in the call for English as the official language,” said Armsby.

A referendum in Lowell, which also asked that English be made the official language in Massachusetts and asked Congress to make it the official national language, passed by a 3-1 ratio in November. Large numbers of Cambodians, other southeast Asians, and Hispanics have settled in Lowell in recent years.

George Kouloheras, the man who led the Lowell effort, could not be reached for comment. He vowed, however, to push for English only statewide, an activity that a Washington-based group called US English said it would support.

US English is the prime force in the English-only movement in the nation.

Yale Newman, a US English spokesman, said allegations that the organization is motivated by racism, anti-Hispanic, antiimmigrant and anti-Catholic fervor is nonsense.

“It’s a phony issue. A deliberate red herring. The real racists,” he said, are those who advocate bilingual problems “which separate out ethnic groups and keep them trapped in their own language without advancing their English skills.

“The issue is pretty clear-cut. What are we talking about – preserving English as the common language of this country as it is today,” said Newman.

While US English has had success in the 17 states, the organization has also been tainted by controversy that erupted last year with the resignations of its president, and soon after its founder, John Tanton.

An internal memo written by Tanton in 1986, say opponents of the English-only movement, clearly exposes the hidden and larger agenda of the movement.

Tanton wrote that if US borders are not closed or more tightly controlled to keep out immigrants, especially Hispanics, “Whites will see their power and control over their lives declining . . . Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to be caught by those with their pants down.”

He was referring to the higher fertility rate of Catholic Hispanics over whites and the fear that Hispanics would soon become the majority with potentially explosive results, opponents said.

Linda Chavez, a Hispanic who was president of US English at the time, resigned when she learned of the memo. Reached at her Maryland home, Chavez blasted the Tanton memo as “anti-Hispanic, anti-Catholic, repugnant and inexcusable.”

Chavez, now a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, is writing a book on Hispanics and government. She said that while she still agrees with the notion of a common language, she believes the US English call for a constitutional amendment to make English official is wrong and said referendums on the issue “polarize and divide” communities.

Bills that have passed in the 17 states have not had a large impact because the additional legislation needed to implement the laws has not passed.

Still there have been problems, which opponents say point to the horrors that could occur if English-only laws are enforced.

– In Arizona, parole hearings for non-English speaking prisoners were postponed last year because the English-only law required all government business to be conducted in English.

– In Dade County, Fla., where a separate English-only law was passed in 1980, the fire department was prevented from distributing fire prevention information and hospitals could distribute information on prenatal care only in English. It took four years to have the law amended to exempt certain fire and public safety considerations.

– A school bus driver in Colorado, after passage of an English-only law there, demanded that all children on the bus speak only English.

– In Suffolk County, N.Y., a police sergeant hung up on a woman calling the station, telling her if she did not speak English she was out of luck.

“We don’t want to see those sorts of things happening here or anywhere else,” said Lydia Lowe, administrative director at the Chinese Progressive Association in Boston. Lowe has been active in English Plus, a movement formed to counter the English-only forces. English Plus promotes English instruction classes as well.



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