English Official Language of Michigan, Really?
Who would have thought that English was not the official language of Michigan and the Democrats and some Republicans would vote against that.
I was surprised to hear that English was not already the official language of Michigan and most Democrats and some Republicans would vote against it. The Detroit News reported that Michigan’s House of Representatives approved a bill that would make English the official state language.
The bill is HB 4053 and it will require that English be the official language used in all Michigan public documents and in all public meetings. It is important to note that this policy does not prohibit state departments from translating official documents to languages other than English, but does require that the original document be filed in English. For your information similar policies have been adopted in 32 other states.
The bill passed the Michigan House on a 62-46 vote, again mostly along party lines. In the normal process of legislation the bill will now head to the Michigan Senate for consideration.
There were five Republicans State Representatives that voted against making English the official language of the state they were:
- Chris Afendoulis of Grand Rapids Township
- Thomas Albert of Lowell
- Tommy Brann of Wyoming
- Martin Howrylak of Troy
- and David Maturen of Vicksburg
I was glad to hear that there was four Democrats who voted that English should be the official language of Michigan, they were:
- John Chirkun of Roseville
- Scott Dianda of Calumet
- LaTanya Garrett of Detroit
- and Robert Kosowski of Westland
Why was it hard for these 5 Republicans and 41 Democrats to not vote yes on having an official language in Michigan and that official language being English? This really makes no sense to me. If the bill stated that Spanish would be our official language would these five Republicans and 41 Democrats have voted yes, that is the question I have? If they were to say no, then the next question is why not have an official language for our state and that official language be English.
By the way and this may or may not come as a surprise to some of you, the United States does not have an official language. Almost every new session of Congress someone has proposed an amendment to the Constitution proposing making English the official language of the United States, but it goes nowhere. That is very interesting.
Many on the left state that making English the official language of Michigan or even the United States is a divisive move, really!
State Representative Vanessa Guerra, D-Saginaw believes that this is a symbolic statement and:
This bill does nothing. It doesn’t change anything” it will “isolate limited English speaking citizens we all represent.
Ms. Guerra should we produce Michigan political documents in every language in the world that is represented by legal citizens in Michigan so we do not “isolate” them?
Someone should ask her that question and see how she might squirm out of answering it. If she answers no then she herself is isolating people, if she answers yes then the burden and cost to Michigan taxpayers would be outrageous.
Ms. Guerra was also quoted in the article stating that it was a waste of taxpayer money to even draft the bill and debate it in committee.
We should be ashamed to continue this waste
If there is any party that knows about wasting taxpayer money and in fact excels at it, it is the Democrat Party so maybe we should listen to her.
State Representative David LaGrand, D-Grand Rapids was quoted in the article stating:
This is a fundamentally anti-intellectual moment for this chamber…If we start to be a country that shuns differences and that we do not welcome diversity, which has always been a strength, this is a dark moment for our republic.
Diversity, diversity, diversity the magic words of the Democratic Party, that is all we hear these days. How about we start to look at similarities, why does the Democratic Party not want to promote assimilation into our country and culture, instead they promote separation, isolation and political identity groups. Should we not encourage our legal immigrants to learn English to the best of their ability so they can be productive members of our society? Yes they can be productive without knowing language but not to the best of their ability.
One last thing I would like to point out; these legal immigrants have decided to come to the United States, our country. Why should we change everything here to accommodate them, we did not decide to go to their country, did we.
I would note that if I moved to a different country I would learn their language so I could better assimilate into their culture, society and country. Why wouldn’t I, I was the one who decided to live in their country. Should I demand that country change for me?