By Selwyn Duke
Papua New Guinea is a fascinating land. Situated mostly on the second largest island in the world, it's a place that's notorious for head-hunting and cannibalism - which was common there as recently as the 1970's. Another interesting fact about this nation is that its people speak no fewer than 700 distinct languages, giving it the distinction of being the country with the densest concentration of tongues. While it has many peculiarities, it does share at least one characteristic with dozens of other nations on our planet: English is its official language. Needless to say, English is spoken in all these countries because they were once colonies of Britain. But, why would these peoples want to embrace the language of their former colonial masters, of the people, using the lexicon of the left, who "oppressed" them? The reason is that there is a cultural imperative that is so significant, that it overrides any feelings of bitterness that colonization might have engendered. These people realize that if they are going to be one people, there must be a cultural glue that will bind them together. And they know that a central ingredient of that glue is a common language.
Of course, practically speaking, English is the best possible choice for an official language. It has just overtaken Chinese in the number of speakers worldwide; 60% of the world's scientific and technical journals are published in English; 80% of the world's mail is written in English; 85% of language students world-wide choose English as their second language; 90% of resources on the World Wide Web are available in English, and 59 countries have designated English as their official or co-official language. There is one country that is not among them though, and what country is that? You guessed it: the United States. And what's ironic, but not at all funny, is that while these nations are striving for linguistic unity, the US is foolishly moving in the exact opposite direction.
Yes, here in the states we are not only failing to maintain the primacy of our erstwhile common language but are actually proactively undermining it, and in the process are ensuring greater division in the future. A good example of this balkanization of America is the new bilingual government newsletter being put out by the Westchester County, New York, government. It's printed in Spanish as well as English, and its purpose is to help people who haven't bothered to learn our language avail themselves of our tax dollars by explaining to them all the government programs that are at their disposal. Now, Westchester is a very liberal area, but sadly, this simply mirrors the insanity that is occurring all across our nation as our tax dollars are used to print government documents in Spanish. In other words, our money is being used to destroy our culture.
The stupidity of these programs is perhaps only outstripped by their unfairness. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this is the exercise of an invidious double-standard. After all, we've seen immigrant groups of many different stripes arrive on these shores, and they were all expected to assimilate into the culture. This entailed learning the language of the land, and this just norm was never questioned; people instinctively understood that when in Rome, do as the Romans do. This is why we expected German-speakers to learn English, despite the fact that one out of every seven people in this nation has German blood in him making it the most common bloodline in America. But now, all of a sudden, we're acting as if it's our obligation to not only welcome foreigners to our shores, but to bend over backwards and adopt part of their culture as well.
Now, this issue could very easily be framed as an us vs. them scenario, where those who embrace English are pitted against Spanish-speakers. But it doesn't have to be. What has to be understood is that having a common language benefits ALL Americans. We all are sailing aboard this ship; therefore, if we do something that will eventually sink it, we will all be plunged into the depths together.
If it's so easy to understand that promoting Spanish on our soil is deleterious to the fabric of our culture, why do so many politicians advocate it? Very simply, they're pandering to the Hispanic vote. In typical sell-your-soul style, these sorry excuses for statesmen are willing to sell their country down the river for another term in office. They only get away with it though, because most of us say nothing about it. In politics, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and, those who grease the politicians get them to squeak in their favor. This is why this attack on our culture probably will never be blunted - the ever-shrinking silent majority rarely even makes a peep. Most of us don't know about what's truly occurring, don't really care, or have such weak character that we're afraid to oppose those who would call us names for standing for what's right. This is why Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Sadly, that's exactly what most of us do.
