By law, only US citizens can vote. By law, to become a citizen you have to demonstrate proficiency with the English language. If you're voting and are some immigrant who never bothered to learn English, a law has been broken there. So, what the hell was anyone thinking when they came up with the idea of bilingual ballots?
>>2
He's backing up his opinion, and I for one agree with him. It is pretty unneccessary.
> a law has been broken there
Which law, and broken how?
What if you're a citizen by default? (i.e. child of naturalized parents who for some reason didn't teach you English. or married to a citizen)
>>5
You should still learn English so you can understand the civic conversation and stuff.
>>8
Why must >>1 do your thinking for you?
> By law, only US citizens can vote.
This implies that to vote without breaking the law, you must be a US citizen.
> By law, to become a citizen you have to demonstrate proficiency with the English language.
This implies that to become a citizen without breaking the law, you must be proficient with the English language.
Therefore, if you are an immigrant, to vote without breaking the law you must be proficient with the English language.
>Therefore, if you are an immigrant, to vote without breaking the law you must be proficient with the English language.
However, the conclusion doesn't follow from this, as pointed out by >>5.
I suspect >>1 should get used to the US having a large enough minority that it finally will have to admit that English doesn't work for everything.
I have done my thinking. I am implying that >>1 hasn't. The ironic question is a classical technique in debate, ranging back thousands of years. It would do you good to learn of it.
Law does not work by logical deduction. Law works by literal rules, written down exactly. If you want to accuse someone of breaking a law, you have to point out the exact law, and show how it was broken. That is what I want to see, not vague statements and generalizations.
>>10 does not know how to read. "If you're voting and are some immigrant...", "if you are an immigrant...". Natural-born citizens would tend to know English anyway. After all, they would have attended schools in the United States, would they not? In any event, one really needs to speak English to enter the political arena here.
>>11
Excuse me for not knowing the exact name of the law involved. Can you not look it up as easily as I could?
There is no law and english isn't the national language.
You're the one making the argument. I'm not going to do your work for you. If you want to argue, you'd better get your facts straight before you start.
Now get going, and come back when you have something to base your arguments on.
>>13 is correct. In a few states (see: New Mexico) the state languages are English and Spanish. Thus, in these states, it would make sense to have the ballots in the two recognized state languages, yes?
A quite few of you here are so damn stupid, I can tell right off the bat that some have not even graduated out of high school yet.
Some of you are taking "laws" out of your asses so blatantly that even I feel shame for you people.
First of all, let's get one thing straight. There is no such thing as a national language. That means that English is NOT the national language.
05/19/06 Senate bill sets up vote on English language - According to a bill set up by the Senate, they are proposing that English be the U.S.'s "common and unifying language." At the beginning the bill called for English to be the national language but was later modified to what it says now.
THERE IS NO NATIONAL LANGUAGE! At least not yet, and this bill will not make it a national language either.
Now that we've established that the US has no national language, let's go over why ballots are in languages other than English...
A US citizen has every right not to speak English. A US citizen also has the right to have the right to vote in his or her language OF CHOICE! You want me to cite my sources? *** National Voting Rights Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. §§ 1973-1973aa-6)
The government must provide for Due Process and Equal Protection of law for all citizens, regardless of what their language of choice is. Also, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act clearly states that it is illegal to discriminate against voters based on their language. The government cannot discriminate against certain "language minorities." Membership in a language minority group includes “persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaskan Natives or of Spanish heritage.”
I would like to conclude by saying that ther is NO motherfucking law that states that English is the national language in the first place. Thank you. Also, >>13 and >>15 are right.
I have not even read this thread.
But all I know is, that English is the effective language of the American Government. "Official" or not.
The vast majority of those residing in this nation speak English as a native tongue and pretty much ALL official and legal documents, forms, and citations are in English.
That said, Bilingual ballots are stupid. Learn English or GTFO.
PS. English is not my first language, but I learned it because um...I wanted to live here and make it my home.
PPS Multiculturalism is bullshit.
>I have not even read this thread.
Do so now. Then think about your post again.
No. I won't Mr. 19 because I know how its
Cogent point about the necessity of the preservation of the American Way
Bleeding heart liberal whining and moaning about excluding assholes who shouldn't vote.
And then I came along and saved you all.
I also don't think everyone needs to vote. There are a LOT of people who shouldn't vote. Bring back literacy tests, it's for the children.
>>21
Amerika is not under the Cherokee government, so that doesn't exactly apply does it.
The point is that if we'd have followed the advice we're now handing out to immigrants, we'd have learned some native american language, rather than English. Maybe Cherokee, maybe Souix or Creek.
But really, translating text isn't a huge deal anymore. Babelfish can translate whole documents in a few seconds. With more proffessional tools, just about any language document can be created with minimal effort.
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