The 30 examples presented by this controversial politician to justify his new monster are inexact.

At this time, there are 30 states of the Union that have declared English as the official language, but never as the only language, that is the so-called “English only.”

The list of examples of locations with English as the official language but not the only and exclusive language, are many.

In Guam, an American territory located north of Mariana Islands, English is the official language but so is the local dialect Chamarro. In Puerto Rico, the official languages are English and Spanish; as a matter of fact in 1952 the punishment to speak Spanish in public places was abolished in the Caribbean island.

Amendment to SB163

The obscurity of Terrill’s bill is to understand how the local congress accepted the proposal of the amendment of a law that has nothing to do with language.

Likewise the author of 1804 took a law that was a result of a previous amendment that regulates public meetings and teleconference calls.

The text of SB163 is relatively short, about four pages and two sections. The authors of the bill are the Republicans, Gus Blackwell, of the House of Representatives and Senator Owen Laughlin, both are sympathizers and voted in favor of 1804.

SB163 is similar in that it is an amendment to the 2001 Oklahoma public gatherings law; the connection presumptively found by Terrill to include the amendment of English only, will be available as a mystery movie script.

Local legislature requires amendments to be revised by a committee before they are submitted for voting. Here we find another incomprehensible situation; SB163 was submitted to the general and transportation government committee, instead of the rules committee as it normally occurs with these types of laws.

The committee that is currently studying the project has 15 members and only one of them voted against the controversial 1804: that is Alan Lindley from the Democratic Party.

Historical Lie

Terrill, fervently supported by a radical coalition, has started a crusade to obtain this victory.

Along the same line, the weekly radio station show of the furious patriots is spending the first hour encouraging its followers to call their representatives to pledge their support in this project.

In the news sites of the radicals, you can find different lies that show the United States remains united because of the English language.

This movement of English only is not new, and it was precisely a president of this nation who introduced it more than 94 years ago: Theodore Roosevelt; the furious patriots open their web site quoting him, “There is space for one language only, English”.

The falseness of this expression can be easily proved by checking elementary school history books: during the war of independence there were several languages spoken besides English such as German and Danish. It is a historical proven fact, not an incidental invention.

No other nation in the world pushes for single language legislations. For example: Philippines speak English impeccably and many are fluent in Spanish in addition to local languages like Tagalog or Cebuano; Europeans speak, on average, three languages. An example is the residents of Barcelona; their elementary schools teach Spanish, French, Catalan and English.

Oklahoma’s future

Nowadays, the new movement of the renovated version of “English only” hoists the flag of national unity, claiming that the glue that keeps America together is the exclusiveness of the Anglo Saxon language.

Oklahoma, a compulsive buyer of xenophobic products, is on the distribution list of hate in this movement.

The movement promoted by Terrill is rejected by serious institutions like the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), which in an official document dated January of this year, said that “trying to promote English as the only language is worst than the actions of communist people of the extinct Soviet Union”.

It is not about excluding English, in fact, immigrants learn the language and the following generations adopt it as their official language.

These are facts proven by prestigious and credible universities. Recent studies support this and in December 2007, the national language expert convention, held at Yale University, reached a unanimous conclusion about the positive impact of speaking and communicating in more than one language.

The shadow of discrimination is still darkening a state where numerous Native American tribes have their settlements and their ancestral languages will be annihilated.

What is being proposed by the English only law?

• To eliminate all public signs from official agencies that are not in English.

• To eliminate driving license tests in any language other than English.

• To eliminate customer service in any language other than English, this includes agencies and offices that receive funds from the state, obviously 911 and 211 will not serve people that are not proficient in English.

• To eliminate brochures, forms and correspondence of all official agencies printed in languages other than English. This extends to vaccination cards, voters registration cards, tax paying instructions and so on.

(Translated by Rosario Guerra)