[backtothestreets]

Make English the official language of the U.S., via a constitutional amendment.

English is already the language of commerce. As such people seeking to improve their lives have always sought to learn the language, or insist their offspring learn it to have the best opportunity within our nation.

That formula has worked well in our nation for over two centuries. The proof is found simply by looking at a map to find cities with non-English names like Baton Rouge, St. Louis, Sacramento, and St. Augustine, it's clear that no Constitutional Amendment was necessary to bring the original inhabitants to speak English.

The absolute best laws are those which are self imposed, not government imposed. The economy of our nation has always brought people to learn the language of the land.

[Clemenza]

Its sure worked with Puerto Rico, hasn't it? The majority of the population speaks broken English, as a SECOND language. Their primary language is gutteral, Carribbean Spanish (the equivalent of patois or Ebonics).

Remember that 1. It took the introduction of mandatory public schooling and the banning of any language other than English to get the Cajun and Creole populations of Louisiana to start speaking English. In other word, it took government action to correct their behavior. As a matter of fact, little cajun kids would have their noses rubbed into the chalkboard if they spoke French. Would you like to do the same for the kids of PR?

2. The areas aquired from Mexico were largely uninhabited, with cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, to say nothing of East Texas, already largely Anglo by the time of the Mexican War. In those regions where the Latinos remained dominant (western New Mexico, South Texas) Spanish remained the language of choice, although, like Lousiana, the introduction of mandatory public schooling in English caused its usage to dissipate by the mid 1950s. It has only been in recent decades with increased immigration from Mexico that Spanish has made a comeback in the region.