Economy

Au Contraire

By Sarah Brodsky on Jun 5, 2007

Rep. Brian Nieves has an op-ed in the Springfield News-Leader in which he defends his proposal to require using English in official proceedings:

If a town in Missouri decided to do official meetings in a language other than English, there would be nothing in our state constitution or laws to stop them. A person might say, "well, that would never happen in Missouri." I pray that’s true. But, I’m not willing to risk it.

First, we shouldn’t amend the constitution to rule out every scary remote possibility. Second, people who want to be convincing to others generally find a common language that everyone understands. I don’t stay up nights worrying about whether a town in Missouri may one day hold a meeting in Spanish, and I’m glad Rep. Nieves has no more pressing concerns.

Is English in danger? As we say in Aramaic, "the opposite makes sense!"

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Sarah Brodsky

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