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February 12th, 2008 at 6:31 pm

English Official Language in Ohio? Soon Hopefully

in: News, Ohio Politics, Opinion

Score one for Bob Mecklenborg in his quest to retain the Ohio House seat that he was appointed to last fall. Mecklenborg has introduced a bill in the Ohio House to make English the official language of the state. I think Mecklenborg just secured my vote.

According to Cincinnati.com:

Mecklenborg’s bill requires use of the English language by all state and local government entities in official actions and proceedings. The legislation is not meant to infringe on each Ohioan’s right to choose their primary language for personal communication, he said.

Public state and local entities would be bound by the new law. Private organizations, companies and individuals would not be affected.emphasis mine

I have no problem with people speaking whatever language they wish in their own homes and within their own communities, but the state and the federal governments should not sanction the use of any other form of communication in its operations except English.

I think that businesses should be free to require that all employees speak English for the sake of safety and simplification of communications with customers. It is also my belief that businesses should be exempt from litigation when it only employs English speaking employees and requires those employees to speak English only on the job.

Something that I think should be required of businesses that have employees who don’t speak English is a sign, in English, announcing that the business has Spanish speaking employees only. For instance…

A grocery that caters to the Spanish speaking community employs people who only speak Spanish, there should be a sign in English announcing this fact on the exterior of the building.

In the same respect, it is my belief that anyone applying for government services, drivers licenses, state identification cards, citizenship, registering to vote, government contracts, government employment, government assistance programs, grants, loans, and filing their taxes should do so in English. It is nonsense to provide government forms in every language.

I’d like to thank Parker Novak for his email alerting me to this story on Cincinnati.com. I understand that he is on Bob Mecklenborg’s campaign team as a consultant.

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