Op-Ed: The Case Against English-Only Mandates

It was recently reported by the Spy network that Queen Anne’s County Commissioner Dave Olds has introduced an ordinance making English the official language of the county.

After reviewing the legislation and speaking to several of the county commissioners, I can only come to one conclusion – – it’s a poorly thought out piece of legislation and will only have ill effects.

As a rule, I am generally opposed to English-only mandates. They reek of cultural resentment, by their very nature are intrusive nanny statism at work, and they’re aimed at stopping a largely imaginary threat. They are an utter rejection of all that the Republican Party, and America itself, are meant to stand for.

In a limited government society, language is simply not a concern of government. Just as we reject a government that picks winners and losers when it comes to cars or energy, it’s equally important that we not have a government that picks winners or losers in the marketplace of ideas.

A free society demands that the individuals that comprise it be free to choose – and part of that choice is language. That’s why we didn’t set a national language in the Constitution and why we as a nation have resisted calls to do so since then.

However, even if English-Only mandates weren’t an assault on individual liberty, they still would be ultimately unnecessary given basic economic realities.

English is the language of trade and finance. It is the language of some of the world’s most popular films, books, and music. It is even the language of diplomacy, given its status as one of the few official languages used at the UN.

That is why English is the global common tongue. Within the developed world it is either the first language or a near universally known second language, and even in less advanced countries there are still many people who speak English.

There is simply no plausible threat to the market imposed global dominance of English.

Which brings us to the ordinance in question. As I stated, I’ve read through the proposed bill and spoken with several of the commissioners. In both my analysis of the bill and theirs, the conclusion is the same;– seemingly nothing is changed by this ordinance.

The scope of the bill is limited to Queen Anne’s County government, so businesses are not impacted by the mandate, and there are so many exemptions and they are so broad, that effectively all functions of county government are also unaffected by the law.

That means there is no meaningful fiscal savings to the county from passing the bill. Indeed, there can only be one plausible purpose to its passage – to send a message.

Sadly, that is an ugly message, not one in keeping with the values that I always thought we in this county pride ourselves on.

It’ is a message that reinforces the message sent all too often over the past few years – “Queen Anne’s County is closed for business,” with the key addition that now “foreigners need not apply.”

Commissioners, please stand up for individual liberty and common sense by voting against this ordinance. It is a bad bill, responding to a non-existent threat, that sends the wrong message about our county.