English as Our Common Language

* Re the GOP platform officially recognizing English as the nation’s common language, Aug. 13:

English is the nation’s common language, and it will, and should, continue to be. However, the fact that immigrants, especially first-generation immigrants, often speak a language other than English is hardly new. During the great steel strike of 1919 in the Monongahela Valley of western Pennsylvania, posters urging the workers to return to their jobs had to be printed in eight languages: English, Polish, Croatian, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovak, Hungarian and Russian. No doubt the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of these workers now read and speak English.

FRANK S. MORRIS

Westminster

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* Re “Translating the Official-English Bill,” Aug. 9:

Either the law prevails or there is anarchy. Officials of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government have a special obligation to obey the law. It would be simply intolerable for them, respectively, to make, administer or interpret laws, and at the same time disobey any of them.

It follows that if the “official-English” bill takes effect, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) must either obey it or resign. She simply cannot be allowed to mail newsletters in Spanish to her constituents no matter what the law says.

VOLNEY V. BROWN JR.

Dana Point

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* When the United States was born and the Constitution written, our Founding Fathers could not speak with over a third of the citizens because they spoke German, French, Spanish or other languages. Despite this linguistic polyglot, the Founding Fathers didn’t find it necessary to make English the official language.

It’s possible the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego), knows better than the men who wrote the Constitution, but quien sabe? Who knows? James Madison, where are you when we need you?

RAOUL LOWERY CONTRERAS

San Diego