Official Language

Should English be the "official" language of Maryland? That's the question being considered by the General Assembly this session in what has become an annual ritual in Annapolis. Efforts by U.S. English, the lobbying group pushing the measure, to make English the "official" language of state and local PTC government in Maryland have gotten nowhere in the past. But this year a bill to put the question to voters on a referendum in November made it out of committee onto the House of Delegates floor.

LEGISLATION that would make English the official language of Maryland is working its way through the General Assembly for the umpteenth time.People used to laugh at this measure but today it has to be taken seriously: It has passed the House, though its prospects in the Senate may be dim.The bill would require state and local governments to publish documents and conduct meetings in English, just as they do now. It makes no sense. We do not need it. Nowhere in Maryland is the use of English in jeopardy.

Auckland, New ZealandPopulation: 1,600,000Official languages: English, MaoriWeather: Marine West Coast, average temperature range 50 to 86Government: Parliamentary democracyHistory: Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, contains 14 extinct volcanoes and is the site of an old fort that provides fine views of the harbor.Tidbit: Auckland is called the City of Sails because it has more than 120,000 boats in the water.Sao Sebastiao, BrazilPopulation: 40,000Official language: PortugueseWeather: Humid subtropical, average temperature range 50 to 86Government: Federal republicHistory: Sao Sebastiao is 361 years old, with a city center full of 17th century buildings, many of them constructed with indigenous materials such as seashells.

Southampton, EnglandPopulation: 796,864Official language: EnglishGovernment: Constitutional monarchyWeather: Marine West Coast, average temperature range 30 to 60 degreesHistory: Southampton has been England's gateway to the world for centuries, an embarkment point for armies from the Middle Ages to D-Day.Tidbit: The Mayflower began its voyage to the New World from Southampton.Cape Town, South AfricaPopulation: 1,911,521Government: Constitutional democracyWeather: Mediterranean, average temperature range 55 to 75Official language: English, AfrikaansHistory: Capetown is the oldest city in South Africa, established in 1652, and the nation's parliamentary capital.

The extraordinary event happened in a classroom at one of those much maligned Baltimore City public schools. In the first semester of the 1996-1997 school year, Lamar Shields' Spanish class wrote a children's book with a multicultural theme.On Monday, most of that class came on their own time - some even gave up lunch - to discuss the book, "The First Day of School." The 26 Baltimore City College students wrote the story themselves. Rodney Kitchen and Sean Dorsey handled the color illustrations.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court backed off yesterday from the debate over whether to make English the official language, leaving the constitutionality of the idea uncertain for another year or more.Acting unanimously, the court dismissed an Arizona case that questions the power of states and the federal government to require English as the only language for government actions or programs. The court's move could reinstate an English-only law in Arizona.The challenge to the Arizona law, the court said, was procedurally flawed and thus should never have reached the Supreme Court.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- We the People. Nosotros el Pueblo. Do the words have any less power in Spanish than in English?Today, September 17, is Constitution Day -- the anniversary of the signing of that document in 1787 -- and it is also Citizenship Day. It is a time to reflect on what being an American citizen actually means.To many people, it means speaking English. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court punted on the issue in Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona, dismissing the case on procedural grounds.

VATICAN CITY -- For more than 1,500 years, Latin was the language of the educated Western world. It was the repository of scholarship, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and the tongue in which even the uneducated whispered their prayers.But it is in important ways an endangered language even among the cardinals and bishops of the church.The Rev. Reginald Foster, an American Carmelite priest, is one of the Vatican's chief Latin scholars and teaches the language at the Pontifical Gregorian University, an elite church school that trains potential cardinals and popes.

Immigrants always preferred own languageThere is much argument, pro and con, concerning bilingualism and the adoption of English as the official language of the United States.Americans are very much aware, and some quite annoyed, by the pervasiveness of foreign languages in the media today, with foreign-language programs on radio and television and foreign-language print material available in most big cities.One of the most frequently heard comments is, ''My grandparents came from Europe and they had to learn English.

"THIS USED to be a nice place until they came. Every boat brings another load of them. They're dirty. They're lazy. They drink too much and breed huge families. They fight all the time. The truth is not in them. They practice weird religious rites. They're clannish. And they're snapping up all the jobs for themselves.''If you're Irish, this is pretty much what was said about your ancestors when they first tried to make lives for themselves in this country.It goes on still. A city councilwoman in New York complains that hordes of Asians are upsetting the settled balance of her district.

Ah, a columnist's dilemma: Which of two stories about Sen. Barack Obama should I do for this week? Do I go with the one about Jesse Jackson, Obama and what Jackson said about Obama's genitalia? Oh, it's tempting. Jackson making a fool of himself is always fodder for any columnist, and the good reverend hit the mother lode of foolery this week. Jackson was miffed at what he said was Obama's "talking down" to black people. Then the reverend - what church would have this guy as a pastor continually baffles me - uttered into what he thought was a closed microphone that he'd like to cut off two of Obama's body parts.

Language is a difficult subject to discuss dispassionately because it's our essence. So when two languages come cheek to jowl, as English and Spanish have in the United States, it becomes a hot issue. As Chicano poet Gloria Anzaldua wrote in Borderlands: La Frontera: "So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. I am my language." Linguistic terrorism has plagued children of immigrants and Native Americans for generations. Alberto Alvaro R?os wrote in his book Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir: "If speaking Spanish is bad, and our parents speak Spanish, then they must be bad," he concluded, "and we became ashamed of them."

The Story of French Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow St. Martin's Press / 483 pages / $25.95 Once the world's pre-eminent language, today French ranks only ninth among the top 15 languages. Although French is spoken by about 175 million people, called francophones, and is an official language in 41 countries, most of them members of an organization called La Francophonie, it's far behind Chinese, Hindi, Spanish and English, and on a par with Portuguese. In The Story of French, Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow cover the people, places and events behind the rise and fall of the French language.

With Democrats capturing both houses of Congress, the odds appear to be dimming for passage of a Republican-sponsored measure to make English the official national language -- but more states and, increasingly, towns and cities are passing such measures. "These things have been kicking around in Congress since the 1980s," said Dennis Baron, a University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign linguistics professor. "But now it's the kind of the thing we're starting to see more at the municipal level, not just at the state legislature."

Antonino LoBue didn't need a law to force him to learn English when he moved to this country from Belgium 22 years ago. The same drive that motivated him to adapt to his new country's language brought him five years later to Taneytown, where he bought a small pizza parlor and transformed it into one of the most popular restaurants in town. But the Taneytown resident doesn't understand why his City Council voted 3-to-2 Monday night to become the first municipality in Maryland to make English its official language.

Taneytown became the first municipality in Maryland to pass a resolution declaring English its official language but stopped short last night of a proposed change to the city charter that had drawn criticism from civil rights groups and some residents. Mayor W. Robert Flickinger said the nonbinding English Language Unity resolution was preferable to a change in the charter, which would have been costly to implement and probably would have drawn lawsuits. Had the charter been amended, "you're stuck with it," he said.

A proposal to make the small Carroll County city of Taneytown the first in Maryland with English as its official language has drawn fire from critics who say it might violate state law. The resolution, scheduled for discussion by the City Council tonight and possibly for a vote Monday, was submitted by Councilman Paul Chamberlain Jr. It would require all city government business to be conducted in English. "Most people are not aware that English isn't the official language of the United States," Chamberlain said yesterday.

A controversial proposal by a Taneytown councilman to make English the official language of the small Carroll County city has created a division among local officials similar to issues being confronted by state and federal lawmakers. The resolution, introduced by Councilman Paul E. Chamberlain Jr., would ensure that city government business is conducted in English, but would not affect language and translation provisions required by state and federal laws. The proposal has stalled until the City Council receives results from a planned survey of residents.

Consider continent's first real languages What considerations do you think the government should give to residents who don't speak English? Here are readers' views:It's ironic that those who settled North America and had little regard for the ways and language of the indigenous peoples would feel that English is the proper language for the United States. Is there any wonder why I as a Cherokee would see this as just a tad hypocritical? Rather than turn this into a screed against the original settlers, please allow me to point out that English wasn't the first language of the land now known as the United States.

ISSUE: A bill by Del. Patrick L. McDonough, a 7th District Republican, that would have designated English as the official language and required state and local governments to publish documents in English was killed in committee recently. PRO: Ability to understand English as a common language is essential for citizens to participate in the governmental process in the United States. CON: According to the 2000 census, about 13 percent of Maryland residents speak a language other than English at home, and the government has a duty to provide services to these people without regard to language.