Wilcoxson Bill Cons Oklahomans

A bill that would make English the state’s official language is nothing more than a GOP attempt to arouse hated against the state’s Hispanic immigrants.

The bill, proposed by state Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson (R-Oklahoma City), would designate English as the state’s official language and would allow government agencies to offer documents in English only. The agencies, however, could choose to offer their documents in other languages as well. Some social service agencies now offer documents in Spanish as well as English. This will surely continue to happen because of the quiet but altruistic spirit of the state’s social workers.

What is apparent about this bill is that it’s simply unnecessary on a pragmatic sense level. English is already the official language in the state and country. Why not just pass a bill that claims the sun is hot or water is wet or that George Washington was the nation’s first president? The bill merely plays on anti-immigration, especially anti-Hispanic immigration, sentiment among conservatives in the state.

Ironically, the GOP, led by President George Bush, has failed to bring about any immigration law reform during its recent domination in national politics. Conservatives, such as Wilcoxson, want it both ways. They want you to feel false and wasted anger against immigrants on a personal level by wildly claiming that somehow the English language is under attack, yet the leader of their own party favors a massive guest worker program that helps big business and keeps workers’ wages low.

These are right-wing fanatics now used to manipulating people with fake anger and wedge issues to gain personal political power. Here’s what Wilcoxson, in a bit of Orwellian Doublespeak told a Norman Transcript reporter:

""We all should realize the necessity of learning and using English as our common language. It is something that brings us together. It is that unification that I want to promote with this legislation."

Note the “unification ” comment. That’s rubbish. The bill’s intent is to divide us even further among ethnic and political lines. It’s one of these classic, GOP cultural-wedge issues that does nothing but play on the ignorant, misguided hatred of close-minded people. And then these same rubes support a warmongering presidential administration that will do absolutely nothing to reform immigration laws in this country because it might limit cheap labor for some big businesses.

All this local, wasted energy, ultimately tarnishes the state with a hick image that hurts our economic development.

What would be great is if we were all bilingual and or even multilingual, and there were no language barriers among people in this country. But that would mean supporting something as "radical" as studying other languages. That’s a concept that conservatives such as Wilcoxson, in their political hubris and anger, can’t seem to fathom.