Date:  Thu, 7 Sep 1995 17:53:47 -0400

From:  "Christopher R. Coolidge" <ccoolidg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU>

Subject: Re: English-only



 Point taken. It's good to know that the Quebecois don't have a monopoly

on asinine language policies. Glad to hear you enjoyed Vancouver; it's a

beautiful city. As far as their bilingual signs are concerned, they're a

great courtesy to the occasional Quebecois tourist, but they're a rather

empty tip of the hat to the status of French as Canada's other official

language. They don't reflect the reality that Vancouver has maybe slightly

more native French-speaking residents than Haida Indian residents. As far

as sheer numbers are concerned, Chinese would be more appropriate as a se-

cond language, or Japanese.

 Though I could live with an official language policy if it happens, I re-

tract yesterday's statement on the subject. I'd rather not see any legisla-

tion on language in the USA at all. It's so tempting to think that passing

a law will solve an difficult problem, but it usually doesn't; I'd tempo-

rarily forgotten that. I'm all for some sort of official confirmation of

fact that a certain predominant language is the predominant language, but

I'd stop short of signing it into law. Besides, what if the Iroquois and

Cherokee, for example, had passed such a law on our ancestors?