English as the official language for the United States of America

English as the official language for the Untied States of America

 
 
I am American.  I was born in United States.  I learnt no other language than English, until I learnt French in school.  My parents spoke Polish and Ukrainian, but in the 1960s when I grew up, the conventional wisdom  in the United States was to be American, and speak English.

 
Does the United States need English as the official language?  First, what is an official language?  An official language s the language that is used in policy offices and for official purposes.  Second, and more important it is the language that is taught in school. And third an official language could be the language that is required for citizenship admission.

 
As big of an American patriot that I am I do not believe the United States needs English as its official language. I think the arguments for having the United States having an official language are strong and worth consideration.  And opponents could show examples of nations that have two or more official languages, such as Canada, with no catastrophic effect at this time, if anything makes the country more interesting. 

 
I would like to consider the official language debate from ideological based reasons. The ideology of the founding fathers was freedom.  I think the founding fathers of the United States did not care about such things as an official government of the United States language. They were coming from the ideals of the post enlightenment.  Their intention was to establish as nation based on the ideal of freedom, with the government minimally involved the lives of people.  “The government that governs least governs best”- Thomas Jefferson (natural rights). Coming from the philosophies of Rousseau (social contract) and Locke definition of property rights), to the founding fathers there was nothing ‘holy’ about English.  Rather, English was simply a means to communicate.  English is neither the language of God nor democracy.  Rather English is simply the international language of today, because it was spread by the Imperial England.   Many people at the time of the founding of the nation spoke many different languages, French, Native American, German, Swedish, Dutch, African, Swedish, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Spanish etc. 

 
The point of government is to represent the people, whoever the people at the time might be.   So if the United States of America makes English as its official language, its just one more politics media event that stirs the blood of voters, but I do not think has the intention of democracy in mind, especially those of our founding fathers.  All this being said, I might be wrong on this. I want to stay objective and open minded on this issue. Therefore, I am very open to hear comments about the United States and English as an official language.