[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 186 (Monday, November 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13354-H13355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       PRESERVING NATIONAL UNITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy on May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Roth] is recognized during 
morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. ROTH. Mr. Speaker, if ever we needed to be reminded of the need 
for America to preserve our precious national unity, recent events 
around the world have provided us with helpful reminders.
  The most obvious was the wake-up call America received earlier this 
month, when our great neighbor Canada narrowly avoided splitting in two 
over linguistic and cultural divisions. Canada may yet divorce, and a 
nation founded on many of the same principles America was, might 
actually cease to exist. Canada's continuing bushes with separation 
should be the red warning light that causes us to stop and think: Could 
our Nation fragment like Canada almost did?
  The answer is a disconcerting but resounding yes. Columnist Charles 
Krauthammer in a recent essay notes that ``Separatism is the single 
greatest political fact of the post-cold-war world.'' Today, it is 
increasingly difficult for diverse, multicultural nations to keep from 
splitting apart. And, as Krauthammer rightly remarks, the United States 
is not immune to the centrifugal forces of separatism.
  It is a seldomly discussed fact in the debate over America's growing 
disunity that countries the world over are dealing with similar 
problems. We are all familiar with the cases that have captured the 
headlines--Quebec, the end of Yugoslavia, and the fragmentation of the 
old U.S.S.R.--but this has truly become a global concern.
  I know this because I have met and discussed with a number of foreign 
leaders and academics on this very issue. In March of this year, I 
participated in an international conference on this topic at the 
University of Paris. There, I met with the French Minister of Culture, 
who had just introduced legislation to preserve French in increasingly 
diverse France. I also met other Western European and South American 
leaders who were preparing to establish national languages in their 
respective countries.
  It surprised me that so many nations around the world were dealing 
with many of the same concerns I have had about the disuniting of 
America. I probably shouldn't have been surprised; while our Nation is 
the most diverse in the history of the world, it is the hallmark of the 
late 20th century that almost every country is being enriched and 
impacted by immigration. With the advent of the global economy and the 
global village of communication and culture, the world has begun a mass 
migration of peoples that has no historical precedent. In a century, 
most--if not all--of the world's countries will be as diverse as 
America, or diverse nations will no longer exist.

  The reason is because most nations are not addressing the fundamental 
challenge of the 21st century: how to defuse the time bomb of rising 
nationalism and tribalism in a post-cold-war world market by mass 
immigration.
  The countries, whose representatives I met with in Paris, have begun 
to attack this problem. They are on their way to establishing national 
languages in their countries. They would join 87 other countries around 
the world who have declared official languages, 63 of which have chosen 
English as their national language. One of those countries is India, 
who recognized some time ago that in a nation where 14 different 
languages and dialects are spoken, one common language is needed to 
unite their people. They chose English, because of their colonial 
relationship with Great Britain, but also because it is the 
international language of commerce, diplomacy, air traffic control, and 
the Internet, among others. Ironically, India has recognized the need 
for making English their official language before the United States 
has.
  I hope the events around the world and the emerging global realities 
of the 21st century will convince us in this country that we need to 
act to preserve our common language. We have seen the future of America 
if we don't; I pray we don't have to actually live it.
  Congress should start to show the common sense that legislators the 
world over have demonstrated in dealing with the major challenge of the 


[[Page H 13355]]
21st century and join me in declaring English our official language. I 
urge my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 739, the Declaration of Official 
Language Act.

                          ____________________