[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 52 (Thursday, May 4, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4030-S4031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      RECITING OR SINGING STATEMENTS OF NATIONAL UNITY IN ENGLISH

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I am here today because I may have 
misunderstood the actions on the other side of the aisle. Something 
rather surprising has occurred. It would appear from their actions that 
my colleagues in the Democratic Party seem to believe that we ought to 
sing the national anthem, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and take the 
oath of citizenship in this country in something other than our common 
language, English.
  Here is why I say that. On Monday, along with several other Senators, 
I introduced a very simple resolution, a resolution affirming that 
statements of national unity, especially the Pledge of Allegiance and 
the national anthem, ought to be recited or sung in our common 
language, English. That is all it says.
  Let me read the relevant part of the resolution. It says:

       Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, that the Senate affirms that statements or songs 
     that symbolize the unity of the Nation, including the 
     National Anthem, the Oath of Allegiance sworn by new United 
     States citizens, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of 
     the United States, should be recited or sung in English, the 
     common language of the United States.

  This is not a resolution about what we are free to do in the United 
States; this is about what we ought to do in the United States. It is 
very straightforward. It does not infringe on anyone's right to free 
speech, or prohibit translation. It does not say Americans should not 
learn a second language. In fact, I encourage our children to learn a 
second language or even a third language to better compete in this 
global economy.
  The resolution does say that we believe that we Americans ought to 
recite the pledge and sing ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' and other 
statements and songs that unite us as a Nation in the language that 
unites us as a Nation, English.
  Last Monday, every Senate office received a request for the 
resolution to be passed by unanimous consent. I would not expect this 
resolution to just be bipartisan, I would expect it to easily be 
unanimous. That request was agreed to by every Republican, but on the 
other side someone objected.
  Should I assume that the Democratic side objected because they 
believe we Americans should, at least some of the time, sing our 
national anthem in Spanish or some other foreign language? Do they 
believe we should recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Chinese, which is 
the second most spoken foreign language in the United States?
  This is important. It is important enough that we inscribed in this 
Chamber, above the Presiding Officer, our original motto for this 
country: ``One from many.'' It is not ``Many from one.'' Our greatest 
accomplishment as a country is not our diversity, which is a 
magnificent achievement; our greatest accomplishment is we have taken 
all of this diversity and made it into one country. And we have a few 
things that unite us: our common history, the principles of our 
founding documents, and our common language. If we should lose that, we 
would be a United Nations, not the United States of America.
  This is important because this is the emotion which underlies most of 
the immigration debate we are having. The concern among many Americans, 
other than the rule of law which has to do with securing the border, is 
to make sure that those who come to our country become Americans. And 
we do not do that by race, we do not do that by ethnicity, we do not do 
that by what country an immigrant comes from, we do it by a few simple 
uniting ideas: our founding documents, our common history, and our 
common language.
  This has been true for a long time in our country. When a legal 
immigrant comes to the United States--and this has been the law for 100 
years--and he or she applies to become a citizen, he

[[Page S4031]]

or she must, by law, demonstrate an eighth grade level of understanding 
of the English language.
  It was 150 years ago we founded common schools. We call them public 
schools today. Albert Shanker, the former head of the American 
Federation of Teachers, said the reason for the common school was so we 
could teach mostly immigrant children to read and write in English, to 
do math, and what it means to become an American, with the hope they 
would go home and teach their parents.
  We have always known it is important as Americans to have a common 
language because that is how we can communicate with one another. 
Immigrants to our country understand this. That is why they come here. 
They want to be part of our country that shares the values of liberty 
and equal opportunity. They want to contribute to our history of 
striving toward those values. They want to learn our common language, 
and usually do, as evidenced by long waiting lists for a number of 
English as a second language adult education courses across our 
country. That is why this Senate, just a few weeks ago, passed an 
amendment to the immigration bill by a vote of 91 to 1 to help legal 
immigrants learn English and to allow those who become fluent in 
English to become American citizens 1 year faster.
  We value our common language. It isn't an argument that is hard to 
understand. In fact, when I first announced this resolution, the first 
supportive e-mail I received in my office came from Mr. Ramon L. 
Cisneros, the publisher of La Campana, a Spanish-language newspaper in 
Nashville with 18,000 subscribers.

  He wrote:

       . . . Thank you for this resolution. We are Hispanic 
     Americans and sometimes we write in Spanish for the benefit 
     of those newcomers who are in the process of learning 
     English. However, our common language as Americans is and 
     will always be English. And our national symbols should 
     always be said and sung in English.

  I didn't ask Mr. Cisneros to write to me, but I am glad he did. He is 
proud of his Hispanic heritage. He performs an important service for 
Hispanics in the Nashville area, which is a growing part of our State, 
but he is also a proud, patriotic American. Our country is enriched by 
citizens like Mr. Cisneros.
  I am puzzled by the reaction from some of my colleagues in the 
Democratic Party who seem to want to endorse the idea that we should 
sing the national anthem in some other language and recite the Pledge 
of Allegiance in some other language. We salute the American flag. We 
pledge allegiance to the United States, and we speak in our common 
language. That is how we unite ourselves.
  Also, we might do a little bit better if we taught more U.S. history 
and civics in our public schools, which is another subject I have been 
working on with strong support on the Democratic side from Senator 
Kennedy, from Senator Reid, and especially from Senator Byrd.
  I might note that in the House of Representatives, some Democrats 
have already chosen to cosponsor this same identical resolution. It has 
been offered by Congressman Ryun of Kansas. I have a hard time 
understanding why Democrats in the Senate are not supportive. Maybe I 
just made a mistake. Maybe I misunderstood what has happened. So let me 
try once again.
  I ask unanimous consent that S. Res. 458 be discharged from the 
Judiciary Committee; further, that the Senate proceed to its 
consideration. I further ask that the resolution and preamble be agreed 
to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, on behalf of other Democratic Members, I 
will object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I think that makes my point. Apparently, I did not 
misunderstand. Apparently, the Democratic Party in the Senate does not 
agree that we should say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the national 
anthem, and take the oath of citizenship in our common language, 
English. That is a grave misunderstanding of our country's greatest 
accomplishment. Our diversity is a magnificent achievement, but our 
greater achievement is that we have taken all of this diversity and 
formed it into one country so that we are the United States of America. 
It is a central part of becoming American.
  I am extremely disappointed by this objection.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.

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