[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 140 (Thursday, September 20, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10692]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         ENGLISH IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Daniel E. Lungren) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, in my own district, 
I have an outstanding example of the best of American business. One of 
the stores of my district, Lowe's, a store in Citrus Heights, is one of 
the best in the country. I think they serve the community well.
  But I would like to talk about an experience my wife and I had this 
last Saturday here at the Lowe's store in Northern Virginia, in 
Alexandria. We were going there to buy an appliance that we needed. 
While we waited for it to be taken out of inventory, I went outside in 
the parking lot where I saw two large vans that were identified as 
DeWalt vans. That is the name of the company that provides the power 
tools that are sold at Lowe's. And I have purchased at least one in the 
past and thought I might be interested in purchasing another.
  So, I went out to the big display they had where they had roped off a 
part of the parking lot to see what they had, to see what I might want 
to purchase. I was given a flier. I have a blowup of that flier here. 
When I was handed the flier, I noticed that it was in Spanish. I asked 
if I could have an English translation or English flier. I was told 
they didn't have any. But I was told that I could look at the pictures 
to see what they had on display. I commented that I thought I was in 
the United States. I was born here. I was taught English in the 
schools.
  At that point in time, whoever was doing a bit of the program got on 
the mike and started speaking to those who were assembled. He spoke in 
Spanish. I then went inside. As we were making the purchase, I asked to 
see the manager of the Lowe's store there on Jefferson Highway in 
Alexandria, Virginia at about 1:30 in the afternoon. The manager came 
up to me and asked what my complaint was. I suggested that I thought it 
might be a good idea that they also have English available to those of 
us who might want to purchase their product. He first told me that 
wasn't his problem, it was DeWalt's. Of course, DeWalt, as far as I 
could tell, you only could purchase at Lowe's. Then he looked at me 
with some chagrin in his face and some upset that I would bring it up 
and said, ``Well, if you want me to apologize because it is in Spanish, 
okay, I apologize.'' There was no attempt made to try and service a 
customer who wanted to buy a product, who wanted to have something 
explained to him in English rather than looking at the pictures.
  Now, I understand if I am in another country where English is not the 
predominant language, I would not be offended if somebody handed me a 
sheet and said, ``I am sorry we don't have something in English, but 
you can look at the pictures and see what we have.'' But to be made to 
feel like a foreigner in your own country within just 30 miles of our 
Nation's Capitol seems passing strange.
  I don't object to the celebration of other cultures. We have half 
Irish and half Swedish in my background. I understand that many of us 
in America enjoy the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Many in America 
and the State in which I was born, California, celebrate Cinco de Mayo. 
Individuals who come from other backgrounds, whose ancestors have come 
from other countries, we rejoice in the diversity of America. We 
rejoice in the fact that we are a country of immigrants.
  But when we attempt to deal with the difficult questions of 
immigration, both legal and illegal, and I have been involved in trying 
to create laws in that for the last 27 years, and when we talk about 
the issue of multiculturalism in this society, how do we, somehow, 
create a society that is made even better by the tremendous 
contributions of people from around the world, different cultures, 
ethnicities, languages and backgrounds? We still have to understand. We 
have to have some unifying elements in this society precisely because 
we have so many backgrounds. One of those unifying elements, in my 
humble opinion, is a common language, that common language being 
English. I think when things like this occur, I wasn't identified as a 
congressman, I was just a plain old customer, as was my wife, this is 
the kind of thing I think that irritates so many Americans who believe 
we have just given up on attempting to bring us together with a common 
American culture brought together by a number of different things, one 
of which, importantly, is our language. I would hope that not only in 
this body would we reflect on that, but I would hope some of our 
commercial enterprises, such as Lowe's, would reflect on that, as well.

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