Why English should be Nevada’s official language

Assemblywoman Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno, provided the first “gotcha” moment of the 2017 Legislature. She rose Friday to refer a group of bills to committee, but she did so in Spanish.

She then stopped and said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. In keeping with the spirit of Assembly Bill 131, I will make sure all comments remain in English.” AB131 would make English Nevada’s official language.

While liberals celebrated her “burn,” most of those who gloated didn’t understand what she was saying until she spoke English. That’s exactly why English should be Nevada’s official language. Empathy, discussion, debate — even verbal jabs — require that people understand one another.

“… I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other,” Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1961 . “They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other.”

Separation happens when two groups of people speak different languages. This isn’t a new insight.

When God wanted to stop the Tower of Babel, he confused the people’s previously unified language. Unable to communicate, God scattered them throughout the earth.

I’ve personally seen how speaking the same language is helpful in bringing people from different backgrounds together.

When I arrived at basic training, the Army put me into a platoon of 60 people. We had different skin colors, accents, clothes, backgrounds and levels of education.

Three months later, we had bonded through the agony of the shared experiences that gave us the right to be U.S. soldiers. When we got our civilian clothes back, we laughed as we vaguely remembered what we first thought about each other based on how we looked and dressed.

While basic training is a unique proving ground, the ability to talk to each other — you have to know English to join the Army — was essential. By talking with, complaining to and encouraging each other, you come to appreciate folks who are different and who have different perspectives.

There’s nothing morally superior about English, but it is a logistically superior choice. It’s the most widely spoken language in the United States — in both the present and past.

If we lived in Spain, I’d make the case that Spanish should be the country’s official language — but it already is.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Nevada section each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.