The slippery slope of not having a national language is getting even slicker.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether the Oklahoma
Department of Public Safety violated the civil rights of Iranian
immigrants by refusing to provide them with driver's license tests in
their native Farsi language.
The investigation was launched in March, after a complaint was filed
on behalf of two Iranian
nationals living in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which accused the state
agency of unlawful
discrimination based on their national origin. The "discrimination"
suit is based on the fact the state of Oklahoma did not provide the
driving test in Farsi, even though it was offered in English and
Spanish.
Back in November, OhMyGov! issued a warning to its readers that the
government, in its attempts to pander to too many language groups, will
overstretch its resources. That article
dealt with the IRS issuing tax forms in multiple languages, but the
questions are equally applicable to the discrimination suit in question.
"Are a portion of our tax dollars going to be allocated to recreating
existing government documents in varying languages since our elected
officials won't declare English the national language? And if so, how
many documents will we translate? How many languages will we translate
the documents into? Will it be deemed discriminatory in the future to
leave out a language from the translation list?"
Apparently, the answer to the last question is: maybe. For the sake
of the country's finances, which are already riddled with $9.5 trillion
worth of debt and strained by wars, rising health care costs, and
infrastructure needs, let's hope our government officials understand
the absurdity in creating a precedent wherein every single government
document must be translated into the 6,700 languages worldwide. If we
don't declare a national language now, frivolous, expensive lawsuits
such as this one against the Oklahoma government will continue popping
up around the country against every federal, state, and local
government agency. In the end, tax money that would normally be spent
on providing essential services to the public will be reallocated
toward document translation and production.
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