A great letter – from a real immigrant – published in the Marietta Daily Journal today. Letters to the editor are very important!

Immigrants do not require amnesty. THANK YOU Ms. Litland!

Maria Litland/Letter to the Editor: Defeat of official English bill a shock

Published: 03/08/2008

D.A. King’s Feb. 28 MDJ column about the official English resolution being voted down was shocking and made me very sad. I pray that it will get another vote at the Capitol.

Have we gotten to the place where it is unpopular with politicians to proudly say we should all speak English and that it is the language for our government?

If we already have a law but are using multiple languages for our driver’s license testing anyway, it looks like we aren’t paying any more attention to this law than Washington is to our borders and immigration laws.

I am an immigrant. I came to this wonderful nation legally and I am proud to speak more than one language, but I don’t expect anyone to offer me government tests or services in any language other than English. The myth that doing this will make immigrants assimilate faster is nonsense. We are not helping new immigrants by stalling their English lessons in real life! King is right and most of us can see the truth.

The same people who fight enforcement of our immigration laws are the ones who try to discourage a common language for America and Georgia.

The business people who fight against English will hear from me, too.

The group that has caused so much trouble here in Cobb County, MALDEF, works very hard to stop English usage. Shame on them and shame on any politician who votes no on English.

This is one immigrant who understands that the tower of Babel story in the Bible is a very good picture of what will happen to us if we lose the only thing keeping us together. A singular, official language. That is how they do it in Mexico.

Maria Litland

Marietta