Parlez-Vous Anglais?

I know this is old news, but it still bothers me.

There was a news story recently that a county - and I don't remember where - was looking at spending a lot of money to print their upcoming election ballots in Spanish for their non-English speaking CITIZENS.

Let me say that again.

Their non-English speaking CITIZENS.

CITIZENS.

Who are these citizens of the United States that don't speak English?

It was reported that the U.S. Constitution does not require that its citizens speak English. To my mind, it should be a no-brainer. If you are a citizen of this country, speaking the official language should be assumed automatically. No one should have to tell you that it is required. If I defected to Italy I wouldn't expect the citizenship test to be in English.

If you are born in this country, you are a citizen. You will also go through 10 to 12 years in one or more of our school districts. English is a standard subject in schools. While you may not be extremely proficient, dependent on your abilities, you should reach voting age able to speak and read English.

If you immigrate legally to this county and decide to become a naturalized citizen you will have to take a test to obtain citizenship. Now, I have been unable to confirm this but I would think the test is printed in English.

If it isn't, then I have a whole other topic to blog about.

But I believe that is it. It may be very rudimentary English, but it is in English.

So my question is this - who are these non-English speaking citizens?

I understand their English may not be perfect. A recent People Magazine article with Elin Woods (now Nordegren) stated that she would write the answers to the interviewer's questions because she didn't trust her spoken English. I know lots of people that immigrated to this country who speak with their native accents and so forth.

Fine. We don't speak when we vote. We read and select.

And a lot of times we're only reading names. Names translate fairly well in most languages.

OK, let's say I'm being too harsh and we should have multi-lingual ballots. (The news report did say that the Constitution does require some to be available). Shouldn't we then make sure that we have ALL possible languages? Why not print them not only in Spanish, but Vietnamese, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Farsi, Chinese, Korean, and so on and so on?

Maybe I'm callous, but it sounds like someone is this county was looking to commit, or at least condone, voter fraud.

Which is a shame. The right to vote is one of the most invaluable rights we have. We have a say in our government. In our leadership. In the laws and consequences of our country.

Any fraud in that process should not be tolerated.

We have a privilege that all citizens in other countries don't have. It should not be taken lightly. Nor should the process be tainted. The right to vote, and exercising that right, is critical to the success of our great nation.

But it can only be exercised, and exercised once per person, by those persons who have earned that right.

I'm all for making the voting process fair and equitable. No one should feel intimated at the polls. No one should be afraid of not understanding the issues and persons on the ballot. But no one should be allowed to vote that hasn't earned that right.

A voice in our government is a reward of citizenship. To paraphrase an ad campaign - membership has its privileges.