By MARIE PRICE
Tulsa World
3/4/2003
OKLAHOMA CITY -- About 50 people rallied Monday at the Capitol against a bill that would make English Oklahoma's official language for conducting government business, with some exceptions.
Alice Anderton, executive director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society, said House Bill 1020 by Rep. Ron Kirby, D Lawton, promotes English above other languages.
"My thinking is it elevates English in an unnecessary way," she said, adding that the bill assumes a dangerous position.
"It fosters attitudes that are harmful to all of us," she said.
Rep. Al Lindley, D-Oklahoma City, said such a law "digs into the worst part of us" and cultivates prejudice. He said the measure is being backed by a group of "instigators" from California and Washington, D.C.
Kirby's bill is backed by U.S. English Inc. and related organizations that sponsor "Official English" legislation.
"They are using this issue to divide and conquer," Lindley said. Such measures play on people's fear that their national heritage is at risk, he added.
"For the life of me I just don't understand this," Kirby said.
He said nothing in the bill prohibits speaking, teaching or learning other languages.
"One of the opponents came in and was really mad at me," Kirby said. "I said, 'Show me where this would hurt you?' And they couldn't do it.
"But they've got it in their mind that it's going to be prohibitive. I just don't understand that. It dumbfounds me."