Letter: Leaders should not compromise on language

Sunday, July 2, 2006 | 7:42 a.m.

Regarding the Las Vegas Sun's June 28 story, "Language law largely ignored by auto dealers":

It was disturbing to me to learn that Nevada has passed a law requiring car dealers to carry contracts and credit applications in Spanish as well as English. How ridiculous! Why not also require dealers to have contracts in Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Thai, French, etc., as well?

This is America. Our language here is English. If a non-English speaking person needs help in translating documents, it should be her or his responsibility to obtain whatever assistance is needed. If I bought a car in Mexico, would they drag out their documents printed in English? I think not.

Where does this dual-language fiasco end? I am opposed to the idea of becoming a dual-language nation because it doesn't make sense. It's inconvenient and expensive. Things just don't work as well when everyone can't communicate with each other.

It is ironic that the United States is losing its grip on being a one-language country at the same time that English is gaining strength as an international language. Our legislators should be strengthening our grip on English, not weakening it.

Roger Witcher, Las Vegas