[Vision2020] Words Bring Pause

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (March 11, 2007) Spokesman Review with a very special thanks to
State Senator Edgar Malepeai -

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Words Bring Pause

The Idaho Senate voted 20-15 in favor of Senate Bill 1172, declaring English
to be the official language of Idaho, in a debate that took a personal turn.

"It's not for shutting people out, but bringing people in," Sen. Mel
Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, lead sponsor of the bill, told the Senate. 

Sen. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, said quietly, "Looking around the chamber,
I think I'm probably the only one that has English as a second language."
Malepeai recalled that his late father and uncles served proudly in the U.S.
military. "They spoke very, very broken English, but they were proud
American Samoans," Malepeai said. Democracy and freedom "is what unifies
people in this country," he said, "not the English language." A hush fell in
the Senate after Malepeai's comments, and no one else debated the bill.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"I love my country but fear my government."

- Author Unknown