State congresswoman comes to Penn to warn against making English the state language.

Neither the United States nor Pennsylvania has an official language, and one state representative is fighting to make sure that this does not change in this state.

The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee recently presented a motion to declare English the official language of the state and designate it the only language to be used for government acts and documents. The measure was defeated.

The leader of the opposition, State Rep. Babette Josephs (D-Phila.), discussed the bill at Penn's Solomon Asch Center on Friday. The talk was arranged by the Consortium for Language Policy and Planning at Penn.

Josephs said she loves English and has been an English teacher. But she also serves on the board of the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union.

Josephs believes that conflicts arise when people have difficulty communicating with each other.

"Almost all problems human beings have with each other can be traced to misunderstandings in communication," she said.

But making English a state-mandated language is not the solution, she said.

Josephs has said before that this bill discriminates against Pennsylvanians who speak English poorly. She also believes that having multiple languages in the U.S. "threatens the economic security of a certain class of people who think they are 'real' Americans."

She added that "economic insecurity very often translates into political action."

A small audience attended the talk. Most present were part of the Consortium for Language Policy and Planning. Those who expressed opinions generally agreed with Josephs.

In support of their argument, audience members highlighted the pluralism on which they feel Pennsylvania was founded. In the country's early days, there was a substantial German population in Pennsylvania.

One audience member asked why the Democratic party is not more proactive in trying to ensure multilingual culture in the United States.

Josephs responded that it would be harder to rally support behind a bill that attempts to change the status quo in some way.

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