It's Official: People aren't all the same

I enjoyed Dennis Baron's article. I felt that his light sarcasm was right to the point. Hit the nail on the head, so to speak. I agree wholeheartedly with the argument I feel he was making; i.e. Who cares!? Is it so necessary to make some language "official"? Will it really change that much? And, hey if we're going to do something so drastic and useless we might as well go all the way and just outlaw English all together. I think that this article also had the ability to make English speakers put themselves in other shoes. How would we feel if our language was outlawed? Maybe this is how some immigrants would feel. It wouldn't be so easy if all of a sudden you were told that you couldn't use the language that you grew up with and felt comfortable with. I found this article amusing as well as eye-opening.
On the other hand I felt like the cartoon was taking it a little too far. When speaking of passing an official language, no one is talking about banning or outlawing any use of other languages. I do not believe that making English our official language means that we are racist or that we forcing anyone to completely abandon their language. On this issue I agree with a previous blogger that said that although nothing would truly be gained from making the language official; nothing would really be lost either. People would still be able to speak their native tongue. It would just mean, as touched on by Miller, that much less Government money would be spent on translating everything into multiple languages. However, communities, individuals and even states could still translate things that they felt were necessary.
Lastly, I just want to shed light on something that I find a little out of place. This nation has an "official beer of the Superbowl", "official airline of the NBA playoffs", "official lender of hockey" etc. but the predominant language isn't yet "official". I don't know if this is a commentary on the pervasive nature of advertising, the lackadaisical attitude toward nationalism held by most people, or on the pros and con's of the specific legislation. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just something to think about. What is more important? Budweiser or our nation?