-By Warner Todd Huston
Homer Township is not a metropolis commonly in the news in Illinois. Situated to the south and west of Chicago about an hour or so, the small town is generally a quiet place. That may be about to change, at least for this week, because the township’s board of trustees just voted to support a new policy making English the official language for government business.
Granted this is not much of a change from what they are already doing. The resolution requires that all business that the government of the township does will all be in English only, something that is already the case. Minutes, notices, agendas, all printing, and all the records of the assessor’s office will be done only in English.
No one on the board, however, is saying that this is a big change. In fact, Township Clerk Steve Balich says that it is all symbolic and meant to start a dialog about illegal immigration.
Balich, a tea party activist, says that he knows he’ll take heat for the resolution.
“In Homer township we don’t have an immigration problem, that I know of, but you have to start somewhere and so we’re starting here,” Balich said. “And if other places see what we’re doing, maybe they’ll have the courage to stand up and do the same thing.”
I, for one, certainly support the concept. I think every government entity in America should conduct business solely in English. No exceptions.
However, I would be remiss in not pointing out that if it were up to me there would be no such governmental entity as a “Homer Township.” This township thing is a particularly egregious waste of the taxpayer’s money in Illinois, a waste that I’d cut entirely. The township is an extra layer of government that simply doesn’t need to exist. Illinois wastes hundreds of millions of dollars a year on these townships whose only job, it seems, is to employ unnecessary government workers.
Like I said, I support the English only movement, but I wish that “Homer Township” didn’t even exist! So, for me, it’s a mixed bag here.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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