When incomplete medical records had an adverse impact…

Robert Ricketson was a spinal surgeon, but after a multitude of errors, one of which being his failure to properly document a conversation with a patient and their family, he has been divorced by his wife, had his medical license revoked, turned to cocaine, and his background check is rife with negativity (Ricketson).  He adds, “I became so depressed at one point I attempted suicide.”

When in Rome

Do you think Germans struggle with what language to speak, or which language to teach, or which language to post on their street signs just because they do not have an ‘official’ language?  The same could be asked about Australia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Somalia, Sweden and of course, the United States.

Here, in the United States, it is an issue though and every few years some group or two raises the masses in an effort to have an official language assigned to our country.  I don’t know that it would change much of anything, the road signs are already in English, the major news outlets as well and at our public schools it is the primary language in which lessons are taught.  The proposal for an official language is primarily exclusionary in design no matter how legislators want to paint it as a financial issue.  If you listen to the supporters, translating documents and speeches and providing translators for official matters is a costly drain on our economy and could save states tens of thousands a year.

I propose, that if we as a nation wish to make English the official language that we first need to learn to speak it, to write it – properly.  It astounds me when I read notes from teachers sent home with my children, people employed to teach my children proper grammar who cannot use it, much less spell it!  To quote Professor Higgins, “Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter, condemned by every syllable she ever uttered.  By law she should be taken out and hung, for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.”