Speech #970087840

These are temporary provisions. designed specifically to enable nonEnglishspeaking citizens the opportunity to vote immediately. not to await some distant time in the future when our educational system may give them the tools with which to communicate fully and freely in our society in the language of our country. English. When Congress banned literacy tests in 1965. it did not send out a signal advocating illiteracy. It simply recognized that literacy tests had been used to deprive blacks of their right to vote. Similarly. when Congress banned Englishonly elections for certain areas in 1975. it did not send out a message that English was no longer our official language. It sent out a message that dealt with the fact that many of our citizens do not speak English and that as citizens they were entitled to assistance in exercising the most fundamental right of our democracy. the one which permits each and every one of us to be present here today.