As sponsoring Representative Courtney Combs stated as a reason to support the upcoming bill, in a television interview on CNN, on October 31, 2005:

"In my district, which is located between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, we have had an influx of about 500 percent increase in the last 15 years of Latinos. And the communication problem between law enforcement and government and human services and those types of things has elevated into a real problem."

Instituting English as the official language of the State of Ohio, reducing alternative language services from state offices and publications, and failing to require or encourage public service workers (such as police, fire, doctors, nurses, etc.) to acquire additional language skills neither eliminates nor addresses the communication barrier between English speakers and the Hispanic community, as implied by Representative Combs, but further increases the potential for problems and misunderstandings if instituted.

Local cities have seen an increase in the Hispanic community across Ohio. Rather than embracing the diversity brought to our state by this growing population, this law would seek to further alienate and force English language assimilation upon them and the loss of a part of their cultural identity. Passage of an English as the Official Language law is a waste of taxpayer money and time, and fails to address the issue in a light best suited to all involved, not just English speaking citizens.

Would it not be far more logical to make Spanish-to-English classes available to more of the Hispanic community to bridge the communication barrier; increase the number of Spanish classes in our schools to encourage bilingualism and multilingualism in our children; and continue the practice of providing state services in more than one language?

Resentment toward the Hispanic community appears to be growing more visible across the State; this proposed bill appears to be nothing more than knee-jerk reaction to this aura of discontent, this age of finger-pointing and mistrust of anyone not cookie-cutter similar to the rest of the WASPs.

Then again, perhaps it is just a passive ploy in defeating any headway in President George Bush's amnesty program, ensuring that any non-English speaker would be incapable of receiving State benefit or licensure for lack of being able to read the application or have it translated to them.

It screams of becoming another Quebec to me... French Only!

Hell, why not just start everyone over from scratch and make Pig Latin the official language.