Representative Steve King (R - Iowa) / thehill.com
02/06/2012
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More than 22 centuries ago, China was populated by scores of warring tribes and competing sub-cultures. They wore similar clothing, ate similar foods, and had similar ways of life. But they spoke different languages. Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, had a vision to create a unified China that would last for the next ten thousand years. Qin Shi Huang standardized units of measure, currency, wheel spacing of carts, and commanded scribes to create an official written Chinese language. All of China then communicated in the same language.

A common language is the most powerful unifying force the world has ever known. It is more powerful than race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The unifying official language does not have to be English, yet we are fortunate the common language of the United States of America is English. English is the international language of commerce, politics, maritime, and of air traffic control. English is by far the most unifying force uniting America, knocking down ethnic, religious, and cultural barriers to make us one and the lingua franca of the world. Today as we rally for unity and patriotism, our common form of communications currency binds us together and propels us toward our destiny.

Noah Webster had a vision 2,000 years after Qin Shi Huang. Webster realized the language of former colonists was degenerating into colloquialism on its way to dialects that would become incomprehensible to all but the locals. Webster wrote the American English Dictionary because he feared the fracturing of American along the lines of language. Webster's goal was the same as Qin Shi Huang's - but to unify the United States of America for all time through a common language.

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