The fast-paced demographic changes occurring in the recent decades are creating an American society in which people are becoming increasingly different and foreign to one another. Since the early 1980s, this has promulgated the introduction of a series of Official-English bills in the U.S. Congress which intended to unify the nation through a common language. H.R. 123, the "English Language Empowerment Act of 1997" is the most recent attempt in the 105th Congress to make English the official language of the U.S. Using the criteria of fairness, neutrality, adequate gains, and administrative and implementation costs, the act will be examined for its merits toward strengthening the nation's system of democracy.
--Author's foreword.
