Firstly, thank you Legzman for not derailing the other thread
Secondly, it's an excellent subject for discussion
I'm afraid that I'm not really qualified to take part in the discussion, I'm British rather than American, but that's never stopped me before.....
One of the great strengths of the United States is that it is excellent at integrating immigrants into its society and gets them to think of themselves are primarily American but of xxxxxxxxxx descent (i.e. Martian Americans). Compare and contrast this to parts of the United Kingdom where second and third generation immigrants identify primarily with their "home" country and culture (i.e. British Martians).
Part of this may be the fact that the Untied States doesn't have an official language, so people don't feel excluded when they arrive and hence are more prepared to integrate.
So my position is that there is nothing to gain from having English as the official language, but there may be plenty to lose.
