If pro-illegal-immigration rallies do nothing else, they should inspire:

- America to secure its borders;

- enforcement of laws prohibiting the hiring of illegal immigrants;

- English to be made the official language of the United States of America.

Let's talk about that last item.

Being multi-ethnic to its core, America truly is united not by race, but by ideas - principally the notion of freedom.

So ideas are the glue that holds America together.

And since words are how we convey ideas, it follows that the words we use will either unite us or divide us.

Take the Nuestro Himno. Please.

The Spanish-language bastardization of the Star-Spangled Banner is offensive on its face: You can't make a nation's anthem your own, especially in a land not your own, by stealing the words and changing them and putting them in another language. The title Our Hymn is patently vile and insulting. It's not your hymn.

Not even the soft-on-illegals President Bush could stomach it.

"I think people who want to be citizens of this country ought to learn English," the president said.

That's just it, Mr. President. No one - including you - is requiring illegal immigrants to become citizens, at least not the correct and legal way.

Still, if the president is more right about the language issue than he even knows, it begs the question: Why isn't English the official language of the United States of America?

Why should taxpayers have to pay to make other languages available in government business - especially for illegal immigrants who may be applying for benefits and can't lift a finger to learn the language?

And what's the deal with bilingual ballots? If illegals aren't supposed to be voting - and citizens are supposed to learn English - then who's the audience?

English-as-official-language initiatives have been put on ballots in seven states - and have passed in all seven.

And that was before the outrage of the past few weeks, in which illegal immigrants have marched in American streets to demand rights they don't have, and to boycott and punish businesses in an attempt to intimidate America into not acting.

Americans should feel more strongly than ever that our borders need to be secured, and that English should be spoken here.