Joyce Y Butler

Babel Underground Joyce Y Butler

As the ethnic population increases, the more the dominant culture attempts to stifle its growth. Throughout history the dominant culture in the United States has invited, encouraged, and forced other ethnic groups to come to the United States to serve its own agenda. As a result, these groups have helped make a nation of not just one group, but of many, each with its own language and dialects. Babel Underground is a work of speculative fiction which explores the conflict this country might find itself if only one language, in a country of many languages, was forced upon its citizens. Dr. Dayna Thomas is an advocate for cultural diversity and a multi-lingual society, in a time when the English only law is, after decades of attempts, finally being implemented. The law not only makes English the national language, but makes it illegal for all other languages to be spoken in public. To enforce the EOL law, the Agency harasses, arrests, and sometimes causes the disappearance of Spanish speakers in an effort to force submission to the new law. As Dayna becomes more immersed in speaking out for diversity and freedom of language, her life is threatened and Dayna finds herself underground.