::English is our ''de facto'' national language is the idea I guess. Any attempts to make it official have failed afaik. [[User:Flinders Petrie|Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie]] | [[user_talk:Flinders Petrie|Say Shalom!]] 17:14, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
::English is our ''de facto'' national language is the idea I guess. Any attempts to make it official have failed afaik. [[User:Flinders Petrie|Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie]] | [[user_talk:Flinders Petrie|Say Shalom!]] 17:14, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
==Human Right Abuses==
I need help restoring contents about human right violations and wars/murders committed by the government and also about the lies that Iraq endangered the world by its atomic bomb and weapons of mass murder like the ones USA have. Possibly up to 1 million people died in '''O'''peration '''I'''raqi '''L'''iberation. I think they deserve to be mentioned here. This is serious and it's the least we can do.
This page has archives. Sections older than 7 days may be automatically archived by Lowercase sigmabot III when more than 5 sections are present.
Detailed discussions which led to the current consensus can be found in the archives of Talk:United States. Several topical talk archives are identified in the infobox to the right. A complete list of talk archives can be found at the top of the Talk:United States page.
Q2. Why is the article's name "United States" and not "United States of America"?
Isn't United States of America the official name of the U.S.? I would think that United States should redirect to United States of America, not vice versa as is the current case.
This has been discussed many times. Please review the summary points below and the discussion archived at the Talk:United States/Name page. The most major discussion showed a lack of consensus to either change the name or leave it as the same, so the name was kept as "United States".
If, after reading the following summary points and all the discussion, you wish to ask a question or contribute your opinion to the discussion, then please do so at Talk:United States. The only way that we can be sure of ongoing consensus is if people contribute.
Reasons and counterpoints for the article title of "United States":
"United States" is in compliance with the Wikipedia "Naming conventions (common names)" guideline portion of the Wikipedia naming conventions policy. The guideline expresses a preference for the most commonly used name, and "United States" is the most commonly used name for the country in television programs (particularly news), newspapers, magazines, books, and legal documents, including the Constitution of the United States.
Exceptions to guidelines are allowed.
If we used "United States of America", then to be consistent we would have to rename all similar articles. For example, by renaming "United Kingdom" to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" or Mexico to "United Mexican States".
Exceptions to guidelines are allowed. Articles are independent from one another. No rule says articles have to copy each other.
This argument would be valid only if "United States of America" was a particularly uncommon name for the country.
The Macropaedia version of Britannica uses "United States of America" for its article title.
With the reliability, legitimacy, and reputation of all Wikimedia Foundation projects under constant attack, Wikipedia should not hand a weapon to its critics by deviating from the "common name" policy traditionally used by encyclopedias in the English-speaking world.
Wikipedia is supposed to be more than just another encyclopedia.
Reasons and counterpoints for the article title of "United States of America":
It is the country's official name.
The country's name is not explicitly defined as such in the Constitution or in the law. The words "United States of America" only appear three times in the Constitution. "United States" appears 51 times by itself, including in the presidential oath or affirmation. The phrase "of America" is arguably just a prepositional phrase that describes the location of the United States and is not actually part of the country's name.
The Articles of Confederation explicitly name the country "The United States of America" in article one. While this is no longer binding law, the articles provide clear intent of the founders of the nation to use the name "The United States of America."
The whole purpose of the common naming convention is to ease access to the articles through search engines. For this purpose the article name "United States of America" is advantageous over "United States" because it contains the strings "United States of America" and "United States." In this regard, "The United States of America" would be even better as it contains the strings "United States," The United States," "United States of America," and "The United States of America."
The purpose of containing more strings is to increase exposure to Wikipedia articles by increasing search rank for more terms. Although "The United States of America" would give you four times more commonly used terms for the United States, the United States article on Wikipedia is already the first result in queries for United States of America, The United States of America, The United States, and of course United States.
Q3. Is the United States really the oldest constitutional republic in the world?
Yes. San Marino was founded before the United States and did adopt its basic law on 8 October 1600. (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sm.html) Full democracy was attained there with various new electoral laws in the 20th century which augmented rather than amended the existing constitution.
Yes, but not continuously. The first "constitution" within Switzerland is believed to be the Federal Charter of 1291 and most of modern Switzerland was republican by 1600. After Napoleon and a later civil war, the current constitution was adopted in 1848.
Many people in the United States are told it is the oldest republic and has the oldest constitution, however one must use a narrow definition of constitution. Within Wikipedia articles it may be appropriate to add a modifier such as "oldest continuous, federal ..." however it is more useful to explain the strength and influence of the US constitution and political system both domestically and globally. One must also be careful using the word "democratic" due to the limited franchise in early US history and better explain the pioneering expansion of the democractic system and subsequent influence.
The component states of the Swiss confederation were mostly oligarchies in the eighteenth century, however, being much more oligarchical than most of the United States, with the exceptions of Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Connecticut.
Q4. Why are the Speaker of the House and Chief Justice listed as leaders in the infobox? Shouldn't it just be the President and Vice President?
The President, Vice President, Speaker of The House of Representatives, and Chief Justice are stated within the United States Constitution as leaders of their respective branches of government. As the three branches of government are equal, all four leaders get mentioned under the "Government" heading in the infobox.
Q5. What is the motto of the United States?
There was no de jure motto of the United States until 1956, when "In God We Trust" was made such. Various other unofficial mottos existed before that, most notably "E Pluribus Unum". The debate continues on what "E Pluribus Unum"'s current status is (de facto motto, traditional motto, etc.) but it has been determined that it never was an official motto of the United States.
Q6. Is the U.S. really the world's largest economy?
Q7. Isn't it incorrect to refer to it as "America" or its people as "American"?
In English, America (when not preceded by "North", "Central", or "South") almost always refers to the United States. The large super-continent is called the Americas.
Q8. Why isn't the treatment of Native Americans given more weight?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
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This article is within the scope of WikiProject North America, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of North America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.North AmericaWikipedia:WikiProject North AmericaTemplate:WikiProject North AmericaNorth America articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
First European settlement in what is today the United States: Saint Augustine
The first European settlement in a country colonized mainly by Europeans it's a very important information that needs to be added to this article. It's widely documented that Saint Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the town it's the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Frran (talk • contribs)
Countries With Ties to the United States.
I would propose a change to the countries with "strong ties" to the United States. Certainly all those countries, I believe, belong in that category however there are a few others which have an equally or greater connection. I'm assuming that this would apply to governmental relations, given it is in the foreign relations category; Germany and the Philippines. In addition, I think there are several states in the baltic and caucuses region which have a large amount of military cooperation with the U.S. Perhaps there are other prerequisites to being included which I am not seeing.Lockeian (talk) 20:26, 5 June 2011 (UTC)Lockeian 4:25 June 5[reply]
How strong does it need to be? Does the fact that 3 of the largest 4 ancestry groups are Germany, Ireland, and England give us strong ties with those places? Military and political alliances by the President come and go with the tide, but Wikipedia is likely still regurgitating what we all saw on the History Channel and NBC news growing up. That is to say Russia is good and the Germans and Japan are bad, no wait the Germans and Japan are good and Russia is bad, no wait... I think we have strong ties with Russia now. What about the Indians? Oh I don't know... It all seems a little too opinionated and wish-washy to be on the main Wikipedia page. Int21h (talk) 11:43, 15 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Could the article be more specific when it comes to countries with strong ties? For example, Canada is the largest (?) trading partner of the USA, or Israel has received large amounts of money for its military from the US for decades (?). Otherwise it is just meaningless.--GoodandTrue (talk) 19:28, 16 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Technically and historically the US is not a secular country
"The United States is officially a secular nation; the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion and forbids the establishment of any religious governance."
First.
Historically and including in 8 current state Constitutions a politician must believe in God but is not subjected to any religious test regarding denomination.
Modern times the Constitution has been interrupted differently to say even non-believers may be politicians.
Second.
Wikipedia definition of secular is the state being separate from religion.
This does not describe the US nor is it comparable to the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution nor does the word secular appear in the US Constitution.
The US state has not established a religion but it is still religious in that its laws were influenced by religion, In God We Trust is the motto, religious holidays are recognized, and politicians have the right to religion.
In response to your first point, the state constitutions do not represent policy of the nation itself. The Massachusetts constitution is only the policy of Massachusetts, the Texas constitution is only the policy of Texas, neither is the policy of the United States itself. Officially, no religious test is required by the United States to serve in office, and no law mandates a belief in God to serve in office. Whether the electorate is likely or not to elect an atheist isn't relevant to the legal status of the US as secular. As for your second point, there is copious amounts Supreme Court case history and legal interpretations of the US Constitution establishing that the First Amendment does, in fact, separate the state from the church (at least as far back as Everson v. Board of Education). The US is comparable to this, as opposed to a nation like the UK (which has a state religion, and requires that its head of state be a protestant), or Iran (which has religious mandated laws). The US has neither. That "secular" doesn't appear within the Constitution doesn't mean the US isn't secular. Your points about the motto and religious holidays are somewhat interesting, but tend to be non-denominational or not mandating practice of said religious holidays. Politicians having the right to religion has no relevance at all. A secular state does not require that politicians be atheist, it requires that their actions not be motivated by religion alone. For example, murder is not illegal in the United States only because of the Ten Commandments, but also because of non-religious moral and humanist arguments that became part of Common Law. US politicians are also not required to be religious (thus, they have a right to be non-religious), whereas in the UK Parliament there are seats in the House of Lords that are mandated to members of the Anglican Church, and as said earlier, the head of state is required to be a protestant. --OuroborosCobra (talk) 21:13, 11 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You know I notice people use technically to mean in practice when it means as fact and by law. This is one of those cases. Technically speaking we are secular, practically speaking, we are not. @OP: Your reasons are filled with WP:OR, and more specifically WP:SYNTH I am afraid. @Quro: We all know that the Monarch must be Protestant so as to prevent the damnable Stuarts from returning. =p Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | Say Shalom!21:52, 11 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The one point on this topic that could be argued from that lead sentence is in the section "...guarantees the free exercise of religion..." It's a fine gesture, but does it guarantee the free non-exercise of religion, or the exercise of atheism? Is the requirement for people in office to swear the oath "In God we trust" absolute? Or can one refuse? HiLo48 (talk) 23:20, 11 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
This is more for the RefDesk. Atheism is a religious belief, a little different from others, but it is still a belief. "free exercise" means do what you like. The addition of under God was during the Cold War-era. As for the oath of office, you should ask some gov office. =p Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | Say Shalom!23:25, 11 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Puerto Rico is not part of the United States. You won't find it on a map of the country any more than you'd find Gibraltar on a map of the UK. --Golbez (talk) 14:16, 15 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It is not an incorporated territory; it is an organized, unincorporated territory with the status of commonwealth. It is under the American sphere of influence, and is a possession of the United States, but it is not a part of the United States. The United States consists of fifty states, one federal district, and one incorporated territory (Palmyra Atoll). The unincorporated territories (Puerto Rico, USVI, Guam, CNMI, etc.) are possessions, not integral parts, of the US. The comparison I like to draw is with the UK: Gibraltar and the Channel Islands and Man, etc., are possessions of the country but are fundamentally not *part* of it. --Golbez (talk) 16:45, 15 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
As for thought differently: Yes, because it is so large. There's 4 million people there in a form of limbo, not being fully a part of the country but not being independent either. That doesn't change its fundamental status as an unincorporated territory. --Golbez (talk) 16:46, 15 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How can it not be part of the United States? While it is under the jurisdiction of the nation and does not maintain sovereignty it is as much part of the United States as an atoll. People born in Puerto Rico are also considered United States Citizens. It's also the only unincoporated territory shown on File:Census-2000-Data-Top-US-Ancestries-by-County-1396x955.png; a map created by the federal government. I don't mind it not being included in the map, but denying that it is part of the United States seems a bit extreme. 08OceanBeachS.D.09:56, 16 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
That's true, Puerto Rico is not "part" of the United States because it is not a U.S. state. Puerto Rico voted to decline Statehood on at least one occasion, maybe more. They have their own flag and their own Olympic team (among other distinctions that set it apart from the US). You won't find it on most maps, just like you won't find Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or other U.S. territories on most maps, all protectorates of the U.S. and left over from events such as the Spanish-American War and World War II. They govern themselves autonomously, and they find it in their own defensive and economic self-interest to remain territories and it would be a major transition to grant full independence, so everybody is pretty satisfied with the status quo. They have all voted to remain under territory status, but only on detailed maps and atlases are the territories depicted, with the term "U.S. territory" in parentheses. Boneyard90 (talk) 05:50, 19 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
International Measurements
I see you still use imperial measures here. Should I change these to kilometres? How do people feel? Please see the England page where this has been raised. Details below. Ansotu (talk) 15:19, 17 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Just pointing out that this is a global encyclopedia - the article does not exist for the benefit of UK residents, or US residents, but everyone in the world, most of whom use kilometres. Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:05, 17 June 2011 (UTC)"
This now seems to be resolved. Although feel free to comment if you wish. English speakers use miles so it's best to put miles first in articles. Ansotu (talk) 15:37, 17 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
United States Language
According to the page, English is the National language. According to a book I read, the States have no official language. It ain't English, Spanish, German, Czech, French, you name it. Not one language ever created is Our official. After all, we WERE formed by immigrants. Right?
Ten987654321 (talk) 13:47, 18 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I was just checking back here to see if there was any response to my post - and I'm not American. But the article says there's no official language (Note (a) and section 'Language'). To me a language is official if it's the one the state uses. But that's just my personal view. I find this page interesting: http://www.proenglish.org/ and this page is relevant: http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.htmlAnsotu (talk) 14:44, 18 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Official language" means there's a law saying a language is the official language. There's no law at the federal level making English the official language nationwide. Under the Tenth Amendment, this is then an issue for the individual states.--Coolcaesar (talk) 15:51, 18 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"National language" is an out used to describe the language overwhelmingly used by a populace and by its government in the absence of a codified official language. The national language of the United States is English, for it has no official language. All federal government activity is conducted in English (if it is conducted in another language then it is in addition to English), and the vast majority of the citizens use it as a first or second language. Some states maintain official languages; some have codified English, and one has also codified Hawaiian. (According to Languages of the United States, French enjoys legal recognition in Maine and Louisiana, and Spanish in New Mexico, but none of the three has an official language) Some governments may issue papers in other languages as per the needs of their population, but this does not denote official recognition of a state language. According to the same article: "According to the 1990 census, 96% of U.S. residents speak English "well" or "very well". Only 0.8% speak no English at all as compared with 3.6% in 1890." --Golbez (talk) 16:00, 18 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I need help restoring contents about human right violations and wars/murders committed by the government and also about the lies that Iraq endangered the world by its atomic bomb and weapons of mass murder like the ones USA have. Possibly up to 1 million people died in Operation Iraqi Liberation. I think they deserve to be mentioned here. This is serious and it's the least we can do.
Please advice.
