Education First
The Tennessean has an article on the efforts by Eric Crafton and others to make Nashville look like a bastion of backwoods rednecks. Failing to receive a veto-proof level of support for his previous bill to make English the "first" language of Nashville, he has taken his xenophobia (oh, wait, his wife is Asian, so that makes it all cool) to the people.
I know I've been a bit late to the game on this, Mike Byrd has been following it diligently, but regardless, Crafton's website NashvilleEnglishFirst.com, registered under his email address craftonfamily@comcast.net, implores people to sign a petition to write this amendment into the Metro Charter:
"English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Official actions (those which bind or commit the government) shall be taken only in the English language, and all official government communications and publications shall be published only in English. No person shall have a right to government services in any other language. All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards, and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law."
He's gotta get about 10K signatures to get this on the ballot, and I don't really have any doubt that he can get those. Xenophobia towards immigrants is strong, and especially in times of economic trouble, people tend to lash out towards those who are different. So, he'll get the signature, and it'll pass by wide margins.
Ultimately, I'm not sure what effect this will have other than to give the city a bad name. The provision, "nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with Federal or State law," would likely negate many of the negative effects (such as prohibiting police or social work to be conducted in a second language); or if not, the charter amendment would probably be negated by a state or federal court which views the constitution as more than a quaint document with no modern day relevance.
The only real way to promote English first is to promote language courses to help teach foreign language speakers the beauty of our Americanized version of the language of Great Britain. The co-founder of Conexion Americas says that demand for these courses is outstripping the supply; so hopefully Mr. Crafton will focus his time and energies on training people in the wonders of the English language, if and when this ballot initiative goes through.
4 comments:
This whole thing is stupid. Its been vetoed it should be over. Speaking of tough economic times, all this bill will do is reult in a lengthy court battle that will cost tax payer a bunch of money. I think I remember the strip club bill cost something like half a million dollars and the city ended on the losing side. Perhaps we could better spend that half a million,
I've never felt put out by pressing one for English.
Yeah I only get pissed when it is press 1 for Spanish and English is listed second. :p
It is great when people know other languages and other cultures, but come on, we are living in the U.S.A., where the official language should be English. If you go to another country, it is best to speak that other language. Now, there are alot of people in this world speaking English, but you will be better off if you spoke the language of the country you visit or live in. I got fed up and tossed those politicians at brick at bricktoss.com, and you can to.
Post a Comment