Posted on 01/23/2009 6:00:59 AM PST by andrew roman
The city of Nashville, Tennessee has decided that it will not become an English-only city. Yesterday, voters there gave a thumbs-down to a proposal - called "English First" - that proponents say would have not only united the city but saved money. It would have mandated that the government there conduct its daily affairs in English.
Opponents say becoming an English-only city could have given Nashville a "bad reputation."
From the Associated Press via Fox News:
Business leaders, academics, religious leaders, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and Gov. Phil Bredesen argued the measure would tarnish the city's welcoming image, harm tourism and business recruitment and endanger federal funding for many city services.
...
Supporter Glenda Paul, 35, said having one language is an important part of keeping government small as she exited a voting precinct Thursday.
"If I moved to France to start a business, I would be expected to speak French and that doesn't mean that I am not welcome there. It just means I need to respect the language."
But Claire King, 31, who lives in East Nashville, said Thursday that she voted against the amendment because "it sends a message of intolerance." She said she thought multiple perspectives and languages enrich to the city's culture.
(Excerpt) Read more at romanaround.net ...
Does that mean they would have had to start using words with more than two syllables? :)
While I disagree with the outcome, this is as it should be. Local people making local decisions.
There’s more to this than initially meets the eye. Check out the arguments made by Nathan Moore (he has made several posts on this issue)here:
He does raise some valid points.
It always seems opponents of this sort of legislation from a conservative perspective are talking out of both sides of their mouth to me. The arguments seem disingenous. As if to say that I’ll speak in these couched terms, but my real reason for opposition will be spoken later.
It is true, though, that nonsense like this would happen:
“There were lawsuits and legal challenges from the federal government over issues such as bilingual ballots. Civil libertarians argued that linguistic restrictions violated the equal-protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.”
I strongly urge every Tennessean to learn some obscure language well enough to visit Mr. Oreck’s establishment and monopoloize the time and energy of all his employees in trying to figure out what they are saying.
These idiots need exposure to a Tower of Babel to bring them to their senses - if they ever had any.
Spot on. That’s the essence of my letter to the editor (which probably won’t get printed since the Tennessean newspaper is totally in the tank with the mayor and governor on this). I so want to get out of this increasingly-liberal city, but having a hard time selling my house. The local schools suck because the government is run by leftists and appeasing RINOs. By the way, Dyson is the best vacuum ever made.
I thought we elected a majority of Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representives. Oh well so much for that I guess. And of course that moonbat Bredesen can’t wait to sign it.
They are doing it in several ways:
They have monopolized the mainstream media
They have monopolized the “Entertainment” industry.
They have monopolized the school systems
They have monopolized the cities
They have taken over the leadership of many Christian denominations
They have co-opted the “minority” vote
They have manipulated the electoral process in such a fashion that the Republican Party has become irrelevant.
Conservatives need to either leave the Republican Party or take it over and squeeze out ALL the liberals
We need to figure out SOME way to counter the barrage of anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Constitutional and anit-Judaeo-Christian propaganda each succeeding generation of Americans is exposed to in the classrooms from Kindergarten or before to graduate school in college. If we loose future generations, we loose the battle.
We need to establish a national Conservative news organ of some type to reach out the average American and counter the propaganda that Gannett, USA Today, The New York Times, etc put out every day.
Look at the last election. John McCain was so close to Obama on so many issues: Guantanamo, Waterboarding, illegal invaders, assault rifle bans and gun show bans, that in essence there was little difference between them.
As long as the Republican Party is run by such incompetents, liberals, and crypto-liberals, Democrat will triumph over Democrat Lite at the polls.
Conservatives need to either take over the Republican Party and squeeze out all the liberals, or abandon it altogether and start a new party.
It has become a serious obstacle in defeating the Bolsheviks in the Democrat Party.
” They have manipulated the electoral process in such a fashion that the Republican Party has become irrelevant.
Conservatives need to either leave the Republican Party or take it over and squeeze out ALL the liberals
We need to figure out SOME way to counter the barrage of anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Constitutional and anit-Judaeo-Christian propaganda each succeeding generation of Americans is exposed to in the classrooms from Kindergarten or before to graduate school in college. If we loose future generations, we loose the battle.
We need to establish a national Conservative news organ of some type to reach out the average American and counter the propaganda that Gannett, USA Today, The New York Times, etc put out every day. “
AMEN!
Just some recent stats for those who still believe we don’t let enough foreign nationals in legally....
By the numbers
More than 1 million people became citizens in 2008, with 780,000 taking the oath of allegiance in the first 10 months, according to preliminary figures from the Department of Homeland Security.
In 2007, 660,477 people were granted U.S. citizenship.
Leading countries of birth of new citizens were:
Mexico (122,258), India (46,871), Philippines (38,830), China (33,134) and Vietnam (27,921)
Largest number of people naturalizing lived in:
California (181,684), New York (73,676) and Florida (54,563).
SOURCE: Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/WestVolusia/wvlHEAD03WEST012209.htm
What gets me is that the anti amendment types make it sound like the city would force everyone to speak English. It only says the all official documents be in English. If someone wants to read those documents and doesn’t understand English, let him get an interpreter. The government shouldn’t be pandering to him by printing another set of documents in his native language.
A couple of years ago I wrote some councilmen in Indianapolis (I think) who were agonizing over which language to drop from instructions for using public transportation. They only had room for four and they wanted to replace Lao with Somali. I told them that folks who spoke Lao came over here after Vietnam went under and should be well-versed in English by now - and yet they aren’t, so why should we now do the same to the Somails?
Never got an answer.
“Leading countries of birth of new citizens were:
Mexico (122,258), India (46,871), Philippines (38,830), China (33,134) and Vietnam (27,921)”
Conservatives should be actively reaching out to and recrutiing these people politically.
For the most part these populations who come here legally, believe in strong family units, are well-educated professionals. hardworking tradesmen or hardowrking small buisness people and often share Judae-Christian values.
These are ALL fruitfull sources of Conservative voters if wisely handled. NONE of those aforementioned values apply to liberals.
The Republican Party has failed us here also.
Some questions:
Why such a low turnout? I understand the turnout was ~10% of eligible voters.
Was this a special election? If so, why?
Why are we bending over backwards to accommodate these people and why is it being so readily accepted.
As I pointed out earlier...Ohio has an organization called the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs...OCHLA. It was started in ‘77 as an outreach to Hispanics, in general, as a means to, I believe, assist in assimilation. Now, it’s a different story. As time has passed, it seems much of their efforts are now geared not only toward assisting illegals, BUT, as a Department under the Governor, I believe they are receiving taxpayer monies, grants, etc. and spending time organizing to FIGHT this kind of “anti immigrant” legislation. So while I may bust my azz over the issue, MY taxes are going to pay for THEM to organize out the wazooo and fight directly against me. i would like to find a way to prevent that from happening. Seems to me that taxpayer dollars should NOT be being used to assist those who are breaking our laws.
“Business leaders, academics, religious leaders...”
Chambers of Commerce, local professors and the Catholic church. With a line up like that...we were bound to lose. In the end, Nashville and it’s residents lose. English only today, a 3d world Sanctuary city tomorrow.
I was going to call him an ignorant idiot, but my guess is that he’s actually a RHINO traitor like Bush/McCain, favors globalism, NAFTA and illegal immigrant slave labor.
“With current demographic trends, both in Nashville and across the nation, the Republican Party will be signing its own death warrant if our party’s members begin supporting measures like this. We have good ideas - limited government, low taxes, a strong national defense, but it will all be for naught if we are viewed as a bunch of nativists.
Take this example, and I’ll be done (probably). You lock the door to your house, which is prudent - but, neighbors can still come to the door and visit you. They know the door is locked, but still feel welcome.
Instead, let’s say you have the door locked, but also were to put razor wire atop a 10 foot fence, encircling your property. Say you even put in a gate. People can still “technically” get to your front door, but do you still really think people would want to come visit you? Of course not.
This amendment isn’t about English - English is fine, healthy, and spoken everywhere here and around the world. It is about overkill. I strongly urge conservatives to vote this amendment down.”
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