Posted on 07/14/2006 2:13:22 PM PDT by E-Mat
The American Civil Liberties Union has asked officials in a Detroit suburb to reject a proposal that would require businesses with foreign language signs to add English translations.
"We write to strongly urge you to abandon the measure as unconstitutional, anti-immigrant and unnecessary," the ACLU wrote to the city Thursday in a letter that was also signed by officials with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Michigan and Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development Inc.
In May, Sterling Heights, Mich., Councilwoman Barbara Ziarko asked the city's attorney to prepare an ordinance requiring businesses with foreign language signs to have identifiers such as "bakery" included, the Detroit News reports.
Fire Chief John Childs supported the move, arguing that people passing by the site of a fire or other emergency could inform dispatchers about the location more easily if they could read the signs.
He maintained that the issue has nothing to do with race.
"This is about response time," he said. The city issued a statement Thursday defending the proposed ordinance.
"Any assertion that the city's public safety effort is intended as a restriction on the expression of cultural diversity is categorically denied," the statement said.
According to the News, Michael J. Steinberg of the ACLU said the proposal is unconstitutional "because it singles out businesses with signs.”
(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)
One would think this would be a great help and learning aid to real immigrants. They would see the word in their native language and then the English equivalent beside it.
I suspect the ACLU's main interest here isn't to help people, they just want to attack everything American.
The ACLU should be required to post "Anti-American Communists" outside their offices.
ROFL!
Ah yes....
Only in America have we nearly succeeded in destroying a nation with stupidity being excused as "kindness and generosity"...
In a few generations at MOST, if we don't address the threats to border, culture and language -- "American" as we knew it will be gone.
If THIS light on the hill goes out....it may take centuries to relight..
Semper Fi
No, it's not.
I'm familiar with this area of Metro Detroit and have been following this story. The businesses in question are Korean, and their marquis are written in Korean script. It's an older neighborhood and dominated by a lot of strip malls.
Finding a numerical address in a strip mall is a challenge when the writing is in Engish, but when a foreign script is used it's even trickier. This is a question of safety not only for the business owner in question, but for any adjacent, English-speaking businesses. Just because I won't visit a store that isn't interested in communicating with me doesn't mean I'll exclude their neighbor.
The ACLU has never assimilated!
I speak Spanish fluently and love the language and culture. However, if you live in an English speaking country, you learn to speak English. If you live in a Spanish speaking country, you should learn Spanish. Many Americans do not do this, suprisingly enough, and there are Americans who have lived in Mexico for years and cannot speak a word of Spanish. That said, they don't get to vote in Mexico, either.
Spanish speaking immigrants want to speak English and get ahead. There are two groups keeping them from doing this: the teachers' unions, which keep pushing "bilingual" (i.e., foreign language only) education because they get higher pay for it; and some Dem-sponsored radical political groups.
One of the problems is that Spanish speakers cannot even get their kids out of these "bilingual" classes. In New York City, the schools were placing kids in these classes who had never spoken Spanish in their lives but happened to have the last name of Garcia or Velez. Would Italian-Americans be forced into bilingual classes because their last name was - well, Giuliani? No.
The problem has to do with the left and not with Hispanics, most of whom have seriously capitalist values (they want to get ahead) and very good family and cultural values. And they WANT to learn English. It's the lefties among them, combined with the educational establishment and the Democrat party, that is preventing this.
That doesn't make the law Unconstitional.
If one city can require that signs be in English, another city would be able to require that signs be in Spanish. I don't think we want to go there.
The ACLU hates this country and will continue to weaken its institutions and destroy its traditions until a majority of voters decide to slap them down. The congress has the power to deny them taxpayer funding -- they should do that immediately.
That is also correct and a bit of hyperventilation on your part. GPS and posted house numbers which are always in "English" tend to take care of the problem. I have zero problem with people using whatever language they wish in their private capacities. I am not one of those people who resents that I cannot listen in on other peoples' conversations because they are not talking in my language and I do not fantasize that anyone who is speaking a language I don't understand is necessarily talking about me and I don't much care if it is about me. Anything the government does should be in English and any translation should be provided by private entities only.
I agree in the idealist form of government, that doesn’t mandate language for businesses as an example. Its not right that tax dollars be taken from me to print bilingual and makes it harder for me to use forms or do business because of having to wade through all the gobledy gook when the government can take my kids away from me if I don’t send them to school to learn English.
But consider, one problem we have with the invasion and erosion of our free society and our fair and just government is that we treat those who don’t abide by the same rules as how we want to be treated even though they would not do the same for us, then they turn around and abuse these rights in order to destroy the very society that set them free.
For example, we freely give constitutional rights to enemy combatants whom when and if they ever go free would not allow the same, we integrate our schools and bend over backwards to help immigrants, but in LA for example when La Raza people become the majority, they start teaching separatist classes, all in the name of a so called "race" .
So, is it really wrong to be inconsistent with ideology, and force English tranlations, as they require of us, if the good of the overall culture is at risk and under invasion?
One might say, but those who use other languages are US citizens? However this is a myth, since immigrants will learn English within the first generation (lets be clear, nobody is kidding anybody the other language we are talking about is Spanish) , and since the majority of new immigrants in the first generation are illegal, then those who do not speak English for example have a greater proportion of not being US citizens to begin with.
Therefore, is it OK for our government to intrude and mandate laws to maintain our culture? I would argue that it’s not only right, but also that is the major function of our government to protect us form foreign invasion.
When was the last time you drove through Detroit? There are blocks of streets where you have to look really hard just to find something other than the Arabic alphabet. Suppose you drive an ambulance, or you're a police officer. Someone is having a heart attack, or someone has been shot. Maybe a store is being robbed. English on the signs might be nice, right?
Y'all know why the ACLU doesn't want English on the signs, dontcha? Imagine the potential lawsuits resulting from medics or police who are held up responding to an emergency because they can't translate the damn squiggley symbols.
You seen this?
This is aimed more at all the arab-owned businesses in the Detroit area. English speaking Americans and hispanics share an alphabet. Not intrusive.
You don't have much practical experience with law enforcement or fire dispatch do you? That what my wife has been doing for 15 years. Her 911 systems don't come up with GPS information. The officers in the field don't have GPS anyway. In her department, only one of 26 officers speaks Spanish. The rest are English only. Unlike her experience at the San Diego Sheriff's office, there isn't a contract in place to bridge a translator on the line. If you don't speak English on your 911 call, you probably aren't going to get any service at all. An officer visit to the displayed street address is the minimum likely level of service. Time enroute will be a function of the selected officer's familiarity with the territory. EMS calls are time critical. If a building is completely labeled in Arabic, Chinese, Thai, Greek or Russian, the officers are going to be delayed at best. The only good thing to note is that the officers have no duty to protect you. If you make it harder for them to provide a time critical service, it isn't their fault if you expire while they are trying to locate you.
You would require full harness seat belts and 35 mph national speed limits also , no? It would make us safer and officers could catch speeders more easily. Hereabouts GPS is just part of the mix on fire trucks, at least. But then, this is the benighted South and we can be backwards like that.
gee I wonder who their clients are over there. They did after all lose federal money because they refused to agree NOT to hire terrorists.
Well.....at least we'll know where to NOT do business......
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