Nashville Residents Push for English-First Law(Attention, GWB!)

Los Angeles Times ^ | April 4, 2007 | Richard Fausset

[kellynla]

NASHVILLE — MAKE no mistake: This is still Guitar Town, and the cavernous Nashville Used Music store is proof. Here, amid rows of new and used six-strings, one finds country music veterans, hirsute rock dudes and honky-tonk strivers picking away most hours of the day in a gloriously dissonant jumble of twang.

But in a back corner, co-owner Charlie Shrader has been stocking, in ever-growing numbers, the gaudy symbols of the new Nashville: the Gabbanellis.

That is, Gabbanelli brand push-button accordions — bright, spangled things, some tricked out in the red, white and green stripes of the Mexican flag, and all marketed to the norteño and cumbia musicians who play an altogether different kind of country music.

It is a businessman's response to a changing clientele: The percentage of foreign-born residents in Nashville and the surrounding county has quadrupled since 1990. Today, the Census Bureau estimates as many as 1 in 10 of Nashville's 549,850 household residents are foreign-born, lending a cosmopolitan flair to an area that, like many in the South, was long defined in the old racial binary of black and white.

[kellynla]

The measure's sponsor, Councilman Eric Crafton, said he introduced it in response to "pent-up frustrations" over the federal government's failure to curb illegal immigration.

[kellynla]

"I welcome the people who come here legally, and it's kind of fun having the different flavors," he said. "At the same time, we don't have to lie down and give up our culture and heritage."

[sdillard]

Once again, the LA Times misses the point. BUSINESSES in Nashville will remain free to use any language they choose. It’s the GOVERNMENT that will mandated to use English only, except where required by federal law.

Why can’t the MSM ever get this right?

[Joe Boucher]

Come on man. Cultural diversity is the thing. Don’t ya all want your babies to grow up speaking english and spanish and being aware of mooselimb culture and celebrating kwanza?

[Volunteer]

When I go home to Tennessee, I am shocked by how Mexican it has become since I left in 1997.

I am not exactly sure when all the folks flooded into my home state. I know the popular thinking pushed by the MSM is that they are only here "to do jobs Americans will not do".

The thing is, in 1997, I remember Americans doing those jobs.

[kellynla]

I was in Memphis last week.
There has been a large contingent of Mexicans & Cubans moving there.
How do you say “ya’ll” in Spanish? LOL

[RockinRight]

You know what would seal the deal for me? If Fred Thompson made a comment that he supports this action in his home state.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Our population is closer to 625,000, not 550k, another Census Bureau screw-up. It doesn’t matter what Crafton pushes through, because our putzhead Mayor, Purcell, will veto it.

[Grammy]

I was an American doing one of those jobs, until the "Mexican Union" forced me out.

I used to work in a hotel kitchen. The Mexicans wouldn't support the Anglos, so they would quit. When the mexicans had half the staff in the kitchen, they went to the boss and demanded a raise, or all would leave at once. They got it. So I refused to work for $2 less an hour than they got, especially since I was more experienced.

So much for "cheap labor" and "jobs Americans won't do". (I am sick of that myth by the way)

[Melinda in TN]

It’s awful here. I live on a farm in farm country and we let locals mow our hay every year. We have one rule; we don’t allow Mexicans on our property. There is only one farmer in this whole area that is able to do it and he does it by himself. We only have 45 acres to mow. The larger farms all hire Mexicans. The government subsidized dairy farms hire legal documented Mexicans but the mid-size farms smuggle illegals in to farm the tobacco, etc. Fact is, you can’t hire locals to work the tobacco farms, hay fields, or the dairies. A man near me tried to hire teenagers to get his hay up last year. He finally found some and three passed out in the heat the first day and had to go to the hospital. None of them came back. Locals won’t work on farms in the heat when they can get a good paying factory job. Where farms are concerned, Mexicans aren’t taking jobs away from locals the way they do in factories. They still need to be legal and documented.

I don’t care if they hire legal workers because they don’t cause a problem. They are documented, speak English and obey the law. The illegals are another story. All they do is steal when they aren’t in the fields.

I really believe the mid-size farmers would go out of business without migrant help but they should be forced to hire legals. If they don’t, they need to do jail time. We’re sick of them.