Nashville's Online Source for Daily News
Search Site
‘English’ for Metro heading to the ballot box
Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 12:31am
Metro Councilman Eric Crafton is launching a ballot initiative that would make English the official language on Metro. File
One year after his controversial ordinance was vetoed, Councilman Eric Crafton has launched a ballot initiative to amend the Metro charter making English the official language of Metro government.
The ballot initiative by Crafton seeks to amend the charter to say, “English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee.”
Crafton has started a Web site on the initiative, www.nashvilleenglishfirst.com, and will launch a postcard campaign to 15,000 Davidson County voters next week, he said.
The goal is to get the mandatory 10,103 signatures of registered voters by mid-August so that the initiative is on the ballot for this November’s election.
“The reason it’s so important is because any logical, intellectually honest person would have to admit that English is the success language in the United States,” Crafton said. “If you don’t know English, you’re going to be trapped in a lower strata of society, not having a voice, having menial jobs and no education.”
The new ballot initiative comes just over a year after Crafton’s ordinance to accomplish the same thing was passed by Council with a 23-14 vote but subsequently vetoed by Mayor Bill Purcell.
When he vetoed the legislation — one of only two vetoes during his eight years in office — Purcell quoted a finding by the Metro Law Department, which said it could violate state and federal law.
“If this law takes effect, this city will be engaged in years of lawsuits testing the effect and constitutionality of the ordinance,” Purcell said at the time.
Crafton’s charter amendment proposal says, “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.”
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Technorati
Filed under: City News
Crafton, your statement is just not true. You don't know English (I've heard you speak; someone else wrote your statement out for you), and you have made it onto the Metro Council.If this silly proposal gets on the ballot, it will waste time & thousands of dollars before a court finds it unconstitutional.
The proverbial, "Hindsight is always 20/20," or "in retrospect" is certainly appropriate re English as the official language. For approximately 185 years, the Founders forward never thought it necessary to establish English as official by law. It was a given. Those were the melting pot years. Enter the idiocy of a number of destructive philosophies, with the ascent of pluralism trumping rational thought, and political correctness submerged us into a morass. Now our constitution is often considered dynamic; original intent is cast aside. Rather than endure the intentionally laborious process of amendment, just let the majority of nine justices decide what it means--today.A requirement for one standard language--English if we hurry--as well as one standard currency, provides stability, and is consistent with common sense.We have rapidly gone from a melting pot to a meltdown.
Why is Eric Crafton such a dick?
Because, Imdyin, Eric Crafton panders to the dick constituency in Nashville. Those are his people.Kat, Crafton's proposal would change nothing & would add no stability. Immigrants learn English already while offering you the option to learn other languages. Switzerland is quite stable. it has FOUR common languages.
What's in the water out in Bellevue? Maybe they really wish they were in Dickson or Cheatham County!
Disgusting and shameful.
Crafton's justification for offering this proposal provides a good explanation for its irrelevance. As long as English is the language of success, there is absolutely no reason to put it in the city charter. Doesn't Metro Government have more pressing matters to attend to? Mr. Crafton, you're wasting precious time and squandering energy that might actually be useful for something.
Dog maybe those Bellevue people should be in Dickson County. At least we don't have any commissioners who have brought up such a silly idea. daysi1
He just wants to be able to understand Mexicans when they call him "stupid".
I'm embarrassed to live in a city where this type of blatant intolerance and discrimination is taken seriously. Every person in Nashville who supports this should be ashamed of themselves.
Boy, what an idea!!! Move Bellevue into Dickson or Cheatham County? Over night, they would be paying less in taxes, crime would drop, and their school's performance would skyrocket! Not a bad suggestion, not bad at all!
Excellent point, Mulligan. Make that an l.t.e., and write it to your councilperson, too.
I definitely support it...it's my tax payer dollars paying for translators. Hopefully the next step is to require the English language must be spoken and understood before attending a Metro School. I'm way over our tax dollars being spent to accommodate and support those who come here for a 'better life' but have no intention of becoming a contributing member of society - they are quite content to sit around and allow us to support them. Of course the best solution is to send them all back and require them to enter the country legally...but this is a start!
Eric, you have our family's support, and from what I've heard from the other families in Cleveland Hall in Old Hickory, you have their support as well. I shouldn't be required to speak 32 languages in order to communicate with the students currently attending Antioch High School. It's a joke. When we built our new home 2 years ago, we also built an extravagant koi pond, complete with 13 skids of flag and 8 skids of river rock. There were thousands of dollars worth of koi transported from the old house as well. Some painters that were hired by a sub-contractor "cleaned" their paint brushes in the pond and killed all those fantastic fish! We'd told them over and over again not to do just that. If they'd spoken English, or even cared about those animals, they'd have avoided killing them. So to the rest of you, what if it was my child instead? If immigrants, legal or otherwise, wish to participate and be citizens here, they really should act like they give a flip~
The Grandstanding Jackass strikes again!
GG: Stupid comes in all languages. why would you have a pond with little kids around?????We did an addition and the "Ammeerrican" workers from Dickson peed behind our garage (I can still smell it, yuck) and constantly leered at our neighbor's sitter. However, my neighbors were having their house painted and the guys were clean, quiet, efficient and ... Hispanic. Not to mention cost half as much.
Crafton keeps looking for a way to slap down immigrants -- and the blow he aims at them hits us all. Immigrants already WANT to learn English. How about including ESL classes in the Metro budget?? This will set us all back decades."No person shall have a right to government services in any other language." So people more comfortable with other languages will jsut have to tough it out in relating to the police, to medical professionals at the Health Dept, or to EMTs and firefighters. Talk about shooting us ALL in the foot to punish others. "All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English." They already ARE."Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law." Just to conflict with common sense, any idea of a welcoming community, and any possibility of building relationships with those different from ourselves.
Isn't Crafton married to a foreigner who doesn't speak English well?Seriously. I've heard that.
Fundi: the pond has safety mechanisms (steel grates that Bobby Joslin has made for us) and the river rock to elevate the bottom so no one can drown. Duh.... geez, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to make things safe. And hey, the pond's been here for 3 years and guess what? No body's died or even come close, not even the dogs. Oooooh.... go figure. All it took was a little intelligence. Our neighbor's swimming pool is way more scary, and has an attractive fence my 4 year old can easily scale. So get off your soap box. But thanks for caring anyway. If I'd been blonde about it, I'd have made all those mistakes you're pondering, but I've been building and creating ponds since 1992. It was a learning experience all the way, too.And as for the painters, I didn't hire them. Since that time, I've hired an excellent painter, Jersey Joe, who is fabulous, and I'll glady post his info if you're interested. I also hired a faux painter, she's from Clarksville, and was impressed with her work, too. And they speak perfect English, so there was no threat to my kids or my pets. Way cool.
I understand if a bunch of xenophobic closet racists want to pass a stupid law like this.But don't you dare use the argument that this will somehow make sure your tax dollars won't be wasted on translators. If this law passes, hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars (and mine and everyone else who lives in Metro) will be spent on legal challenges to this law.If you want to defend Crafton's posturing, fine. Just understand that we're all going to be paying through the nose for this while city workers are being laid off and services are underfunded.I swear, we need to be taking voter cards away from these dipshits who keep costing all of us money for their stupid psychological dramas.
So...you consider anyone who doesn't speak English as a threat to your children and pets? Weird.
Morph, I've met Eric's wife, although it was 8 years ago, and she speaks proper English. Actually, she exudes perfect grammar most days, as I hear it. It was at his urging that she educated herself accordingly, from what I was told back then. This was supposedly why he's so adimant about US citizens knowing and appreciating our language. You should be thankful for his outspokennous instead of being so critical. Look, it's clear there's some animosity towards Mr. Crafton, whether justly earned or not, but those feelings should not outweigh his endeavors to improve the quality of life in Nashville. And that's what we're talking about, the quality of life. When you go to eat out, don't you have a better experience when the employees "understand" what you're asking them? Isn't it actually safer if they know on the front side that you're allergic to nuts? How are they going to understand basic concepts if they don't know the language first? Quit being so afraid of hurting others feeling and consider individual safety for a change. This insanity has got to stop. Your PC attitudes are actually a threat to society, no less. And when the caller is telling 911 he has a problem, he needs to know the ONE language. Not the reverse. The 911 operator should not be responsible for interpreting 32 languages, since there are at least that many spoken in Davidson County currently. And please, please, please don't insult our founding fathers by suggesting that John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and the others would actually be OK with what's going on now.
Fundi, I was just reminded by my neighbor that I have deadbolt locks on all 6 entry doors, and I have a security system that alarms me when doors are opened. It's obnoxious but worth it. It loudly beeps even when the alarm is not on, so we know when our college kids are leaving or coming home as well. And Diane said to tell you that we've instilled "fear" of falling in to our kids. They think our fish bit. Hey, the Tancho is 35 inches long. She could eat your cat! lol
Girlie, this country is a melting pot, there has always been a certian amount of people who didn't speak the language at any given time.And, there has always been a backlash of hysteria if one group, like the Irish early in the 1900's, or today's Hispanics, don't learn the language fast enough. Some people's stupidity is so predictable.
Funditto, I would have been even more concerned if the workers at your home were leering at the neighbor's setter.
Gdia, if you can't tell them not to spray pesticide in the kids rooms when they show up to do their pest control, it's a threat. When the guy can't understand you when you tell him the baby is allergic to peanuts, and he's making your food, it's a threat. When he's installing a deadbolt to your garage, so you won't have to worry about the 3 year old sneaking out the door, down the stairs, and into the driveway where the older kids might run over him by accident, and he doesn't "get it"... doesn't match the keys, doesn't lock it after he leaves, it's a threat. The English speaking people "get" it. They've never accidentally or purposely left the front door unlocked, not once. They've never gone out the back way and left a door unlocked, but the woman from Brazil did. The English speaking hired individuals won't accidentally leave out contaminates, because, as a good parent, you'll have already informed them of these hazards. And they "got" it, and got it the first time around, no less.
morph, I don't think Crafton has any intention of this dumb initiative passing into law, he just loves the attention it generates. As a developer of sorts, he would be kicking his own @$$ pushing this. Other than gdiafante's speculation that he hears 'el Crafton es muy estupido!' out on the jobsite and doesn't know what it means......
Now, if you're on a cruise, and you need to tell the doctor on foreign soil that your husband is allergic to walnuts, you NEED to know the language there! You're going to wish, seriously, you knew the language. Been there, done that. Also, when you're in Aruba, not everyone speaks English, so find you a translator. Did that one, too. lol
2nd Generation Homes is building a house 3 doors down, and very few Spanish speaking guys were there yesterday. Everyone I met spoke English. You know, my 4 year old can do it, so it's really not a stretch of the imagination that individuals moving here can't grasp it. Well, unless you think they're all stupid.... yes? I mean, is that what you're getting at? All all immigrants just too stupid to adapt here? If they aren't then what's your beef?
Still waiting for the "No Crapton" bumper sticker plug...
Let's do a recall petition drive on him. Bet we could do it pretty fast and effectively.
I don't have a "beef
Gdia, my ancestors were Irish, and some were taken directly off the boat and put on a train to serve in the Civil War. We have the paper trail and photos. It was really sad, too. But they all learned the language, and quickly. It was a matter of survival. Hell, it's still a matter of survival today. By the time you read the those safety inserts in products you buy these days, and mind you, the dang insert is pages and pages (not very Green if you ask me) your life is probably already in danger.... lol
I thought the woman that did those Wendy's ads many years ago had passed away. Maybe not?!?
Nearly all immigrants do want to learn English and do want to work and fit in. I knowa a fellow, he's been here since 96. A good job, good house, he speaks good English with an accent, his kids all speak better English than most natives. This is the rule not the exception. However, someone only here for 1 or 2 years has not yet mastered the language. It is not easy for adults to perfect a 2nd language. Crafton es un tonto.
Funditto, there's your bumper sticker. 'Crafton es un Tonto'.
I don't consider non-English-speaking people "riff-raff" as you call it. I just don't need the added peril, thank you. And there are THOUSANDS of unemployed English speaking Americans who need jobs right now. Heck, most probably worked for GM last week. :-) My point it, give the money to someone who's here legally, who can actually communicate with you. Then you don't endanger your babies or your pets, provided you actually like yours. lol
If Crafton's wife speaks proper English, she's one up on him. Speaking of proper English, I'm trying to figure out how one 'exudes' grammar. The definition I have is 'to ooze out' or 'to undergo diffusion'.
Girlie, let's just hope Jersey Joe doesn't pee in your pond when you're not looking...I'm not sure where you live but I can go weeks...months!.. without coming across anyone who does not speak English. And if I do, it doesn't bother me in the least. Door to door "youth" selling magazines and ripping good people off bothers me more. American citizens do more harm to each than some poor hispanic guy trying to make a living ever will.Crapton needs to get a grip. There are many more important things to consider in this town than how folks communicate. He should try it. I've heard he's a hot head when he doesn't get his way in business...
Kosh, there are many people here, who've been here for more than 4 years, that refuse to learn our language. Their kids do the translating. I've seen it almost daily, and it's a little spooky. What happens when the kiddies aren't around to help out? And no where does it say in the bill that if you'll be persecuted. The intent is to get the message out that individuals (out of sheer respect for this country) should learn the language, learn the laws (another valid point) and respect those laws accordingly. You can't have foreigners using the language as a "get out of jail free" card every time they run over a child in a school zone "because they didn't know the language" on the sign. Can you?
The sky is falling!!
Fundi, try eating at a Mexican restaurant our in Hermitage some days. Then, have a garage sale. Good golly miss Molly. Even the flyers on our mailbox advertising house cleaners send Spanish-speaking-only individuals to do the work. It's a safety issue. And peeing in my pond, good Lord, it's 8000 gallons, won't bother me. Might upset the fish though. LOL
Wait a minute...people speaking Spanish at a Mexican restaurant?? What the hell is the world coming to!! Next you'll be telling me that they speak Chinese at a Chinese restaurant...
I've heard they do that in Chinese restaurants....
....and when Eric Crafton walks in they all say 'bai chi'.(that's 'idiot' in Chinese).
Here ya go:http://www.cafepress.com/stopcrafton.273209899
Go Celtics!!! Hmm...I wonder where that name came from?Rather - from whence did that name come?(just trying to "exude" some grammar, here)
Not "from whence
Thanks, MJB, it is great to know that there are such helpful people out there in the Nashville community willing to help me out with my poor grammar! I just wish everyone else was as friendly and understanding as you. LOL! And the Switzerland comment was right on! So, I've been thinking: what about State and Federal offices located in Metro? What happens there?
Funditto is that EC himself wearing the sombrero?