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Commentary: With English Only amendment, the ‘Know Nothings’ are back
The Know Nothings was a nativist political party founded in the 1840s with the sole purpose for existence being to oppose Catholic Irish immigrants. When asked about their activities, the party members were instructed to say “I know nothing.”
Let’s call the English Only amendment what it actually is — the Know Nothing amendment.
We are, in effect, witnessing the rebirth of the Know Nothings in Nashville, circa 2009. Except now the target is not Irish Catholics, but anyone who may not have a perfect mastery of the English language and the taxpayers of Davidson County who will be footing the half-million-dollar tab for this unnecessary special election.
The Know Nothing amendment (cleverly and deceptively now coined as English First by its supporters) would be a giant step backward for a city that has been at the forefront of national progress over the last two decades.
True to creed, the amendment’s most ardent supporter, Councilman Eric Crafton, asserted just last week that he does not know what it would actually do. This most comforting admission is accompanied by a taxpayer bill for a special election and the erasure of Nashville from the international map.
In stark contrast to what the supporters of the Know Nothing amendment do not know, we who oppose this ill-conceived amendment do know some things. We know that its enactment would diminish the global perception of Nashville, and Tennessee itself, as a place to do business. A “yes” vote would rip that all-precious keystone from beneath the Shining City on the Hill that Nashville works daily to become.
We also know that Tennessee code already establishes English as the official (but not the only) language of Tennessee, to include all city and county governments.
At its very best, the Know Nothing amendment is redundant. Other pushers of the Know Nothing amendment have freely admitted that the purpose is largely “symbolic.” If symbolism is what they are after, let them pool their own money and buy some ad space in this very paper.
Of other things we know — federal and constitutional law would make the Know Nothing amendment impotent from the start. It could not apply to education, public safety, or the courts, which means that where money is actually spent by Metro, the Know Nothing amendment would have no effect. Non-English speaking immigrants needing building permits already do not receive translation services. Nearly all vital services must be provided in multiple languages per federal law and the equal protection provision of the federal and Tennessee constitutions.
Lest we forget, we are a nation of immigrants. The perception that non-English immigrants do not want to learn the language is a false one. No one travels thousands of miles to a foreign land to not communicate.
Sadly, in 2009, what the Know Nothing amendment is set to accomplish is not known by its supporters, but the unfortunate consequences are all too clear to the rest of us.
The only right vote on the Know Nothing amendment is a “no” vote.
Moore is a Nashville attorney and former chairman of the Davidson County Young Republicans. He is also the co-author of the blog MooreThoughts.com with his wife, Sarah.
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The ordanace will force the city to obey the State law rather then being a law unto themselves.Public servants have a way of becoming Public Masters as we have seen.
idgaf, Nashville is not disobeying state law when it uses other languages. Have a look around and you will see that the State of Tennessee uses other languages as well.You see, both governments understand that they are there to serve the people. One truly good way of serving the people is to ensure that Nashville's economy does as well as is possible. English Only is a sure fire way of ensuring that Nashville's economy sinks like a rock.Are you willing to sacrifice Nashville's well being to your xenophobia? I am not.
"Lest we forget, we are a nation of immigrants. The perception that non-English immigrants do not want to learn the language is a false one. No one travels thousands of miles to a foreign land to not communicate."
"Lest we forget, we are a nation of immigrants. The perception that non-English immigrants do not want to learn the language is a false one. No one travels thousands of miles to a foreign land to not communicate." Are you kidding? That's like saying that women don't have kids to get a government check. It's a load of crap. We are a nation of immigrants but they were immigrants who came here with NO safety net, NO health care and were expected to pull their own weight to survive. They learned English and added of our country. The current immigrants have a plethora of support services, give away programs and political panderers and drain our country. They just don't bother to learn English because they don't have to. I think you "know everythings" like to use the word xenophobic because it makes you feel superior to use big words, but "english only" is nothing more than practicality. We cannot cater to over a hundres different languages and expect tax payers to foot the bill for translaters.
I find Nathan Moore's argument impressive, passionate with sound historical background. His engagement in this debate is helpful.
Stay away from this id, you are in way over your head. Besides, Rush doesn’t know about this issue, and Valentine is showing his arse again.It is obvious from this column, and what has been said for weeks, that this bill is nothing more than a child like reaction of striking out in frustration. The bill will be ineffective in doing anything against illegal immigrants, and will be a slap in the face to legal immigrants, as well as those of us in this city that give a damn.
Here you are Nashville. You can allow the troglodytes to define our city to the world, or you can get out and vote against English Only and its companion measure.Do you wish to be identified with people whose hate is on display for the world?
The plaintiff in one of the lawsuits attempting to block this vote was a woman who immigrated here from Honduras TEN YEARS AGO! A significant number if immigrants simply do not make an effort to learn English. For over 200 years the federal and most state and local governments did not provide services in foreign languages and yet people from all over the world still chose to come here. As far as driving business away, if you ran a company would you rather locate to an area where immigrants were expected to learn English or one where you were expected to communicate with them in several different languages? A city speaking many languages without one common language is like an orchestra playing in many different keys.
What does this bill accomplish? It does not stop anyone from hireing an illegal from coming to this country. It does not stop an employer from hireing an illegal.The real reason it is made is that it get Eric Crafton a name in the Headlines.
idgaf is a throwback Knows Nothing. If id is for it. Then it is clear that we must choice the opposite.
A few years ago, when the GOP machine had a stronghold on the hearts and minds of its majority, this would have passed and we would have understood how and why. Now, with a new President, diverse cabinet, and basically a new world, English Only will fail because it is going against what was mandated (not in TN but by Davidson County voters) last November: progress.
Here, Here, Mr. Moore. Well said and on target.
Nathan Moore is a drama queen.The sky is falling, the world will end, Nashville will fall off the map...Where does the money come from to be all things to all people ?Why are non citizens acting like they have legal Constitutional rights ?Do you want to pay for their arrogant refusal to learn English ?...or listen to them whine about rights that they don't have and didn't earn ?I don't.
NGNG34 makes a good, valid point about the effect on businesses settling here. Think back with me to those wonderful days of yesteryear when Nissan first moved to Nashville. Did they expect the middle Tennessee community to learn Japanese to accomodate them? Of course not! They moved here because the business climate was good for them and they further recognized that being able to commnunicate with workers, suppliers, government officials, etc. in a single language was to their economic benefit. How many businesses do you see relocating to Europe? Few, if any. If you run a business in Germany, for instance, you may have to communicate in up to a dozen different languages.It's madness to think we can accomodate every different language group that shows up on our doorstep. Go ask the Metro School Board what the effect of having to teach in over 20 languages does to the quality and cost of education...
If the City Paper is against this (and they should be), why do they fall all over themselves to cover Crafton very time he opens his self-aggrandizing mouth?
Mr. Moore and rest of the Know Everything troglodytes who oppose the English only amendment should get out and vote your voice and quit whining about it. I have a personal goal to speak to ever one of my customers, family, friends, etc. to vote for English ONLY. Here is a suggestion, go out and learn Spanish and move to south America where you will find many who share your views to provide everything to everybody regardless of your language, criminal background or nationality. When you get back, go down to DOT for anything and get ready to wait in line for the multitude of Illegal Immigrants ahead of you, after you become proficient in Spanish, you could then assist the Illegal immigrants in Line with Translation services, this could be considered a real job for you, have fun. I am sick and tired of supporting immigrants with our tax dollars so they may work here illegally. If you live here, learn English and become a citizen or get the H--- out. Now awaiting the multitude of troglodytes arrogant and ridiculous comments, bring it on. 1st and last post from me. Vote English only.
go ahead and vote no i hope when your not able to function as an attorney due to the fact that you don't speak spanish or some other language you will appreciate the people that don't have jobs as a lot of americans don't now due to the influx of illegals.talk about an opinion that is one sided don't let your open mind in any way slant your opinion.
That argument is not valid, Citizen. When Ford goes to Mexico to make cars, I doubt that the work force speake English. The Japanese on the other hand are taught English to do business in The US.In Europe English is the second language. The reason is that English is rich with words. With new words being added.
"I am sick and tired of supporting immigrants with our tax dollars so they may work here illegally."You're going to be so disappointed when "English Only" fails to prevent illegal aliens from working here.
This commentary is a load of crap. Nashville is NOT the only municipality to attempt to pass a language ordinance in the United States. And the others who've done so have accomplished what they sought in the first place. To create a cohesive environment that says to all: we are one nation under God, and we speak accordingly. We don't believe in wasting monetary funds on silly inane practices meant only to coddle the lazy. So get over yourselves. This nation, and every other, is suffering from the largest loss of funds that most of us will ever witness in our lifetime. Do you REALLY think that throwing more money (that you don't have to begin with) towards something so inane as repetitive verbage in multiple languages is the route to go? We have people starving to death and others with no medical care. I'd say they deserve more attention than printing/producing media in all languages of the world (because to just do in Spanish would be racist of you) and quite disgusting. There are people dying because they opting to not purchase all of their medication due to lack of funds. So Mr. Moore, concentrate on real issues for a change. Stop kicking the ones who are falling down around you. If this little amendment passes, it's the very least of your worries. And as for businesses settling here, come on guys, you should be praying that the ones you've already got SURVIVE. What businesses? Every other country in the world is in the same crisis mode, and sadly enough, most are worse...except for those who've collected our oil money for the last year. Heck, even Waterford Crystal is tanking. Who'd have thought that were possible? It was started in 1759.
"we are one nation under God, and we speak accordingly."LOL, weren't we just talking about how some of the locals think Jesus was American?? LOL
This is going to be a long drawn out thread of people that don’t understand what this bill will, and will not be able to do. It should be interesting to see what some say it will be doing for this city, as so far none have been right.Proud martial123, please, share with us your business so we may make a better informed decision about working with you.tgm6004, please, share with us, how illegal immigrants (there is no such word as “illegals” by the way), who RARELY have contact with the metro government, are going to be affected by this bill. We are all waiting with “open minds” for your answer.
The Garden of Eden is in Memphis. lol
and Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes.
To girliegirl:Yes !
It was dear Ben Franklin in 1750 or so who identified an ill desired population and rallied the commonwealth of PA to resist any attempt to have the English language overthrown by the nasty new group of immigrants who now totaled 30% of the population.He too was worried and alarming the population. I mean, these were the German's of course, newly arrived in the nation. They hung out together, spoke in German a great deal and it worried Ben and his party to no end.He should have stuck to electricity longer and taught the TVA how to serve the people something other than huge rate increases, pollution and denial of their issues.Now we have more No Nothings, joined by Ben's group and the TVA to worry about. Just wait till you hear the next shrill of the troglodytes.....
pandabear said yes to girliegirl. I hope they will be happy together. lol
You first revo-lou,
martial123Ah, I didn’t come here touting my approach to business, and the physical effort I am making on this subject, you did. I fail to understand why you shy away from the free publicity of making your stand known, and no doubt boosting your business so!
"Except now the target is not Irish Catholics but anyone who may not have a perfect mastery of the English language". By this measure, Crafton is targeting himself. The real target is Hispanics, here legally or otherwise, but the result will send the wrong message to all immigrants. Moore basically has it right, and 'Know Nothings' is a great analogy.NGNG and citizen have it wrong. If Nissan had seen something like EO on the books here back then they would have looked elsewhere. Not because of the practical aspects of the initiative-there really are none- but because of what it says about tolerance in Nashville. This nonsense initiative will hopefully be voted down, and hopefully Crafton, Crispy and the out-of-town anti-immigrant group in the background will slither away. For meaningful efforts to regulate and send a message to illegal aliens seeking to locate here, let's continue to look to thoughtful public servants like Daron Hall and repudiate this nonsense initiative from the grandstanding oaf of Bellevue.
After this election is over and the charter gets ammended to make it easier for special elections like this one, I'm going to start a petition for a special election to pass a law where all Republicans have to wear red on Tuesdays and all Democrats have to wear blue on Thursdays.
“By: Rocket99 on 1/8/09 After this election is over and the charter gets ammended to make it easier for special elections like this one, I'm going to start a petition for a special election to pass a law where all Republicans have to wear red on Tuesdays and all Democrats have to wear blue on Thursdays.”Sadly, you would probably get enough signatures to make that happen.
And that special election would make as much sense as this one.
revo-louYou forgot to let us know your business? I'm sure your opinion would help your's business as well. Are you in Old Mex i co?LOL < ; - )
There are lots of other charter amendments that could make Nashville the laughing stock of the world and they would probably get introduced and passed. Unintended consequences are always the outcome. The past two generations have been all about greed and narcissism and now we are reaping what we have sown.
That is a good idea you have Rocket99. I will start a petition to have only intelligent people to make any bill.That will make it a lot easier ot do things in Nashville. lol
We could have a petition for special election to recall Crafton every week.
That is true dogmrb.
“By: martial123 on 1/8/09 revo-louYou forgot to let us know your business? I'm sure your opinion would help your's business as well. Are you in Old Mex i co?LOL < ; - )”Why did you pick Mexico? Not trying to show us a little bit of your bias, are you?Not quite as unabashed as you think you are, uh? Remember, I didn’t say that I was using my business as a political podium, you did. But, you just let us know if you think you can.Now, you still haven’t answered how you think this bill is going to change the immigration issues in this town, so lets just go in that direction for a bit. Why don’t you share with us how this bill is going to help legal immigrants and foreign visitors as well as rid our city of illegal immigrants?
I love how idiots like Nathan Moore continue to blame Eric Crafton for the special election, even though he has absolutely nothing to do with it not being on the Nov 4th ballot. People on Nathan Moore's "side" of trying to defeat democracy are the reason for the half million special election cost.At least he's got some personal experience in the "I know nothing" department.
Nathan Moor’s letter is articulate and persuasive. Based on the views expressed in this well-written letter, one might get the idea that its author is some shade of “liberal”. I was surprised to read that Nathan Moore is a former chairman of the Davidson County Young Republicans. Is Nathan still in the GOP fold or has he experienced an epiphany?Sadly the Tennessee GOP has a reputation nationally as being friendly to white supremacist values. Fore example, the Ford-Corker Senatorial contest clearly contained a racial component. The whole nation witnessed it.More recently, Chip Saltsman’s failed attempt to inject race-based “humor” into the ongoing contest for the GOP’s chairmanship is another high-profile example of Tennessee Republicans tarnishing Tennessee’s national and international image.If Eric Crafton’s “English First” amendment passes, it will be further evidence to support the claim that the electorate in Nashville and throughout Tennessee are still supporting white supremacist values. The question remains, will the voters in the Volunteer State, the greenest state in the land of the free and birthplace of Davy Crockett, give these undocumented Mexicans and Latinos a break, or will they remember the Alamo?
Who hums The Battle Hymn went you post, WickedTribe? Or do you do it yourself?
For the love of God...Isreal and Hamas are bombing each other, the Senate turned away Burris (illegally), Alcoa just laid off 13,000, and the porn industry is on Capital Hill asking for a $5.billion bailout.And we're still debating the "English Only" law? The TVA is going to raise everyone's electric bill because the damn broke, and the country is $10. trillion in debt and has a $1.4 trillion deficit. Obama just said the "trillion" (get used to that word)would be our deficit for years to come, and he isn't even inagurated yet. But at yesterday's "luncheon" with all 3 former, 1 present, and 1 elect, presidents, Bill Clinton remarked, "I like the rug
"...give these undocumented Mexicans and Latinos a break..."How far should Nashville go to accomodate and enable illegal aliens?Hispanics make up 4.6% of Davidson County's population while Asians account for 2.3%. Should all government workers who have dealings with the public be required to be multilingual? How many languages should all city government documents be published to ensure "equal access"?Nationally, it is estimated that there are about 15 million illegal aliens in this country. Knowing that Hispanics make up about 15% of the 300M people, and realizing that not all illegals are Hispanic, you could reasonably estimate that 1 in 6 Hispanics are here illegally.No breaks for illegal aliens. In fact, we should make it less accomodating, not more.
For cryin' out loud, what is Crafton's amendment going to accomplish? If you don't want illegal immigrants "stealing jobs" fine the heck out of the employers and make them be responsible for hiring them! THAT'S the way to solve the problem.
dargent, i couldn't agree more. *sigh*
“No breaks for illegal aliens. In fact, we should make it less accomodating, not more.”Daron Hall has done that, and I supported that. This bill will not do that, and that is why I don’t support it.
Crapton's amendment is just grand-standing. It will accomplish nothing at great expense... that's politics for you.This is an administrative question that's been turned into a political football for political gain. Vote NO on this thing; if for nothing more than to discourage further foolishness like this in the future.
"I love how idiots like Nathan Moore continue to blame Eric Crafton for the special election, even though he has absolutely nothing to do with it not being on the Nov 4th ballot. People on Nathan Moore's "side" of trying to defeat democracy are the reason for the half million special election cost."What was so urgent about this bill that it could not have waited until the next scheduled election? That is the issue with Crafton costing the city a half million dollars! If he had waited, the city would have been spared the expense! There is no reason for this to even be voted on, since English is already the official language, but to cost the city dearly for this ridiculous election is obscene! Crafton need to be recalled, just like he was threatened with recall over the Wal-Mart issue a few years ago. He only does what HE wants, not what his constituents want.Bury this initiative once and for all and let Nashville be the great city that it can be!
Dragon asked, “How far should Nashville go to accommodate and enable illegal aliens? That’s a fair question, Dragon.I guess that one could also ask, “How far should Nashville go to accommodate and enable people who’s native language is not English?” We have the technology today to accommodate and enable newcomers and/or visitors. Where there is a will, there is a way. My ATM asks me which language I wish to use; several choices are listed. We can get our Google News in any language. Government, like the private sector, can and should recognize and serve the needs of those who seek or require its services. Putting up artificial barriers to governmental services is not good governance.