Now, I’m not an expert on Nashville, I know it for its music both good and bad, and I’m no expert on Tennessee either, I know it for its barbecue and auto racing. So trying to make a big pronouncement about the people of Nashville and its environs regarding the passage later today of the English Only Referendum would be silly as well as ignorant.
But as the nation takes a step forward, Nashville and Davidson County will take a big step backward at the end of today as they will pass a referendum to make English the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
Let’s read shall we.
English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Official actions which bind or commit the government shall be taken only in the English language, and all official government communications and publications shall be in English. 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. The Metro Council may make specific exceptions to protect public health and safety. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law.
What makes this referendum ridiculous beyond the hundreds of thousand of dollars this is costing the residents of Nashville are the final two sentences:
The Metro Council may make specific exceptions to protect public health and safety. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law.
That’s right, basically this referendum will be useless on Day One. So while the United Sates is fighting two wars, the economy is going to hell in a hand basket, some brainiac thought that this would be a good idea. And that brainiac would be Council Member Eric Crafton.
For the record I have this thing called GOPdar, it’s a lot like gaydar but it works on spotting Republicans instead of gays. (Yeah I know, insert joke here). Even though Nashville council members run with no party affiliation, Crafton’s work on this issue smells awfully like a move by the Radical Right. Deflect rather than reflect. I’d better dollars to donuts that Crafton is a Republican.
Back on topic. Being one of the cynics is not one of Crafton’s biggest problems, its just icing on the cake as far as I am concerned. Crafton’s complication would be this man, Jon Tanton, founder of ProEnglish. Tanton is one of the principal funders of the Nashville referendum, but there is more to Tanton that just being a lover of American English. I’ll let the Southern Poverty Law Center explain:
Although Tanton has been linked to racist ideas in the past — fretting about the “educability” of Latinos, warning of whites being out-bred by others, and publishing a number of white nationalist authors — the papers in the Bentley Library show that Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has corresponded with Holocaust deniers, former Klan lawyers and the leading white nationalist thinkers of the era. He introduced key FAIR leaders to the president of the Pioneer Fund, a white supremacist group set up to encourage “race betterment,” at a 1997 meeting at a private club. He wrote a major funder to encourage her to read the work of a radical anti-Semitic professor — to “give you a new understanding of the Jewish outlook on life” — and suggested that the entire FAIR board discuss the professor’s theories on the Jews.
Time and time again Crafton has been forthright about the English Only Referendum whether it is transparency about the donors or his motives behind the ballot measure.
Regardless of how the referendum ends up, it’s just Nashville being Nashville for good or bad. The issue for me is what fights the Radical Right continues on fighting while there is real work to be done If its not gay marriage, abortion, prayer in school, flag burning, immigration, union busting, then the Radical Right is not interested.
But today the world is different. When they use to exhaust us, now we’ll tire no more. When they use to beat us down with their dumb arguments, now we’ll fight on. When they use to back us in a corner, now we’ll stand up. Nashville is just another skirmish, but they’ll be other battles. And when the come we need to be prepared.
Special thanks to Tennessee blogs Southern Beale and Enclave for their extensive coverage of this issue.