AP, January 23, 2009
Nashville voters rejected a proposal to make English the mandatory language for all government business, easing fears that the measure could damage the city’s reputation and cost agencies millions in federal funding.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting early Friday morning, unofficial results showed the “English First” proposal losing with about 57 percent of voters against it and 43 percent in favor. Proponents said using one language would have united the city and saved money.
The city would have become the nation’s largest to pass such a measure. Similar measures have passed elsewhere, though business leaders, academics, the city’s mayor and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen opposed the “English First” proposal, which the governor has previously called “mean-spirited.”
“The results of this special election reaffirms Nashville’s identity as a welcoming and friendly city, and our ability to come together as a community,” Mayor Karl Dean said in a news release.
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Detractors also said the English First policy may not have survived a court challenge because Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires agencies that receive federal dollars to provide free translation services.
For instance, health department spokesman Brian Todd said the agency could have lost up to $25 million in federal funds if it halted translation services.
The only documented expenditure is for Monterey, Calif.-based Language Line Services, which provides phone interpretations in 176 languages. Expenses for the service have totaled $522,287 since 2004. By comparison, the special election cost $300,000.
{snip}
But Claire King, 31, who lives in East Nashville, said Thursday that she voted against the amendment because “it sends a message of intolerance.”
{snip}
About 10 percent of Nashville’s nearly 600,000 people speak a language other than English in their homes, according to census data. The city is 5 percent Hispanic and home to the nation’s largest Kurdish community and refugees from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Original article
(Posted on January 23, 2009)
Comments
What reputation? You mean country music and English-speaking Southerners? I won’t be spending any money in Nashville, or on Nashville, for the forseeable future. Did you see some of those country music stars salivating over Obama (i.e., Tim McGraw & Faith Hill)? Sickening. I am beginning to realize that the entertainment industry is our LARGEST enemy (sports included)!
Nashville, huh? Isn’t this the place of patriotism, Nascar culture, music blaring through the radio about being proud to be an American,etc. Ah huh. As I have so often opined, everything in America these days is an illusion. There is very little substance, or authenticity to anything that goes on.
Ask Canada. We have an official French-English bilingual policy in some places, and the costs are horrific. All documents must be translated, all signs in both languages, simultaneous translation services provided, second-language training provided, and certain jobs must be able to provide service in both official languages.
This is the slippery slope you go down when you do not stand firm on one language.
What’s this? The so-called “Country Music Capital of the World” voted down their own language? They can now join the ranks of The Boy Scouts of America, NASCAR, and Andy Griffith as symbolic institutions of White American Conservatism that have simply surrendered.
The nation has been plummeting for years, but when it finally hits the bottom, I do not expect even as much as a “dead cat bounce”. We are truly living in historic times, my friends, and the news is not good.
“Ask Canada. We have an official French-English bilingual policy in some places, and the costs are horrific.”
At least the French Canadiens have been around for 400 years. The Nashville immigrants arrived yesterday.
Besides, Faith-less Hill and McGraw; add ” botched plastic facial surgery face ” to the anti-American-Stock, self-loathing list, of cultural/racist traitors; a.k.a. Kenny ( Turn-Coat ) Rogers (his new song).
Yesterday, I dutifully went to the polls in Nashville, casted my vote…and then waited, and watched, as my fellow residents of Music City tossed away this grand chance to stem the tide of illegals into our proud City, and submit a message that we would not take it any more.
It is a very, very sad moment for everyone but our Socialist Mayor.
The foolish french canadians in Canada have been busy battling the english, and in the meantime they are over-run with blacks and muslims and other similar foreign entities that have no interest in becoming “Canadian” but rather cashing in on all the free social programs and setting up their own versions of where they came from, all at taxpayer cost of course.
They are smart use our laws for their benefit.
When people in north america are not willing to vote for english as their official language, then you know that the battle to maintian western european values is LOST FOREVER.
We will not recover from Bush. Hussein is the continuation of the end that Bush has initiated.
Tennessee, at least Nashville, has undergone an extreme change over the last 15-20 years somewhat comparable to “ethnic cleansing”. None of Bredesen or his hand-picked liberal successors is from this state; they’re not even southerners. Add to that: A huge influx of “Yankees” and Mexicans. The rapid “Bronxification” of large (formerly native white) areas of Davidson county. “Zero tolerance” for “rednecks”.
Sound familiar? Then you’ve been reading some pre-PC-era history books. Similar things happened here post-civil war. Except now it’s worse. Maybe it’s good for business, but the true culture’s disappearing.
Thing is, these people were ELECTED, who oversee-saw this. So shame on “us” who paid no attention while the smelly was hitting the fan.
I travel around the country on a motorcycle when I am in the states on R&R, and one gets to see things not usually seen from a vehicle. Nashville is, and has been a slum best seen from I-40 for a lot of years, and a dangerous slum at that.
At least the French Canadiens have been around for 400 years. The Nashville immigrants arrived yesterday.
Posted by Anonymous at 9:47 PM on January 23
Very true we need to address this problem now more than ever. They are coming in at rapid rates taking our jobs and putting our lives at risk. In southern california they drive around with FONT BC (which is straight from Mexico) license plates because they are not affraid of what el gringos are going to do to them. If we can get more anti immigration people into congress and the senate (OBAMA wouldn’t be able to doing anything against them) we push our agenda. I want Obama to succed but if we didn’t want him in office we should have elected MITT ROMNEY, Ron Paul, or at least Huckabee. Romeny was anti illegal immigration from the start and would have pushed more conservative policies on America.
“At least the French Canadiens have been around for 400 years. The Nashville immigrants arrived yesterday.”
Nashville voters rejected a proposal to make English the mandatory language for all government business, easing fears that the measure … could cost agencies millions in federal funding.
The MSM said that it was “mean spirited” for the people of Nashville to demand an english-only. How dare you ‘mean spirtied’ Nashville people! How dare you demand people who invade-I mean immigrate-to our country learn our language, follow our laws, and assimiliate into our culture. How rude!
Having English as an official language would “damage the city’s reputation.” Say what? Do they mean someone might suspect that this is America and English has always been spoken here? Naw…that couldn’t be it.
“It is a very, very sad moment for everyone but our Socialist Mayor.”
—- Well who voted him into office? I”m sure he didn’t vote himself in.
“The foolish french canadians in Canada have been busy battling the english, and in the meantime they are over-run with blacks and muslims and other foreign entities”
—- True enough, but fact is the “English” (Canadians) are even MORE over-run and even more foolish.
As a Canadian who has witnessed first-hand the terrible problems caused by bilingualism I can only look on in horror. This is a terrible mistake. ANY mother-tongue English speaker who voted against this has acted extremely foolishly. Americans don’t YET appreciate the realities of language politics. This is a bad, bad mistake.
“The results of this special election reaffirms Nashville’s identity as a welcoming and friendly city, and our ability to come together as a community,” Mayor Karl Dean said in a news release.
—-
Notice which language Mr. Dean chose to use when making those remarks.
Why can’t these new people learn to speak English? My grandmother came here in 1920 speaking German, Polish, Russian, Hungarian & Latin, then learned English.
Why can’t these new people learn to speak English?
Because the most powerful Whites have (a) said they do not have to, and (b) have strongly encouraged them not to.
Whites will secure our future when we finally learn and agree that the majority of our problems stem from a very small clique of the most elite Whites.
BTW, history is filled with good examples of how to respond and affect desirable change.
The Mayor is a lawyer, his wife is a teaching lawyer, and they have three children ranging from 13 to 21.
He promotes affirmative action.
These are typical white elites that have liberal bleeding heart attitudes and a strong need to be tolerant and understanding. They fail to realize that they are participating in the setting of their communities on a course to destruction, something their children will have to deal with.
Just add Nashville to the list of “no go” zones.
In time Spanish will be the official language of business in Nashville, or maybe Kurdish!
The United States is about where Canada was in the early 1960’s on the “langauge front”. This is all very bad for you. When you feel irked becasue you ‘have to press 1 for English’ you are not being “racist” or “paranoid”. Trust me, that little voice in your head that says something is being done to you, that fuzzy, inchoate suspicion in your gut that something is wrong is absolutely right. The USA could learn a lot from Canada (what NOT to do, that is).
“The Mayor is a lawyer, his wife is a teaching lawyer, they have three children ranging from 13 to 21. He promotes affirmative action.
Don’t worry about THEIR children. They be doing just fine.
About 10 percent of Nashville’s nearly 600,000 people speak a language other than English in their homes, according to census data.
Once again a white majority bends over to please the minority.
The city is 5 percent Hispanic and home to the nation’s largest Kurdish community and refugees from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
I gather the ‘second language’ will be Spanish eh?
If Mayor Dean’s family were gang-raped, tortured, and savagely murdered by undesirables who speak in a foreign tongue (Mestizo, Arabic, Ebonics, Spanglish, etc.), he might adopt a different view about the presence of undesirables.
Then again, he might just opt to attend the next civil rights riots (ooops… I meant “march”) and vow never to let his personal experiences and the facts change his views about the greatness of diversity and multiculturalism.
rational thinker:
Huckabee is a liar. He has always been pro-illegal. He was upset that some deported illegals from Arkadelphia were not allowed time to get things in order before being deported.
“The foolish french canadians in Canada have been busy battling the english, and in the meantime they are over-run with blacks and muslims and other similar foreign entities that have no interest in becoming “Canadian” but rather cashing in on all the free social programs and setting up their own versions of where they came from, all at taxpayer cost of course.
They are smart use our laws for their benefit.
The foolish french canadians in Canada have been busy battling the english, and in the meantime they are over-run with blacks and muslims and other foreign entities”
Posted by Anonymous at 1:21 AM on January 24
> I disagree with the notion that Quebecois are any more foolish than the English speaking portion. And I disagree that English is the only European language of consequence. If this is all about English being the only language people of European descent should speak, then there is no hope for any White survival as this reveals a chauvanism that will cause more inter-European civil wars. Why can’t the English Canadians allow the Quebecois to speak French? Many of the English speakers are of Norman, French speaking ancestry (including me).
In a related story, the official language of Memphis is still Memfrican.
We have met the enemy and he is us. The voters of Nashville have proven that the brainwashing of America has gone beyond the tipping point. In twenty years this country will be unrecognizable. We’re done …
“Why can’t the English Canadians allow the Quebecois to speak French”,,, WhitePlight.
Sir, as a Canadian, I can only say your ignorance of the TRUE state of affairs in Canada is utterly breathtaking. French is the ONLY official language of Quebec and historically French-Canadians were massive backers of the Federal Liberal party which was entirerly responsible for flooding Canada - including now French Canada - with non-White immigrants. Please stick to subjects you know something about.
I have an Arabic keyboard converter for my laptop I carry in the Middle East, perhaps I should have a Spanish one for my work here in the U.S.!!!! The Arabic one would also be useful in Michiganistan.
“Why can’t the English Canadians allow the Quebecois to speak French”,,, WhitePlight.
Sir, as a Canadian, I can only say your ignorance of the TRUE state of affairs in Canada is utterly breathtaking.
“French is the ONLY official language of Quebec”
I have nothing against French, a language I admire, but it should have been made clear to them that if they want French as the ONLY in Quebec, then English would be the ONLY language in the other provinces (meaning all the rest of Canada.)
If they want to have bi-lingualism, fine, but by the same token, let bi-lingualism be universal or else not at all.
That seems very similar to the bizarre situation we have here, where the minorities want to share what is YOURS but also exclusively possess what is THEIRS and keep it for themselves alone (ie. black Miss America, black colleges, black scholarships, black everything.)
It’s like saying, “Heads, I win; tails, you lose.” Needless to say, we’re fools to fall for it.
This is a sad example of liberal, politically correct, politicians,(and the leftist kooks that elected them), slowly destroying America. I wonder how tolerant Clair King will be when soon it will look and sound like she is no longer in the U.S.A..When violent gangs, crime, drunk driving, poverty and a steady increase in her taxes start appearing.
This is America, we speak english. What part of that don’t people understand. (God is King, not cash)
