Breaking News: Nashville Rejects English Only

With all 173 precincts reporting, voters in Metropolitan Nashville have soundly rejected the attempt to enact the English Only amendment to the city's charter.

ElectBlue congratulates the voters of Nashville for their common sense and inclusiveness in rejecting this unnecessary and bigoted attempt to amend the city charter.

FINAL RESULTS

Against English Only	41,752	56.5%
For English Only	32,144	43.5%

Eric Crafton, Metro Nashville Councilman and chief supporter of the English Only amendment, appearing on Fox & Friends just a few days ago (video below), claimed that 75% of Nashville voters supported English Only.  He cited "about any poll you look at" as his source.  No word yet on whether or not Crafton will reveal which polls he was referencing or, for that matter, the people who funded the English Only campaign.

National Coverage

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English-Only: Bad Policy, Worse Message

According to PostPolitics, the Tennessee Supreme Court today removed the last legal challenge to an English-only ballot measure in Metro Nashville. The state high court refused to grant an expedited hearing on an appeal of a lower court ruling that the referendum could go forward on January 22nd. If approved by Nashville voters, the English-only proposal would mandate the use of English in all official transactions of the city government. The proposed measure provides for a few exceptions but they seem murky and largely unworkable.

What a really bad idea. Not only would such a measure be very bad public policy, it would send an even worse message to the rest of the country (and the world) about the Music City's unwillingness to welcome non-English speaking tourists, foreign businesses and international conferences. 

As public policy, this measure could easily hamstring efforts by law enforcement to keep Nashville safe. Imagine a police officer, fluent in Spanish, who would now be unsure whether he could take the statement of an eye-witness to crime who happened also to be a Spanish speaker with limited command of English.  Imagine undercover law enforcement agents unable to obtain permission to conduct operations in any language other than English. 

For Nashville's large and growing foreign tourism and business investment sectors, the English-only law would have a chilling effect. Imagine city agencies charged with promoting Nashville to foreign tourists and business prospects not knowing for sure if they have to do so in English only. What do they say to prospective visitors and investors who ask about the meaning of this English-only nonsense?

Nashville is home to several internationally prestigious health care facilities and universities with global reputations for their cutting-edge research. How is Nashville supposed to bill itself as a potential host of international conferences for important world-wide health groups when we hang out the 'English-only' sign?  

Finally, we have to wonder what message passage of the English-only law would send to our children and students. Would they not naturally conclude that study of foreign languages is unnecessary and even undesirable? What a terrible lesson for the future leaders of our city as they prepare to take their rightful place in a highly complex and increasingly interconnected world.

The world becomes smaller every day. The citizens of Nashville cannot allow the world to believe that our minds here in Middle Tennessee are also getting smaller. Tennessee's capital city is large and diverse and plays an increasingly important role on the world stage.  Passage of the English-only initiative would be a big step backwards and an embarrassment to those who fight every day to make our city safer, more prosperous and culturally richer.

Those fighting to defeat the English-only referendum have launched a new website to stop this nonsense. It's called Nashville For All of Us. ElectBlue encourages all of our readers, Tennesseans and non-Tennesseans alike, to visit the website and offer help in whatever way you can.

Cymru Am Byth: Wales Forever!

Metro Nashville Councilman Eric Crafton, Mr. English-Only himself, would most likely not be happy with this bit of news from the European Union. Today, Welsh became the twenty-second tongue to be recognized by the EU as one of its co-official, or minority, languages. 

Such recognition confers mostly symbolic status on the ancient language while enabling some business and governmental transactions to be legally conducted in Welsh. The Welsh language is part of the larger family of Celtic tongues which includes Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Breton. It has a rich literary and historic tradition, including a strong association with the legendary tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Welsh is currently the mother tongue of more than 600,000 people, most of them living in the British principality of Wales. I guess the 'English-only' advocates in Wales have failed completely as the entire area has been under English rule since the Middle Ages. Mr. Crafton's peculiarly monolithic notion of cultural and linguistic exclusion just never took hold in Merry Olde England. A good thing, that.

Several million Americans, many of them in the South, can trace at least some Welsh ancestry in their backgrounds. Interestingly, the most common surname in the US, Jones, is of Welsh origin. Six hundred thousand people, by the way, is slightly more than the current population of Davidson County. 

h/t: Agence France-Presse 

From Inside the Presidential Debate Hall

It's not every day that you have an opportunity to attend a Presidential debate. That's especially true when the venue happens to be your alma mater. 

As you can see in the photos, the town hall debate portion of the gallery was very small. This was all the television audience ever saw. Not only did the televised area occupy a small portion of the stage itself (which was a tiny portion of the arena), it was partially walled off and well separated from the rest of the auditorium. All of the dignitaries, press and ordinary guys like me were kept well back from the debate stage. There were 900-1000 of us located behind Brokaw, none visible to the television audience. 

You probably heard several members of the chattering classes complaining about how cold it was. They weren't lying. The AP writer sitting on my left was actually forced to put on a coat during the middle of the debate, and a magazine publisher to my right brought an extra pair of socks to keep her toes warm. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) warned us in advance of the cool gallery climate. Since 1960 when Richard Nixon complained about the hot overhead lighting, causing him to sweat profusely, the CPD keeps the debate hall temperature in the low 60's.

As for my impressions of the debate itself as I watched it live, John McCain from the beginning looked old and defeated. He often sounded like a candidate who was trying to convince himself of his own answers. When he actually did answer a question, his answers were broken and blurry. He was stiff as a board, and his delivery reminded me of those "Now, Sonny boy..." lectures my great-grandpa used to give me when I was ten years old. Although John McCain repeatedly urged us to believe he wanted to be our friend, those sitting near me didn't buy it. 

ElectBlue at the Presidential Debate Tonight

ElectBlue's very own Bill Newsome, an alumnus of Belmont University, is among the attendees at tonight's Presidential debate in Nashville. 

Bill will be blogging about his experiences and impressions of the second encounter between Barack Obama and John McCain later on this evening or early tomorrow. 

 

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ElectBlue is dedicated to the promotion of progressive political ideas and candidates throughout the US. It is the creation of two long-time political activists, Bill Newsome and Stephen Moody, both of whom have considerable experience in various political activities. 

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In the 2009-2010 election cycle ElectBlue is focused on supporting the progressive policies of President Obama and increasing Democratic majorities in the US House and, particularly, in the US Senate.  We will also target certain state (especially Tennessee) and local (particularly Nashville) progressive candidates and issues as well as selected gubernatorial races. Our goal is simple: to create the best possible political environment for the enactment of progressive public policies.

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