An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Nashville Council Doesn’t Like English?
Lawsuit: Metro blocks English-only vote unfairly
A group that hopes to make English the official language of Nashville filed suit against the city Thursday in an effort to put the issue up for a vote this fall.
Nashville English First sponsor and Metro Councilman Eric Crafton acted two days after the Davidson County Election Commission refused to put the referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot, despite the pro-English group’s collection of enough county voters’ signatures to do so.
Once again, the pro illegals in local government tries its best to thwart the ‘will of the people’!
City attorneys have said the Nov. 4 election will fall three days short of a two-year gap required between petition-driven referendums on proposals to change the Metro Charter. The last such referendum was held Nov. 7, 2006.
But Jim Roberts, an attorney for Nashville English First and Crafton, said Metro attorneys read the law in a way that was rigged to keep voters from deciding the issue.
“Rigging” is exactly what they are doing, in favor of a small portion of the population who can’t be bothered to learn the language!
“They don’t want the voters of Davidson County to vote on this referendum,” Roberts told reporters after filing the lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court. “The only way they could prevent that was to stop it before it started.”
I would suggest the folks of Nashville start making phone calls, send letters, and emails to their so called representatives. Let them know that you feel their actions are contrary to what you want in representation of your elected officials.
The proposed charter amendment would require that all Metro meetings, communications and publications be conducted or published in English, with no exceptions for health or safety. Critics have acknowledged that they’ll do what’s necessary to keep the measure from becoming law, including challenging supporters’ ability to put it up for a countywide vote.
The forces against such a measure just baffles. Why shouldn’t all government business be conducted in ENGLISH? That’s the language we speak in this country! If they are concerned about health and safety, they might want to have a chat with those who push for a bilingual education, and ask them what could be more safe than having the people who live and work in the US speak the language?
The lawsuit also says Metro allowed two charter amendment referendums within a two-year period in the 1990s and is ignoring a clear precedent. Referendums were held Nov. 5, 1996, and Nov. 3, 1998.
But every charter amendment proposal in 1996 was submitted by the Metro Council, not by voter petition, Elections Administrator Ray Barrett confirmed. The charter says the council can’t put charter referendums on the ballot more than twice in a four-year term, but it makes no reference to the time between those two submissions.
What this says to me is that the council doesn’t give a flying flip about the people’s wishes, only their own, as a governing body. Yep…..tells me a WHOLE lot about those folks up there in Nashville! Kind of makes me wonder if they are taking campaign donations from anti English/American groups.
