English First, Only, Whenever...Whatever

Last night we got to vote on a memorializing resolution from CM Steine asking voters not to return petition cards in support of the English language charter amendment and not to vote on it when it appears on the ballot. The first part of that respectful request was moot. Everyone pretty much understands that the proposed charter amendment is headed for the ballot. Last I heard they had more than the necessary 10,000 signatures.

The second part of that resolution was to ask voters to press "no" when the measure does appear at the ballot. The resolution spells out some likely outcomes if the charter amendment were to become law. The Mayor came and made a nice appeal for the resolution and it passed with 25 votes including mine.

The debate last night swirled around what exactly the charter amendment would do. CM Crafton insists that he is just trying to express the importance of the English language as the "success" language. He wants to ensure that no one will have the right to insist on the delivery of government services in any language other than English. On the other side of the debate was a lot of talk about lawsuits and hostile messages.


CM Crafton is right about one thing. English is becoming more and more the language of government and commerce. A short time ago - like when I was in high school - French was considered the language of diplomacy and international business. Today that language is English. Pretty much the only people that speak French live in France and her tag ends of an empire. The demise of that beautiful language was brought about largely by the French themselves who insisted on legislating it to death. While the words burrito and plaza and charrette have insinuated themselves into our daily lexicon, the French have been known to ring their hands about whether or not "Le Weekend" was acceptable.

I am just not sure the Metro Nashville charter will have quite the influence of the Academie Francaise. For starters, the United States Constitution which was written for the express purpose of making sure Americans avoid the tyranny of the French and the English renders much of the debate over the charter amendment moot. The First Amendment gives everyone the right to speak with no restriction on their language. The Fourteenth Amendment makes sure that law is applied equally to all regardless of what language they prefer.

I am no lawyer but I suspect that the First and Fourteenth Amendments will give Metro lawyers a good deal of latitude when applying the proposed charter amendment. To that end, I imagine that regardless of what happens at the ballot box, most Metro departments will continue to provide services in whatever language necessary. If Metro does so, it will not be a repudiation of the voters' will but a recognition that, when we take an oath of office, the very first document named under our protection is the United States Constitution.

The people who return the little blue cards for the English charter amendment do so with hopes that may not be realized. They hope for reformation of our immigration laws even though the Metro Government has not traditionally been consulted about the security of our borders. The states of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas don't seem to think they get consulted either and they actually have the privilege of both state and international borders. Immigration reform is long overdue but it won't happen because we changed Nashville's charter.

They hope that people with nice tans will stop speaking a foreign language in their neighborhood. Nashville has long experienced unemployment rates below the national average. Our need for labor and the desire of workers for a paycheck has altered the face of our workforce just like it did around the turn of the last century. Charter amendments have little influence over economic reality.

So, I suspect, when all is said and done very little behavior will change as a result of this charter amendment with the possible exception of Janet Miller's. Janet is the Economic Development Director for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. She gets to go visit people who run big international companies like Nissan and ask them to move to Tennessee. She gets to sit around a table of people who probably speak 10 different languages and explain to them that, even though we think they should speak only English in Nashville, we still really want them to bring their multi-billion dollar company here. Fortunately, Janet really thinks on her feet.