Wednesday, January 7, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Silverman Zogby Be Damned--New Pith Poll Suggests English Only Will Win Big
Posted by Jack Silverman on Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 9:42 AM
"Ok so some one is going to say something about Prayer and religious traditions contradicting. we hear people speaking Arabic and prying to Allah some one will probably call them a terrorist and cause mass histaria over praying in another language." "THE TENNESSEAN IS PRINTED IN 'ENLISH ONLY'!!!!" "I lived in Nashville half of my life, twenty years ago I moved to south Florida, where as an enlish speaker I reALLY AM FORCED TO SPEAK SPANISH, AS THE IMMIGRANTS HERE REFUSE TO SPEAK ENGLISH, YES OF COURSE we dont have an only english only law here" "If the government would have enforced immagration laws this would not have been a problem." "And Yes i am a college educated student and no i didn't fall through cracks you Mother Piece of CRAP.... Did you read what time it was written or are you a grammer freak that feels the need to correct people on everything they say or write. It's called a RANT YOU PIECE OF CRAP!!!!" "Must goverments and businesses provide for every possible alien? If you are a citizen of that country, you must demostrate some ability to communicate in the BASIC language of that country. It is part of the OBLIGATION to adher to that countries established systems.... Not everyone in the world is promised to be allowed to be an Ameican.... Having basic communication skills with your other already existing citizen is very little to ask from them, and absolutely necessary to help them to enjoy the full benefits of America. As America continues down the road of trying to beenclusive of every possible sect, we will end up being swamped by the incohesiveness of this task. Like the other great societies of past history, we will be conquered from within."Which leads us to our final conclusion: Let's propose an "English Only for English Only Supporters" bill, which would require English Only supporters to actually learn English.
Comments (9)
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Tennessean story comment sections are a cesspool of sociopaths and rightwing kooks.
Some commenter last year was getting hoots of approval for his weird, quasi-racist anti-Obama rants. Then he posted a link to a hate group website-- not a SPLC-labeled hate group, but some sort of for real Aryan nightmare site. Amazingly, he still had his supporters among the regulars.
It's ridiculous that, after every story you read, these scabrous comments from Middle Tennessee's craziest citizens pop up. You can't turn it off. It makes reading the online Tennessean into a stomach-churning experience. Once again, nice work, Gannett.
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when all else fails, criticize grammar and spelling. the mantra of any blogger/poster worth their salt.
this bill won't be nearly as good or bad as the respective sides would like to believe. it's my understanding that government related documentation will be printed in only english if this passes. i havent heard any coherent arguements as to why that is such a nightmare, just jabber about how 'idiotic' and 'tragic' it will be. i'm not convinced.
I agree with you Jack.
This comment counts as my civic duty for the day. But, why would anyone comment on ANY website 12 or more times in a 12 hour period?
Do these people work? Do they have families? Maybe if these complainers would volunteer to tutor at the local adult education center instead of wasting half of the day posting insane rants, more people would learn English.
And get this, it would be for FREE (meaning no tax-payer money).
But wait, volunteering is too eerily similar to a JOB!
If you're really looking to waste some time, the BBC's "Have Your Say" boards are a goldmine of inanity. It's nice (?) to be reminded that even super-classy Britain is filled with barely-literate racists and misogynists.
Fine post Jack. alum, here's a quick scenario. Nashville is a refugee resettlement city, home to thousands of refugees and immigrants. There are resettlement agencies that help for the first couple of years, but these refugees and immigrants need to also take advantage of the city government resources available to them that enable them find their footing, get jobs, be productive members of the community and, yes, learn English. If those resources are only available in English, it makes it that much more difficult for them to find their way, and makes Nashville a much less welcoming and encouraging city. It effectively impedes the city's cultural growth and damages its reputation. That's tragic. For newcomers AND for those already here.
I love the word "incohesiveness." I shall incorporate it into my lexicon immediately.
I often wonder how well these English Only folks would fare if they were transported to, say, Iraq. And no one spoke English, instead of the reality that quite a few Iraqis speak some English. What we have here is a failure of the imagination, as in "walk a mile in my shoes." And a failure of the educational system in Tennessee, but that goes without saying.
And these RANTS also often make me wonder what interesting puddles of fat these people will explode into when Islam becomes the majority religion here and Muslim lawmakers try to enact laws requiring Islamic prayer in school.
@ Joe: i see your point, and i understand the immigrant/refugee situation. but i cant buy the line that this effectively says "foreign people will not be accommodated and are not welcome".. this is america, foreign people are welcome, and are very well accomodated. but the IS america, not the homeland of the migrant, and successful assimilation does require reasonable mastery of the native toungue, in this case english. should people be required to speak fluent english before getting a job or drivers liscence? no.. should all government documents and meetings be translated into 5 languages? again, no. but as far as i know there is no current delineation; i just see it as providing said boundary, and government documentation seems like a reasonable line.
Disapproval of the folks who support English Only is all good and well. But, it means nothing unless you get off your duffs and VOTE.
This is an election that will be carried by the side which can marshal the most voters. It is easy to get true believers to vote. It is much harder to get people who are not true believers to think it is worth their time and trouble to do something about it.
If you need motivation to go to the trouble to vote, think about how happy you will be to hear Letterman or Leno doing a routine about all those redneck hicks in Nashville.
Better yet, think about the loss of income to Nashville if this passes. Think about when the Superbowl pulled out of Arizona when Arizona didn't adopt MLK Day as a holiday.
Or, think about the goofball special elections Nashville will get to pay for if the second amendment passes. How much do you want to vote on a measure to altogether ban the sale of alcohol in Nashville?
It is hard to overestimate the impact of doing nothing and hoping English Only goes away. It will not go away. It will haunt you.
So please, for your own sakes, vote this abomination down.
