Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Remove That Crutch from Your Own Armpit First

Follow me closely: Metro Council member Eric Crafton wants to stop all of Metro's bilingual efforts because he says that they are a crutch (his unproven assumption being that the people who rely on bilingual efforts do not require such assistance), but he wants to give himself and other private developers the crutch of not having to be burdened with Metro sidewalk fees (his unproven assumption being that developers like himself require such assistance). I guess crutches are okay when they help your own. Fellow Metro Council member Michael Craddock also wants to help immigrants break free of their "disadvantage." How paternal of him. I guess it is just not worthy to try to help people who do not yet have a firm grasp of English to pursue immunizations or to place emergency calls in, well, emergencies. Surely these big-hearted philanthropists are going to replace "bilingual crutches" with proposed funding bills for comprehensive, and thus expensive, new Metro-wide programs that aggressively teach English as a second language; but I'm not holding my breath. There's a better chance that they will just keep kicking other people's crutches out from under them in order to provide different crutches for their own kind.

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