Metro Council Member Eric Crafton mysteriously moved to defer his English Only Bill tonight, saying that there needed to be more discussion of it. Fellow member Charles Shumer introduced a motion to table the bill saying that the issue was too divisive, that parties from outside of Metro were trying to influence the vote, and that the discussion needed to end tonight. Shumer's motion was voted down by the Council, but did the breakdown of the vote on the tabling motion signal why Crafton moved to defer? Crafton could only muster 19 votes to kill the tabling motion; he needs at least 21 to get English Only passed. So did Crafton know that he only had 19 votes to pass English Only? Judging by the vote to approve Crafton's deferral is impossible; it passed by voice vote. Opponents of Crafton's Resolution did not choose to call for a roll call vote on the deferral vote; proponents had called for one on the less significant tabling motion. What do you think the latter is about? Using parliamentary procedure to intimidate or bully, perhaps?
During discussion of English Only, Council Member Mike Jameson revealed that Eric Crafton never bothered to reply to the 4 questions that he asked Crafton in September when English Only was introduced. Jameson said that not only had he asked Crafton the questions in council meeting, but he sent Crafton a letter with the questions, sent him an e-mail with the questions, and sent him Metro Staff with the questions without any Crafton response. Jameson asked Crafton the same questions tonight, but Michael Craddock buzzed in after Jameson and "moved the previous question," a parliamentary tactic that closed discussion without further debate. So, once again, Eric Crafton escapes without answering some important questions.
UPDATE: News 2's Chris Bundgaard reported at 10:00 that Crafton did not have the votes to pass English Only. Council Member Adam Dread told NewsChannel5 reporter Amy Rau that Crafton's votes were not there.
We have a very serious problem in this city.
ReplyDeleteTo demonstrate how bad it is, stop flipping past the council re-runs to Desperate Housewives and listen to an entire commission meeting.
I watched the entire session of the second reading of this on the public channel. Eric Crafton's speech sounded like something you'd hear from a 50's far right bigot trying to pitch the sanity of segregated water fountains. What's really scarey is that 20 other people in the room that we elected apparently are drinking from the same water fountain.
Listen to his speech: to actually entertain the idea that the Nashville government, the commission no less, is somehow going to be forced to speak Spanish in 15 years shows that there is something sadly lacking in logical progression in this man’s mind.
Brownsville, Texas is 93% Hispanic, has been in existence since 1848, and still has their city commission meetings officially in English.
So much for that theory Eric... I would like to know the real cost to the taxpayers of processing this waste of city government time and MY money for an obvious play at political grandstanding.
The other esteemed councilman Michael Craddock who gloried in the fact that he had never been more than 30 miles away from Nashville , sees no need for general bilingual assistance because “I don’t need to speak Spanish”. This man is as equally as scarey as Mr. Crafton and someone should pay this guy’s way to Tokyo for a few weeks so he can get a taste of what its like in the other man’s shoes in a completely foreign culture.
That closet mentality must be eliminated from our city government. This kind of leadership is a death sentence for this city. Major companies seeking spots to relocate read the Nashville news feeds and think what of this kind of 50's mentality??... they think "Let's go to North Carolina".
To even entertain that English would somehow be pushed to the side as our national language in 15 years is ludicrous. The Internet will ensure that english in America, or anywhere else, is not going anywhere soon. In 10 years you will not be able to get a decent job in this country unless you can socially network yourself in English on the Internet. It is currently the Lingua Franca of the world. 50 years from now, it will be a different story. Do your kids a real favor - make them take Chinese and Spanish, they're going to be alot better off financially if they do.
The Spanish phenomenon we see today in the U.S. is no different than what previous generations witnessed, we just happen to be at generation 1.
My sister-in-law is Italian.
Her grandmother was Italian off the boat - she spoke little or no english.
Her mother spoke fluent english and italian.
My sister-in-law only knows enough italian to be funny and swear.
Her kids remember grandma speaking Italian - they didn't have a clue what she was saying.
Her grandchildren know only Engish.
I think we call this "assimilation" Mr. Crafton. In 15 years, once we’ve razor-wired ourselves in here, you won’t have a thing to worry about.
The fact that this actually got to third reading tells me we all better put down our lattes, turn off the TV, get off our duffs, go to commission meetings, and start figuring out who to get rid of in the next election. It's bad on both sides of the isle. Mr. Clement has demonstrated that the Democrats can have this same sickness.
If you want to read some political tea leaves, read this: I work 60 hours a week and if I'm spending an hour and a half writing this blog, I will spend copious hours to ensure that the next city commission election is going to turn out very different. I'm not alone.
Eric Crafton is at the top of my chart to go as well as the 20 others who voted for this insanity on second reading.
Get active in politics, get blogging, get moving, and get rid of bad leadership. More importantly, lets pray that we will see some leaders come up who actually have real wisdom and not a silver tongue and a good grasp of Roberts Rules of Order.
This English Only Bill is actually a blessing in disguise - we now at least know who needs to go. The status quo is over.