Atlanta Editor Cites Mayor Purcell as a Model for Georgia Political Leaders to Follow

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Editor, Cynthia Tucker, writes today that Mayor Purcell defied "the xenophobes, know-nothings, and nativists" by vetoing the Council's English Only bill and she contrasts his boldness to the "short-sighted, narrow-minded" Georgia politicians who have dismissed language education.

She also provides an interesting nugget of information that was never mentioned in Council deliberations on English Only:

Despite all the caterwauling to the contrary, [the children of immigrants are] not out there refusing to speak the official vernacular oftheir adopted land. According to a study published last year in Population and Development Review, Latinos are assimilating just as other immigrants did. By the second generation, the study said, English is the language most often used at home. By the third generation, only 17 percent of Mexicans still speak Spanish well; by the fourth generation, only 5 percent do.

I'm still waiting for one of the 23 English Forever proponents to provide any evidence that non-English speakers are failing to learn English in the absence of their ordinance.

HT: Tom