Diverse Local Group Organizes to Fight English Only

Rather than just sitting back and waiting to see out English Only plays itself out, one diverse group of leaders is organizing to fight big spending CM Eric Crafton:

In the three months since Metro Councilman Eric Crafton and a group dubbed Nashville English First revived the city's language debate, a coalition quietly has been making plans to quash what its roughly 100 members see as a divisive and damaging measure.

Members of Nashville for All of Us range from lawyers to clergymen, private individuals to public officials and business leaders to nonprofit directors. The Tennessean's publisher, Ellen Leifeld, is a member.

Late Wednesday, Nashville for All of Us took its first public action: six organizations and individuals affiliated with the group filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit that Nashville English First filed to force its issue onto the ballot. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Councilman Mike Jameson, Service Employees International Union Local 205, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and an individual, James Zralek, were all parties to the motion filed Wednesday.