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English only measure defeated
CNN) -- Voters in Nashville, Tennessee -- a city that has seen a dramatic increase in its immigrant population -- rejected a measure Thursday that would have made English the only language used for government business in its metropolitan area.
Nearly 57 percent of those who cast ballots Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee, voted against the measure. With all 173 precincts reporting, 41,752 voters, or nearly 57 percent, voted against the proposed amendment, with 32,144 voters supporting it, according to unofficial results posted on the Nashville city government Web site. "No person shall have a right to government services in any other language," the proposal read. The measure would have included government meetings. The Metropolitan Council, which submitted the measure, could have mandated exceptions to protect public health and safety. Elise Shore, southeast director of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said her regional office in Atlanta, Georgia, was monitoring the Nashville balloting. "We just elected our first black president. There are the forces of globalization and conducting business around the world ... in the face of this, we see these measures?" Shore asked. The proposal "sends a strong message ... this is a negative message. In fact, it invites discrimination," she said. In a newspaper editorial published Thursday, The Tennessean urged voters to defeat the proposal. "This amendment would exclude and marginalize those residents and visitors to Nashville simply because English is not their native tongue," the editorial said. The polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. Before the measure was defeated, a spokesman for U.S. English Inc., an action group that supports English-only laws nationwide, said the Nashville proposal was a good one. "Government programs are aimed at helping people reach self-sufficiency and success," Rob Toonkel said. "Allowing use of a second language doesn't encourage them to learn English." "The key word [of the amendment] is 'actions that bind the government,' " Toonkel said, which would cover transactions such as getting a city contract. If a non-English speaker needs help filling out a form, and someone in that agency speaks their language, they should be helped, he said. "But you shouldn't be able to come in, pick up a form [in another language] and leave." http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/...l?iref=24hours |
I'm very proud of Nashville for this. We had a great voter turnout (almost 20%) and of course I'm happy because I voted against the amendment. :P
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I'm glad too. What about the Native peoples of that region? Surely they have a right to government documents in their own language.
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Yes they do. They're citizens of their own nations as well as of the U.S.
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Another off topic question:
Let say that there is a draft, are the Native Americans obliged to answear them or can they go into their sovereign land and not answear the draft? |
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It doesn't affect tribal government, it affects tribal interactions with the city |
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At any rate, no, troopers don't have to carry around a traffic violation pad in every local Native language. It'd be no different than giving a traffic ticket to a non-English speaking Persian person. As far as other tribal interactions with the city, the tribes are sovereigns. They don't really interact much with municipalities. Most interactions go through the Bureau of Indian Affairs I would think. |
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cool, and it's a moot point since it failed. But some one could claim to only speak their tirbabl language or prefer to have it in their tribal language. |
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What is the law regarding reading Miranda rights to someone who doesn't understand English?
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But yes, non-English speakers have to be Mirandized as far as I know. I know that with Spanish speakers, often the officer will read the statement in Spanish from a card or give the suspect a card to read. From what I understand, the issue isn't really all that clear, and there can be further complicating factors, e.g., the officer reads the Spanish card to the suspect but the suspect doesn't understand because the suspect speaks a different dialect of Spanish. |
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