LIBERADIO(!)

WSMV-TV is running a survey on it’s website that asks, “Are you in favor of the English Only initiative, which would make English the official language of Davidson County?”

Before you click on the link, try and guess which answer is winning, Yes or No. If you guessed “No,” you would be really, really wrong. As of about 2:15 pm on Wednesday afternoon, 4904 people have said they are for the English Only initiative and 1420 have said they are against it. 78% to 22%. Shocking, isn’t it? Especially since everyone you know to is against it, right? Right? Wrong.

You won’t hear a call from us to click on over to WSMV’s website and vote in their survey. Could care less. We need you where it counts and what we are asking you to do will take more effort.

First, have you voted yet? If not, get yourself to the polls. The last days of early voting at the Howard School are today, tomorrow, and Friday from 8 am to 5:30 pm, and on Satuday, from 9:00 am to 12 noon. Has your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, best friend, best friend’s friend, yadda yadda yadda, voted yet? If not, then get them to the polls. We’re playing a numbers game here, voters, and we have to have more people vote Against/Against then For/For or we lose. Wait, let me rephrase that, or the city of Nashville loses.

Second, send out a mass email about voting in this important election to your personal email lists. All the information you need to create one to urge the people you know to vote Against/Against – from quick facts about the English Only referendum to who’s part of the large and growing locally-based Against/Against coalition – can be found at Nashvilleforallofus.org. Here’s is an example:

Bad for business.
• Nashville boasts 76 companies with some level of foreign investment. Those companies employ 7,660 Nashvillians and generated more than $19.6 billion in sales last year. At a time when Nashville is enjoying tremendous success recruiting international companies, the English-only effort sends a negative and inaccurate message to the world. Tom Oreck, CEO of Oreck Corporation, said, “I can tell you that if this had been the law when we were considering Nashville, Oreck might not have chosen this city.” (Tom is also featured in the Against/Against TV ad)
Bad for Nashville’s tourism industry.
• Tourism is important to Nashville, and international visitors comprise one of the fastest growing tourist segments. Last year, Nashville hosted more than 300,000 visitors from foreign countries, who averaged three days in Nashville and spent more than $150/day. As a result, those visitors contributed more than $135 million to Nashville’s economy.
A tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars.
• Its own language states that it will not apply to services that could affect public health or safety, or that are required by federal or state law. That means there are only a handful of services now being provided that would be halted. We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to eliminate services that don’t exist so we can save approximately $495.00 per year.
Unnecessary.
• English is already the “official and legal language” of Tennessee, and Nashville. Our city does not need to change its own constitution for that to be true. Immigrants know better than anyone the importance of learning English. They also know that the faster they learn English, the faster they can assimilate into the society. If the concern is that immigrants are not learning English quickly enough, we should create more opportunities for them to learn.
Inconsistent with our values as a city.
• Nashville is a city of faith. For many people, of various faiths, the attempt to make English the only language in Nashville rings false. The Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Qur’an, all offer text supporting a more tolerant view of those who may not speak our language. “English-only,” not “English-first.”
The Sponsor of the referendum, Councilman Eric Crafton, does not have the best interest of Nashville in mind.
• Rather, it is his own self-interest and agenda that motivate him. While the coalition against the referendum is made up of Nashville’s business, community and spiritual leaders, Crafton’s “coalition” consists of one out of state company, Pro English, with deep pockets and ties to organizations designated as “hate groups” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And if he did have the best interest of Nashville in mind, then why would Mr Crafton insist to the New York Times that “We’ll make English the official language here” and then “go city to city, show them how we’ve done it here, and let the dominos fall.”

Third, please volunteer some phone banking and or canvassing time to get the word out about this very important issue. Nashville For All of Us has an official headquarters located at 1814 Church Street, Nashville. Phone banking will be done at the HQ from Monday to Saturday from 10am – 8pm and on Sunday from 1pm – 6pm. You can also go there to schedule a canvassing shift. President-elect Obama is calling for Martin Luther King, Jr. day (Monday, January 19) to be a day of service. Make defeating the English Only referendum your much-needed service.