The City Paper: Editorial: Opposition to English Only needs to be heard

The City Paper: Editorial

Opposition to English Only needs to be heard

Metro Councilman Eric Crafton wants to debate Mayor Karl Dean on the merits of the English Only proposal Nashville voters will address in a special election with a half-million dollar price tag.

Certainly, this city needs to have some kind of public discourse on the subject of whether or not Nashville should become the largest municipality in the country to make its government business take place only in English.

Then there is the flip side of the English Only equation, the much-less-organized opposition. Despite such political heft as the majority of the Metro Council, the mayor, most every consequential immigrant leader in the city and the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the English Only opposition is not showing the same signs of life as the proponents.

That is disturbing. The city’s newspapers have reported on this brewing political battle ad nauseum — this one included. We have condemned English Only repeatedly on our editorial page, as have publications of every type citywide — print and digital.

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