There has long been an allure in New York State when it comes to local government control, a throwback to colonial days when all politics was local. It remains in our courts and legislature’s refusal to rid us of lay judges in local justice courts, despite the rampant impropriety and abject ignorant demonstrated regularly. It’s part of our heritage, no matter how pathetically badly local governments are run.
Welcome to Jackson, New York. Via the WSJ Law Blog, meet town councilman Roger Meyer, 76, who apparently regrets not having moved to Arizona.
“For too long, the federal government has shirked its duty by not passing English as the official language of the United States,” said Roger Meyer, 76, a town council member in Jackson, N.Y. “So seeing as this law couldn’t be passed from the top down, I felt I’d start a grass-roots movement to try to get it passed from the bottom up.”
The Jackson law, writes the NYT, designates English as the town’s official written and spoken language, “to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and their appointees.”
There are few who suggest that the ability to speak English isn’t important, if not the sine qua non, of living the American dream. It’s a common thread amongst the many who have come to the United States over the years to seek a better life. But it doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, or upon demand. As prior generations of immigrants have shown, assimilation happens, but it takes some time. At 76, Meyer may not feel that he’s got enough time left to wait. He wants it now.
But Meyer said the law was in support of English, not in opposition to any group. “It’s not prejudicial or anything like that,” he said.
Or anything like that? Very folksy, and nobody who speaks in a folksy way means any harm. Or maybe just stupid, lacking the ability to recognize why something that seems abundantly obvious to him, given his circumstances, is so damaging to others. Let’s take the example of the 22 year old Swedish female tourist who comes to beautiful Jackson for a visit, gets a little lost, and asks a local officer for directions. He’s forbidden from offering any assistance in the Swedish language in which he obtained his doctorate? Okay, a bit farfetched.
But what of the Salvadorean legal (I add that for those who invariably question whether anyone not fluent in English is here legally) immigrant wants to ask a question of those who tax his home at a town council meeting. Yes, the ability to speak English would certainly be helpful, but is he to be denied the ability to challenge those who spend his money because he has yet to master the Jackson mother tongue?
“People come here because it’s better than the place they were in,” he said. “If that’s the case, you should be adapting yourself to our ways. We shouldn’t be adapting ourselves to your ways.”
It would be great if Americans, like people in so many other countries around the world, were capable of speaking multiple languages. We tend to be barely capable of speaking English, which appears (per the television commercials currently airing) to be because we don’t pay teachers enough money to actually do their job. But this isn’t a reason to pass a law making English the official language, or prohibiting local government from communicating with people who aren’t assimilating quickly enough to meet the demands of Roger Meyer.
I still believe that everyone who aspired to hold a position of public trust, no matter how small or inconsequential, should be required to pass a test in civics. In Meyer’s case, the test should be given in English. Want to bet he still won’t pass?
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
As a child, my grandparents would argue in Italian. I begged my grandma to teach me Italian. She said no, we are Americans, we speak English. I am sick and tired of listening to a bill pay menu in spanish. Why should we cater to the new wave of spanish immigrants ? IMHO, they will never learn English, as long as we cater to them.
Well, this is important since all law should really take into account things that make Chris Tucker sick and tired. That is, after all, the reason the rest of the world exists.
What is a “bill pay menu?”
Turk, when we call Tampa Electric Company to pay a bill, we are forced to listen to spanish!
The same with the Hillsborough County Florida (tampa) water department.
Turk, when we call Tampa Electric Company to pay a bill, we are forced to listen to spanish!
So what?
Why should we as Americans be forced to listen to Spanish ? When the Polish, Italians, Jewish, and Irish Immigrants came to America Turk, Americans were not subjected to Italian, Polish, Hebrew, and Gaelic were they ? Heck no, those immigrants learned English, and most of them went through the immigration process right away. Many spanish speaking people are in America illegaly anyway, and even if they weren’t, let them learn OUR language, or go back home. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Why should we as Americans be forced to listen to Spanish ?
I don’t understand your complaint. I see and hear a thousand messages a day that don’t apply to me. Those messages come in English, Spanish and other languages.
So the question remains, so what? If it doesn’t apply to you, you move on.
When the Polish, Italians, Jewish, and Irish Immigrants came to America Turk, Americans were not subjected to Italian, Polish, Hebrew, and Gaelic were they ? Heck no…
You’re joking, right? I see different languages all the time in NY: Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, Polish, you name it, we got it. A spectacular smorgasbord (that would be Swedish) of life.
Here’s a suggestion to you. Why not re-read The New Colossus ? If the name of the poem doesn’t ring a bell for you, let me give you it’s most famous part:
The poem is short and you may want to spend a few minutes reading it slowly, and pondering its meaning and significance.
I know that there are some folks out there that don’t like the Statue of Liberty and all that it stands for. Perhaps a cabin deep in the woods would be the best place for them so that they don’t have to deal with the diversity of America.
Turk, New York does not have the exclusive on ethnic diversity. Here in Tampa, we have tourists from all over the world speaking everything from Hebrew to Farsi. Make the ethnic food you want, speak the language you want, it’s all good. Just learn HOW to speak English if you plan to live in America, and don’t subject me to having to listen to 3 minutes of Spanish when I go to pay a bill is all I am saying.
Over here on the other side of Florida they let us pay our electric bills and water bills on-line. That way we don’t have to listen to anything at all. Do not interpret this as a suggestion that Chris Tucker move to Palm Beach County.
I write a check, put it in an envelope and attach a stamp. Sometimes, when I lick the stamp, I can taste just the slightest hint of jalapeño. It’s likely just my imagination.
I bet Chris would really like Riviera Beach. No baggy pants fools, and all. Tampa will have find another Chris to fill the void.
This pretty much says how I feel. I have nothing against anyone, and have plenty of Hispanic friends. Tampa is heavily Hispanic, and I am Catholic. Church is full of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Cubans. The Roman Catholic Church changed the Mass from latin to English you know ?
We, the Legal American workers of the USA, need to stand together NOW, to keep English as our only native language.
Foreigners are saturating the USA & are slowly trying to modify our national language to include Spanish, so it will be easier for them to live & work in this country.
Qualified US citizens who need to support their families are being refused employment in their own country because they don’t speak Spanish. This is happening on a daily basis. The unemployment rate is up and the government offices are making suggestions that we learn Spanish so we can get jobs.
This is wrong & something needs to be done. If we do nothing, in 10 years we will all need to know Spanish and have to push 2 to hear it in English! Please help stop the madness before it goes any farther.
We can not allow any modification of our national language.
We need stronger laws which require resident & citizen applicants to learn English in order to live & work in the USA. If not, than these companies that deal with non speaking English patrons, need to hire an interpreter and pay them what the average interpreter makes. To force the “legal” US citizen to speak a new language is Discrimination based on language.
We need new laws created to protect the English speaking citizens of the USA from any discrimination (like employment, housing, etc.)
Amnesty should only be given if the parties are willing to learn English and help change their family members coming over or who are already here.
Petition to NOT modify our native language to include any foreign language
Petition for stronger laws requiring all residents & citizens to learn & speak English in order to live & work in the USA.
Petition for new laws protecting US citizens who are refused employment in the USA simply because they do not speak a foreign language.
Petition for new laws protecting the English speaking citizens of the USA from any form of discrimination (employment, housing, etc.).
We would like to thank Verizon Wireless for taking the first steps in realizing that we shouldn’t have to push one for English, it should be a given.
It’s a vast conspiracy of Spanish speaking Americans intended to seize your great wealth and power and take it for their own. They will confuse you with their rolling “R”s and baffle you with this possessive pronouns, until you are relegated to perform law mowing and eat salsa verde. To stop them, you must immediately fashion a hat of tin foil and wear it at all times, particularly as you drive around in your pickup truck. And when they offer youa nice, cold cerveza, with a wedge of lime stuck in the opening, fly like the wind from their insidious ploy to destroy the fabric of your motherland.
Now immediately turn off your computer, for that’s how they track true patriots like you, and hide in the closet where they cannot find you. Don’t come out again until it’s safe, no matter how long it takes.
Thank you for letting us know what you truly are.
Hey, we don’t agree about this subject, no big deal. This is a great blog Scott, and I agree with a lot of the topics posted here. Thank You for allowing me to express my opinion.
I read your comments about Lawyer Websites, and found them very interesting.
I wish you would expand on that in a separate post maybe, and tell us how a person seeking a good criminal defense attorney can tell the good ones from the not so good lawyers ?
He — and other luminaries in the blawgosphere — has already done that. The short form: ask around, talking to people in your area who know, then interview some, being clear, both in your mind and to the attorney, about what your situation is, including what you can pay. [ObsDisclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, and don’t play one on TV or the internet.] And do that right now, or earlier, if possible.
Just remember, if you can: your (or my) idiosyncratic theories about what, other than having successfully represented people who have been in serious legal trouble, aren’t relevant. What appears to you — or me — as a bright new insight is almost certainly neither.
Thanks. I’m trying my absolute best to tolerate the 5,000,0009th, and I’m afraid the lunatics are winning.
That’s because there’s so many of us.
Thanks Jdog for the advice.