The Englishnistas have struck again. First we have the City of Bogota who was demanding that McDonald’s to take down it’s billboard that advertises iced coffee in Spanish because the mayor Steve Lonegan, felt that McDonald’s is sending a message to Spanish-speaking immigrants that they don’t need to learn English. Now it seems that a town in Tennessee (via Mixed Media Watch) has their own idea of an English only policy and a closed minded idea that if somebody is speaking Spanish, they must be illegal. According to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, several city council members from Springfield, TN are considering banning all Hispanics from their city parks.
“In last month’s Mayor and Aldermen Meeting on July 18, City Manager Paul Nutting and at least one Alderman made negative comments about the large number of Hispanics that populate the park on the weekends.”
“In last month’s city meeting, Alderman Ken Cherry expressed concerns for safety in the parks because of the big Hispanic crowds on weekends. Monday, he admitted his sentiments are not limited to the parks. He said, ‘If I could do what I wanted to do, any illegal alien would be holed up in a barbwire tent and we’d haul them up to where they came from and turn them loose.'”
“When asked to comment on the possibility that not every Hispanic using the park was an ‘illegal immigrant’, Alderman Cherry responded, ‘If they’re speaking Spanish, I tend to think they are illegal.’ … On Tuesday he said, ‘The comment that I made about if they’re speaking Spanish they’re illegal immigrants, that’s probably a little strong. In my mind, that’s an indication that the possibility may…
…exist.'”“Not all members of Springfield’s Board of Mayor and Alderman, however, are in agreement with Cherry’s position on the issue. Assistant City Manager Gina Holt said, ‘If you polled all seven of them, they’d all have a totally different opinion probably and as a board they have not taken any action yet as far as establishing any policies related to the parks or any other services right now.'”
“Springfield’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen plan to hold a community meeting on September 7 to discuss the issues they’ve encountered with what Alderman Cherry terms the ‘growing Hispanic problem.’ … Assistant City Manager Gina Holt said the goal of the September 7 board meeting is to achieve an arrangement that is fair and equitable for all.”
They provide a couple links to a news video, but I took the liberty to download and upload to YouTude. That is not a misprint, Alderman Ken Cherry literally did say that “If they’re speaking Spanish, I tend to think they are illegal” and that “any illegal alien would be holed up in a barbwire tent.” I wonder if that goes for all gringos who know Spanish. Watch the video.
If there is anybody who has friends who is Hispanic/Latin@ and you didn’t think they are coming after them or if you happen to be a Hispanic/Latin@ and you thought that this anti-immigration did not include you, well –
YOU BETTER THINK AGAIN BECAUSE IT IS BEGINNING TO BE OPEN SEASON ON NATIVE AND FOREIGN HISPANICS!!!
And during these times, the revised version of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s First they came poem by Applied Research Center is very appropriate.
And I Said Nothing (Revisited)
In the United States
They first came for the ARAB AMERICANS
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t Arab American.
Then they came for people from MUSLIM countries
and I didn’t speak up because I was born in the U.S.
Then they profiled PEOPLE OF COLOR as terrorist suspects
and I didn’t speak up because I must not look like a terrorist.
Then they targeted IMMIGRANTS,
and I didn’t speak up because I have legal status.
Then they arrested SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS
and I didn’t speak up because I was afraid to get involved.
Then they came for YOU AND ME- –
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
– adapted by Applied Research Center , 2003
Unbelieveable.
I guess everyone there expects the Supreme Court to reverse Brown v. Board or Education.
The court might take another stab at affirmative action again. I am pretty sure Brown v. Board or Education is in there mind.
“In last month’s city meeting, Alderman Ken Cherry expressed concerns for safety in the parks because of the big Hispanic crowds on weekends. …
When all else fails, sieze on fear and make it an issue of “safety”. Unfortunately there are others who will buy into this.
Something akin to Civil War…a world class oxymoron if ever I heard one, by the way…this way comes.
It’ll be a few years, but just as the U. S. S. R. broke up, so shall we.
Bet on it.
AG
AG, your right, but people just don’t want to see it. The world is seeing it.
As long as they keep on demonizing of immigrants the number of Congressmen who would vote to round up Hispanics and sort out the illegals later will continue to grow.
Combine this with the other cultural/regional splits going on now in the U.S….including the fragmentation of the media into specialized areas…and the glue that held this country together for several hundred years appears ready to let go.
This happened at the dawn of the last technological revolution…the industrial one (As opposed to this tech/info revolution, which is really still in its infancy)…and resulted in a successful “Civil War” that held the country together by force of arms. I predict that this time force of arms will NOT prevail, because of the simple fact that “force of arms” in a nuclear/WMD age is ultimately unusable. As is happening in Iraq, war is pretty much unfightable on a real, serious W.W. II-sized scale because the amount of destruction that results makes the winning of a war not worthwhile. Who wants to “win” when the only booty possible is cinders and contaminated dust?
So each side is forced to use “terrorism”. The terror of guerrilla war always beats that of conventional modern armed forces, because terrorism ITSELF depends on psychologically applied fear. Up close and personal fear…a few people murdered, a random bomb every few days, one 9/11 every few years…is MUCH more terrifying than total destruction, because total destruction leaves no witnesses to be terrorized. When Bubba or Ahmed or Liam or Tran or Guido next door is quite likely to come into your house and cut your throat if you do not behave in the manner he demands, “terror” gets REAL. There IS no fighting it. But when it’s Marines and helicopters…”Waall, boy howdy!!! Them fellers is jest MESSIN’ wif us. Time to join the resistance!!!”
And then you have a thousand Fallujahs.
Little Rock Fallujah.
Detroit Fallujah.
South Central Fallujah.
Small town Fallujah.
Against which NO empire can stand.
That’s what is coming if we do not get our act together, and SOON.
Our enemies list is growing rapidly, and they are all signing on to the newest tactic…economic war. The Muslims proved its efficacy in Afghanistan vs. the U.S.S.R., and now you are hearing the same song being sung in several continents.
Not just the Middle East.
China.
South/Central/Caribbean America.
Only Europe is not yet singing it.
Europe and poor, fucked Africa.
If the nations of South/Central/Caribbean America get their act together before we reform this out of control system…game over.
Economic collapse followed by the disintegration of the United States of North America.
Too bad.
Step right up!!!
Come one, come all!!!
Y’pays yer money and y’takes yer chances.
Step right up!!!
Yup.
Later…
AG
you saved me an email asking you to crosspost this here.
Every once in awhile a news story comes across my radar screen that sends me over the edge, this was one of them. I guess it’s because my circle of friends is in the planning stages of one of the kids’ birthdays this coming weekend. While it’s not at a park, I know what type of atmosphere we’re going to create – familia. That’s exactly what these freaks are trying to stamp out.
If there any lurkers here who are sympathetic to the hardliners in the immigration “debate” (which is a bi-partisan coalition btw) – search your conscience and realize that the actions by the Wall Builders and Amnesty Opposers reach far beyond the immigrant community.
Thx XP
I think to say that this article/diary sent me over the edge today might be an understatement.
I’m sick right down to the bottom of my soul at seeing more goddamn fucking racist bullshit ignorance-it’s like a sickness that people have that can’t be cured. Fear the commies, fear the polacks, fear the irish, fear, fear and fear some more anyone who is goddamn fucking different from you.
Reading about George Allen and the continuing revelations about his fucking racism, this diary and that idiot Saxby Chambliss saying something to the effect last week that the South just didn’t have good intelligence during the Civil War and if it had we’d now be calling Jefferson Davis a great President instead of Lincoln….well today makes the day that I’m tired of stuffing down my polite responses in comments.sorry but all these fuckers ought to be rounded up somewhere-maybe behind that barbed wire?-where they can be kept away from decent people.
Someone used the expression the other day…’beantown’ in front of me and I politely suggested that they never use that expression again in front of me…and I got told I was ‘too sensitive’ …especially I guess since I’m white and all so why should I care right?
I’m almost glad I’m disabled and almost never leave my apartment anymore..I don’t have the energy any more to put up or fight with people over their goddamn fucken racist language, ignorance and prejudices. I wish I did, I think I’d be making a road trip to TN. and heading out to a park there and speaking the few spanish phrases I know just because I’m feeling goddamn ornery.
love to spend a fall afternoon in the park with you, ink. I’d also like to see them try to remove us
hey how did you know I was going to be in the park this weekend??
Maybe we could all have a fiesta in a Park in Springfield, TN…find Armando and make him bring some good Cuban music.
wow, scary.
As a midwestern boy, raised in a lily-white suburb, it took me some time to get used to the way the streets were full of socializing Dominicans when I first moved to Washington Heights. Where I grew up, people hanging out like that were looking for trouble. I quickly learned that they had a more vibrant public street culture than where I grew up, that it was considered weird NOT to meet and play and talk w/ your neighbors in public spaces. I came to love the energy in that neighborhood. I came to see that insisting that every gathering be some over-organized company picnic or to be hidden in someone’s backyard was itself kind of sad and stunted.
White Americans fear and hate each other, and hate and fear people who are different even more. I wish I could be more optimistic that they will learn that there are other ways to interact with one’s neighbors, that we all just want to have some joy and fun and peace in our lives.
Fear and hatred are cancers, and America seems to be well into Stage 4 and beyond any treatment options.
Like they say, you have to hit rock bottom before you can change and I guess we have not hit rock bottom yet. Unfortunately, some people will have to suffer more before it does hit bottom
No, no. I have a terrible fear of what that “bottom” might entail.
I can never get the memory of what happened to James Byrd, Jr. out of my mind. It comes back whenever I hear “those people”, or “macaca”, or “islamofascists”, or “invaders”, or “whore”, or any of the cruel, dehumanisizing labels that make other people so easy to torture and kill.
Are there no good folk in TN to mount a “NOT IN MY PARK” action ?
My post got picked up by Raw Story, I have been tracting those who have been coming to my blog and I did notice somebody from the state capital who stayed on my blog for over 3 mins, we can all hope it had a positive effect.
you are rapidly becoming one of my favorite postes, XP. this goes up at corrente. unbelievable. fucking racists.
thank you
I think Tennessess has to keep up it’s tradition of occasionally passing insanely ignorant/bigoted laws to keep itself at the top of the list for “stupid law” tourism…
“The “Scopes Trial” (Scopes v. State, 152 Tenn. 424, 278 S.W. 57 (Tenn. 1925), often called the “Scopes Monkey Trial”) pitted against each other lawyers William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow (the latter representing teacher John T. Scopes) in an American court case that tested a law passed on March 13, 1925, which forbade the teaching, in any state-funded educational establishment in Tennessee, of “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” This is often interpreted as meaning that the law forbade the teaching of any aspect of the theory of evolution….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
I guess you are right, I guess they feel like they can can come up with another Plessy v Ferguson ruling and why not, it was that case that spurred on the Jim Crow laws.
You won’t get this attitude everywhere in Tennessee, fortunately. It is, however, much more common, I’d guess in the areas that were heavily slave-holding before the Civil War. That would include Robertson County, certainly. Robertson county, of which Springfield is the county seat, held many many slaves in 1850. It is in central Tennessee, one of the counties north of Nashville.
My own nonscientific personal survey of Tennessee attitudes toward immigrants in general took place in Western Tennessee. I visited several counties there in the summer with my mother, doing family history stuff. I observed a 1 to 1 correspondence regarding spontaneous and negative mention of non-English as a first language peoples in those counties that had 1)been more heavily for succession from the Union, 2) had more involvement with the Klan after the war.
The negative stuff said about immigrants ranged from the sublime to the downright ridiculous: blaming such persons for the recent financial difficulties of the Tennessee state healthcare system. (Until BushII, this had been spoken of as one of the best state systems that began to approach coverage for previously uninsured citizens. With the sucking off of funds for tax cuts to the wealthy and to fund the war, the program has apparently had to be severely reduced.)
Immigrants, I was told, were doing basically what Limbaugh did in getting drugs they didn’t need through their Tenncare insurance (no one referred to Rushola, of course), and this had driven up medical costs astronomically. What utter garbage! I kept asking where they had heard these things, and I never got more than a “everybody knows. . . “.
In other places, it was “we are so fortunate to have people moving into our county.I don’t know what we would do without Dr. so-and-so who came here from ____ and opened up her clinic.” “I have a employee who just appeared here with his family, and he is running my other place while my son is in Iraq. His son joined the same NG unit too. He’s been great for my business. . .” and so on.
Admitedly, just a few people, not at all scientific, but wow, what a difference in attitude, all in the same state!
It is funny how people can blame others when they can not defend themselves because of fear of being deported. So it is easy to come up with lies and more lies on top of that.