September 5, 2008


Coalition of 100 fights English-only measure

ACLU, chamber join forces

By JANELL ROSS
Staff Writer

If anyone thought the Davidson County Courthouse was the sole site of English-only combat, they would be wrong.

In the three months since Metro Councilman Eric Crafton and a group dubbed Nashville English First revived the city's language debate, a coalition quietly has been making plans to quash what its roughly 100 members see as a divisive and damaging measure.

Members of Nashville for All of Us range from lawyers to clergymen, private individuals to public officials and business leaders to nonprofit directors. The Tennessean's publisher, Ellen Leifeld, is a member.

Late Wednesday, Nashville for All of Us took its first public action: six organizations and individuals affiliated with the group filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit that Nashville English First filed to force its issue onto the ballot. The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, Councilman Mike Jameson, Service Employees International Union Local 205, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and an individual, James Zralek, were all parties to the motion filed Wednesday.

The English-only measure, which calls for all Metro meetings and communications to be in English, would affect their ability to complete their work, fulfill their missions and comply with federal law, and it could damage both the reputation and economic prospects of Nashville, the motion said.

Zralek, 80, has lived in Nashville for 53 years. That's long enough to have had two distinctive careers in public health and federal probation, retire and watch the city change from a place where his own fast-talking Chicago English used to be mocked to one where his church, St. Ann's, offers Masses in at least four languages. For Zralek, standing against the English-only measure seems the patriotic thing to do, he said.

"I'm very proud of this country. And if Eric Crafton and others have a right to publicly give their opinion, I think I definitely do, too …," he said.

"If you demand that everyone speak English immediately, you are going to eliminate them not just from things like the driver's license, but you are going to eliminate them from being able to hold certain jobs, get certain things done in their lives and being a part of this community. That doesn't do any of us any good."

By noon Thursday, Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman had ruled that the group would not be given permission to intervene because it would slow down the process.

She said they still would be allowed to weigh in on legal matters in the case, filing "friend of the court" briefs with their interpretations of relevant law.

"How often can you envision the chamber, a union and the ACLU working together?" said Kenny Byrd, an attorney who filed the motion on behalf of the chamber.

"That should tell people something right there," Byrd said. "This thing either smells very, very right or very, very wrong, but that combination has got to mean something."

City's reputation at stake

Byrd's firm, H3GM — along with Bass Berry & Sims, Boult, Cummings, Conners & Berry, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis and other firms best known for their work on business-related matters such as intellectual property and ownership transactions — all sent representatives to group meetings.

Their interest, according to group members: Nashville's reputation as a vital player on the international business scene.

Members agree that some of the parties wouldn't normally work together, but this issue demands it, they said.

"The lines do blur. In this case, I think that's happened because we're united by what we feel is the right thing to do. I think we all feel that this could hurt the city," said Debby Dale Mason, the chief community action officer for the Chamber of Com-merce. "… Odd partnerships come together in moments like this."

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