Jackson, NY – The American Civil Liberties Union says it has asked Jackson, N.Y., to rescind an ordinance requiring all town business
to be conducted in English.
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The law prohibits constitutionally protected speech and discriminates against people with limited English skills, ACLU spokeswoman Melanie Trimble told The New York Times in a story published Thursday.
Town leaders passed the ordinance two months ago and the nearby town of Argyle, N.Y., since has passed a similar resolution. The town of Easton, N.Y., also is considering such a measure, the Times reported.
Roger Meyer, 76, a Jackson Town Council member, said he proposed the ordinance to encourage the federal government to make English the official language of the United States.
“We have records going back to 1816, and they’ve never been written in anything but English,” Meyer told the Times. “This law isn’t changing anything. It’s just making it official that we’re going to do what we’ve been doing for 190 years.”
Horray for this city!! If you can’t speak english or at least tz’bruchena english too bad! Enough pandering to certain people who want the best of the country.
I agree with these guys! If you live in an english speaking country LEARN ENGLISH!
It’s the same for any other place!
I went, a couple of years ago to Montreal and was surprised how few members of the community spoke french. One none jewish bus driver was even surprised when I asked him in french how much a ticket to to town was and please and thank you.
Sometimes I am ashamed of fellow Jews who come to live in the UK, but refuse to speak the language. Yes, it is important to preserve your mother tongue, may it be german, french or hebrew, but remember that, ignoring the fact that you can’t fully partake and fullfill your responsability of the modern british society, it’s simply ignorant behaviour!
I have lived in Germany, France and the UK and have each time learned the languages of those countries (even with german being my mother tongue), and I found that speaking the language of the country in which I reside, has helped me in more then one occassion.
So, don’t be ignorant and learn the language! Instead of seeing it as a bad thing, see the advantages your knowledge of that language will give you!
This is the ACLU’s dark side. What’s constitutionally protected is the city’s right as an employer to direct its employees on how to do the work they perform and are paid for.
100% I think that this should be done in the entire country. What other country in the world accomodates, not even Israel, try to go to a government office or the Knesset meetings all in Hebrew. It is about time we started standing up for what is right.
This reminds me of what I saw on the train…..
I look at one sign…its in spanish
I look at another sign…. Also in spansih
The third sign says….”Learn english now”
The sign should have said “learn spanish now”
This is messed up. We’re in america!! Learn english!!!
Hurray! it looks like America is finally coming to it’s senses Halevai, Our Jewish ancestors came To the US and sweated and toiled and learned the language and that is what todays immigrants NEED to do!…Regarding the Arizona issue, it also seems like most Americans are for it and that they are fed up with what is going on…
Mazel Tov. It’s about time we have a common sense approch. This is an ENGLISH speaking country. Speak Eng. When I went to Quebec, on vacation for a mont, guess what I learned French, and it all ame back to me from my younger years in school..
Many of our post WW2 grandparents never mastered the English language. My grandmother can read it but just never got to know it. She was too busy raising her family, and until today she has a problem when it comes to taking care of official matters, where she always needs her kids’ help. She would have prefered to be knowledgable of the language of her adopted country, but among loads of other cases, for her it was not the case. It’s not all black and white…