Eric Crafton Declares Himself a Second-Class Citizen
Here’s a news flash: You don’t live in New York City.
Shocked? You shouldn’t be. See that building shaped like the mask of the caped crusader? That ain’t Rockefeller Center. And that foul-smelling man who accosted you last night in Centennial Park? That wasn’t a Broadway actor in deep background, prepping for a role as a boozehound.
But in case you needed any more reminding that you live in Nashville, allow Pith to provide you with your daily wake-up call…
Yesterday, via the New York Times, comes word that Mayor Michael Bloomberg has “ordered the city’s more than 100 agencies to provide language assistance in six foreign languages.”
Pamphlets, forms, and any other public document in NYC will now have to come in a tableau of tongues, including Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole. Of course, at this point any loyal Pith reader is thinking one thing and one thing only: Has anyone called Eric Crafton about this? Fortunately, we thought ahead.
Now before we beat Crafton upside the head with a claw hammer, allow us one moment of gratitude. We’re new to this part of the world and have recently been told that Crafton ALWAYS answers his cell phone and is ALWAYS willing to talk to us. Perhaps you think that qualifies him as a sadist. But to us, it means he’s more accessible than 75% of the public servants we’ve ever dealt with. Props given.
But when we asked Crafton what he thought about Bloomberg’s order, he gave a fairly standard “we don’t need to copy New York on anything” response. Fine.
But then Crafton did the unthinkable. He executed a verbal faux paus WHILST on the phone with a copy-hungry blogger. To whit...
"English is the success language here in the United States," said Crafton. "And to not help and assist people in communicating in English relegates them to second-class status."
Yikes. Did ya catch that? Crafton mangled a talking point advocating for English-only fluency. As the kids say: He done messed up.
In other news, the proposition will get enough votes to be included on a November ballot and will almost certainly pass. Que lastima!
(hat tip, Enclave)
Comments
Please help stop Craftonism!
Eric Crafton tries to hide his Xenophobia behind his time spent in Japan and the fact that "he pays $20,000 in property taxes" to fund any number of ESL options.
One must ask what is in this for him? It is not like everyone is going to start conducting Metro's affairs in French tomorrow. Why is this so important to him? This is his second attempt at this questionable legislation. Why is the very big question. What is he afraid of really? Is this to draw out Right Wing Republicans to the November elections? The funding behind his flag rapped English only campaign needs to scrutinized. Is Mr. Crafton doing this for the greater good? Hardly.
I oddly enough have never seen Mr. Crafton at Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (where I take French lessons and their main trade is ESL) or on Nolensville Road (where those who do not pay $20,000 in property taxes live).
"The sleep of reason produces monsters" this ironically enough is quoted from a native Spanish speaker, Francisco Goya.
Jennifer Padgett
Posted 08/14/2008 at 10:40:55 PM