by Roy Exum
posted September 5, 2008
 Roy Exum |
The two cases, each quite different, are amazingly similar as a groundswell of support has been generated all across America to do away with signage and all else unless it is in the King’s English, which has been the country’s primary language ever since the Pilgrims first spied Plymouth Rock.
In Nashville they just gathered over 10,000 signatures this summer to put it to a vote, but a judge there has just ruled there can be only one petition-borne referendum every two years and that the last one was held on Nov. 7 in 2006 – thus the city charter will not allow such a vote until three days after this year’s national election takes place.
Well, the organizers are fuming like crazy and stamping their feet, swearing “We didn’t lose because we won’t quit,” and out of the mess now comes a voice of reason in the person of Tom Lawless, the Republican Party chairman for Davidson County, who told the city’s Tennessean, “I’m tickled to death we don’t have this distraction … (It is like) putting up a sign at the airport saying ‘Foreigner, Go Home.’
Lawless took it a step further when he added, “Let’s stop having people’s special interest projects that taxpayers have to underwrite. What is the great immediacy of all of this? Is it a matter of national security or people’s safety in Nashville? I don’t think so.”
But the LPGA reason is altogether another matter – money. The LPGA does not have the television money the men’s Tour enjoys so, in order to make ends meet, they rely heavily on sponsors. These sponsors like to talk to the players, especially in the fun pro-am events and, when a girl golfer cannot speak the language, it causes problems.
Sponsors dislike problems. Right now on the LPGA tour there are 121 international players, a large portion (45) from South Korea. Three of this year’s four major tournaments have been won by Asians. So the LPGA plan was an attempt to thwart the language problems that are causing the sponsors to seek other venues.
There was an immediate outcry, not just from the Asian girls but from left-leaning California congressmen and many other advocates of human rights, shouting “racism” and even citing the Constitution, and the embattled LPGA backed down yesterday. Now the LPGA promises a revised plan by the end of the year in a markedly earnest attempt to placate everyone, which history has proven is nigh impossible regardless the field of endeavor.
All the LPGA was trying to do, as cooler heads agree, was best summed up by Bob Green, an international golf writer, who said – in plain English – “Money talks but not like you do.” He also noted the LPGA’s single top source of income was – believe it or not – its Korean TV contract.
On both fronts there are lawyers eager to get into the mix, representing either side as long as it pays up front, and, given that, we still haven’t heard the last of the “English only” dilemma.
But you can bet every dime you can raise the checks will be written in English, be they on the 18th green or in a courtroom somewhere.
royexum@aol.com
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