The real historic opportunity in Metro elections: Government that reflects Nashville

This year's Metro Nashville elections offer the opportunity to make history, and the media have picked up on that theme a bit. But they usually focus on the possibility of a challenger candidate taking an at-large Council seat from one of the incumbents or something about the Fairgrounds.

While accurate enough, that's not very meaningful history.

The real historical opportunity this year is to elect a Metro Government that more closely reflects the city we live in.

Identity politics and single-issue organizations get a lot of eye rolls from the commenting classes (and some of those eye rolls are deserved). And then there's the common sense question: What does it matter what gender, what race, what ethnicity, what sexual orientation or gender identity marks someone; shouldn't we just vote for the best candidate?

Well, sure. I'm not suggesting that anyone vote for a bad candidate. But let's not pretend that it's irrelevant who has the ability to deliberate and vote on legislation that affects our city.

Let's take a few examples:

*Earlier this year the all-male Hamilton County Commission almost wiped out a contraceptive program that they didn't understand. Are men capable of understanding contraception? Yes, of course. But it's pretty clear that the gender composition of the body made a difference in their consideration of the issue.

*Metro Council deliberates aspects of the 287(g) program. And yet not one member of the Council is an immigrant. Does that matter? Does it affect the tone of the debate? Without a doubt!

*Metro Council has considered two non-discrimination bills without one gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender person on the floor participating in the debate or the vote. Horrible things have been said about our community during these public discussions and CAN DO barely passed. How might things have been different with some representation?

So, as Joey Garrison has pointed out in the City Paper, we have the opportunity to elect more women to Metro Council, but we also may elect an immigrant, more African-American Council Members At-Large, and viable, qualified gay candidates in competitive races in districts 8 and 18!

These markers don't completely define these candidates any more than being white or male or straight or being born in America defines the majority of current Council. But given the issues we face as a city, they are ONE piece of the puzzle. Diversity helps us deliberate better about how different parts of our community are affected by legislation.

Is Nashville really for all of us? This election will be a barometer.

-Chris Sanders

TEP joins others in confronting Rep. Curry Todd's intolerance

Rep. Curry Todd

At a Fiscal Review Committee hearing about the Cover Kids program on Tuesday of this week, State House Representative Curry Todd compared children born to immigrants in this country to the multiplication of rats. When told in committee that Cover Kids provided prenatal care to unborn children who would be born as U.S. citizens, Todd said immigrants can "go out there like rats and multiply."

When confronted about his statement, Todd "apologized" saying that he should have used the phrase "anchor babies" for newborns of immigrant parents.



NAACP Executive Director Madeleine C. Taylor
speaking at today's press conference


Earlier this evening representatives from Latino Memphis, the NAACP, Workers Interfaith Network, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center, Tennessee Equality Project and other organizations gathered on the street outside Rep. Todd's Collierville home to take a stand against his unrepentant intolerance and bigotry.

On behalf of TEP, I read the following statement in solidarity with those confronting Todd's behavior:

Tennessee Equality Project joins today's chorus of voices condemning the insensitive and thoughtless remarks of State House Rep. Curry Todd of Shelby County. Such remarks are deeply troubling and offensive coming from an elected official in a public hearing. Rep. Todd's words dehumanize immigrant children born in this country and send a message of intolerance and bigotry. Such messages targeting a minority in our community poorly serve the constituents of House District 95 and the people of Tennessee. Such behavior damages the reputation of our great state. People want to live and work in inclusive communities that welcome diversity.  Communities that welcome all people regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation or gender foster cultural vibrancy and economic innovation. We call on Rep. Todd to issue a real apology and to embrace the diversity of our community and state as a social and economic good.

- Jonathan Cole, TEP Board Chair

The Germans aren't the only ones coming to Chattanooga

The Latino population is growing quickly in the Chattanooga area:

According to 2007 population estimates released this morning, the Hispanic population of Hamilton County and the surrounding 20 counties has grown almost 60 percent since 2000, compared to 5 percent growth in non-Hispanic groups.

Here's how the region is adapting:

Responding to that trend, Erlanger [Health System] has introduced bilingual patient guides, patient’s rights forms and elevator signs, as well as adding interpreters to the staff, she said.

Other organizations and institutions are addressing the Hispanic growth as well, according to Ms. [Mirtha] Jones [director of Plaza Comunitaria].

“Nearly everywhere you go the signs are bilingual,” she said. “It’s more visible than it was five years ago.”

Dr. [Douglas] Bachtel [a demographer at the University of Georgia] said churches, public safety departments and businesses eventually must take notice of growing Hispanic populations. Law enforcement agencies across the South are recruiting Spanish-speaking officers, and many churches offer Spanish services or ministries, he said.

No mention of English-only ballot measures.

Crafton's Reconquista of Nashville

Councilman Eric Crafton has decided to start a drive to amend the Metro Charter and make English the official language of Nashville. He needs to get just over 10,000 signatures by August in order to put the measure on the November ballot. Here's the text:

Crafton’s charter amendment proposal says, “No person shall have a right to government services in any other language. All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law.”

As the City Paper points out, former Mayor Bill Purcell vetoed Crafton's attempt to do the same thing by ordinance because it could violate state and federal law. If it would, indeed, violate state and federal law, how exactly does Crafton's charter amendment have any guts left in it? He seems to acknowledge as much with the last sentence of the text.

Here's a challenge to our local media. Please, let's have more than man-on-the-street quotations of people's feelings about immigrants. I hope that as the coverage of Crafton's effort unfolds we'll be reading information about what is really happening on the ground. The coverage should address issues like access to health services, help for crime victims, translators in the public defender's office, and food inspection for restaurants. Do we really want people who don't speak English finding more reasons to avoid dealing with government, especially when it comes to issues of public health and public safety?

For opponents, snarky comments about Crafton's motives will be tempting, almost too tempting to avoid. But if you oppose this amendment, then knock it relentlessly on the dangers it poses.

Since the proposal is a ballot measure, I assume that religious communities can take a side and get involved. Perhaps they can help keep the moral aspect of the debate in the public view and minimize the nastiness that a campaign like this is bound to bring.