English-only bill: bad idea
In case you weren’t aware, this is our state motto: “L’Etoile du Nord.” Roughly translated from French, it means “The Northern Star.” Just keep that in mind, our state motto––the one that adorns our flag and state seal––is French.
One of the first pieces of legislation proposed by our GOP controlled legislature aims to make English the official language of Minnesota. This is similar to a piece of failed legislation proposed last year by a Republican state senator. Specifically, this bill would make official documents published by the state (like voting ballots, and healthcare forms) English only. As with every other poorly thought out piece of legislation the GOP has put out this session, the official argument for it is cost cutting. But really, how much money are we going to save from printing ballots only in English?
So if it’s not money, why bar these people from civic involvement? Well, while the actual bill states that it’s about money, the verbal arguments that have been made in favor of the bill talk a lot about “unity.” I’m all for unity, but I feel like in this case “unity” is code for “homogeny.” During the great depression Minnesota published voting instructions in Swedish, French, Polish, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian, Bohemian and German, because that’s what the people in the state spoke. Today the languages have changed, but the principals have stayed the same. We all pay taxes and just because we speak Hmong, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese or Somali doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be allowed to vote––or worse, receive healthcare. But maybe this whole thing is about money. In that case, I say we bring back the poll tax.
Is this another “poorly thought out piece of legislation the GOP has put out this session”?
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0245.0.html&session=ls87
I think you would support this piece of legislation appropriating funds for art centers. However, you stated in one of your KE articles that every piece of legislature created by a GOP member is poorly thought out; an obtuse generalization as such needs to be corrected. While it is likely that this comment will not be posted, I think you should know that such comments are noticed.
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Now if this had been a bill passed by the Democrats would you support it? I guarantee you would. Not trying to attack anybody, but this entire newspaper is full of “rebel” “indie” liberals who take their political stance because they don’t want to “be mainstream”.
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Tommy,
The funding was provided by a state-wide referendum for clean water, land and legacy that the arts community intelligently attached on to. It was on the 2008 ballot. Therefore it was not created by the GOP of MN, the fund where this money is coming from was created in the referendum under the title: “Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund”. This legislature only sets up a loan that allocates money for renovation of non-metro arts projects. While I see how this would appear that the GOP is trying to donate money to the arts, it is really just the allocation of resources that are already available to fund projects that were deemed necessary by the Board of the Arts.
Heres some more information on the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/news/features/amendment.html
Alex Patow
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