government | betsybeadhead

I spy with my little eye, something that begins with E.

Eggs.

Easter eggs, to be specific.

At a public library.

The idea of separation of church and state means in part that the state cannot do anything to hinder people’s practice of their faith. But it also means that the state should not promote a particular faith either.

For a government-run entity to have any display of any one faith tradition implicitly excludes all others.

Where was the Purim festival for the Jewish families? How about an observance of Holi for the Hindu families? Both of these celebrations happened this week, but there was no notice of them.

How about understanding that there are people who do not practice any faith tradition at all? How about understanding that there are people who have been psychologically harmed by Christians?

Government-run organizations get their money from tax dollars from every citizen. That means that it should represent all of them, not just a few. If they are going to have religious displays, then they must have all of them. Ideally, they would not have any displays at all.

A lot of people move to Nashville from all around the world and they speak a lot of different languages. I think it would be easier if everybody learned the same language to communicate with each other. I don’t think it would be fair if everybody had to learn Arabic and Kurdish and Somali and French and Spanish. If everybody learns the same language we are all on the same page.

However, there is a push to have all government documents in Spanish, and there are many businesses that advertise that the speak Spanish there. Not any other language – just Spanish. The people from all other countries are not included. Translating and printing all government documents in two languages is expensive, and we are constantly having budget cuts. Where would this money come from? If they follow the usual trend then people’s jobs would be cut and service hours would be shortened.

For us to make everything in Spanish is to say that the Mexicans are unusual among all the other people who move here. It is saying that they are unable to learn English. I feel it is selling them short, and that it is an insult to their intelligence. If we print everything in Spanish and we all have to learn it, then they don’t have to learn it at all.

I feel we are handicapping them rather than helping them.