All Commies Liberally United…

…otherwise known as the ACLU, think it is unfair for a North Carolina county to have signs in county buildings to be posted in English only. 

Civil-rights watchdogs put county on notice

Letter details opposition to English-only initiative

By DAN PARSONS

Staff Writer

Recent actions taken by the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners to curb illegal immigration at the county level have caused several civil-rights watchdog groups “great concern,” according to an attorney for the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Several groups, at all levels of government, have been paying very close attention to Beaufort County since February 2007,” Katy Parker, legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina, said Wednesday. “We have no set plans for action right now because it seems most of it is being taken care of at the state level.”

The ACLU is one of the 15 signatories of the four-page letter outlining the concerns with the board’s moves over the past year to curb illegal immigration at the local level. The effort, led by commissioners Hood Richardson and Stan Deatherage, began in February 2007 with a mandate that signs posted on county buildings be in English only. The board has since met with an attorney who advised it on actions it could legally take to fight illegal immigration in the county. The board’s first move was to remove the Spanish-language option from county phone systems, which was deemed a civil-rights violation by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. [more here]

The ACLU thinks it is mean spirited.  Boo-hoo.  The group sent out a letter to Beaufort County telling them they don’t think it is right. 

I am supporting Beaufort County on this.  Lately I have been talking about how I am studying my Czech genealogy.  I am going to make an analogy between what Beaufort County is doing and my genealogy search.  I had been trying to learn the Czech language.  I haven’t done anything about it for a bout a month or so.  I’ll tell ya what, it is hard.  But if I want to get anywhere with searching records, I need to stick with my language learning. 

There are many Czech genealogy sites out there.  The majority, if not all of them are in Czech.  I have two options here.  I could say, “Gee these websites are in Czech.  I better learn Czech or not be able to learn about my ancestry.”  Or, I could whine to the webmasters that many?  Americans want to learn about their ancestry but don’t know Czech and that the webmasters should provide an English translation for Americans.  After all, the US is where most people came to immigrate.  I think they would think I was crazy.

I am glad for the sites that do have English translations.  But this is at the discretion of those in charge.  No one is forcing them to do it.  With governments, local, state and national, when they have signs, paperwork, etc. that are in many languages to accommodate a small hand-full of people the majority of English speaking tax payers are paying for whatever the costs incurred.

h/t to Immigration News Daily.