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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 729260" data-attributes="member: 12952"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/nyregion/13towns.html?hp" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/nyregion/13towns.html?hp</a>It’s about 2,500 miles from this green, rural town in the rolling hills&nbsp; near Vermont to the Mexican border at Nogales, but that hasn’t&nbsp; stopped Jackson from making a bid to be New York’s small version of Arizona in&nbsp; the immigration wars.Or that’s how it is beginning to feel two months after Jackson — which&nbsp; has 1,700 people, no village, no grocery store or place to buy gasoline,&nbsp; no church, no school, two restaurants and maybe a few Spanish-speaking&nbsp; farm workers — decided it needed a law requiring that&nbsp; all town business be conducted in English.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; One nearby town, Argyle, has since passed a similar resolution. A third,&nbsp; Easton, is likely to consider one at its Town Board meeting in June.&nbsp; The law has already put Jackson at odds with the New York&nbsp; Civil Liberties Union, which says it violates state and federal law.&nbsp; But in the great American echo chamber, every mouse gets to roar, so&nbsp; Roger Meyer, who proposed the law, feels he is making progress toward&nbsp; protecting the English language from threats near and far.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; “For too long, the federal government has shirked its duty by not&nbsp; passing English as the official language of the United States,” said Mr.&nbsp; Meyer, 76, a Town Council member and retiree who runs Chains Unlimited,&nbsp; a sawmill and&nbsp; chain saw and logging supply company. “So seeing as this&nbsp; law couldn’t be passed from the top down, I felt I’d start a&nbsp; grass-roots movement to try to get it passed from the bottom up.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The law designates English as the town’s official written and spoken&nbsp; language, “to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by&nbsp; the elected officials and their appointees.”“We have records going back to 1816, and they’ve never been written in&nbsp; anything but English,” Mr. Meyer said. “This law isn’t changing&nbsp; anything. It’s just making it official that we’re going to do what we’ve&nbsp; been doing for 190 years.”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; And Mr. Meyer said the law was in support of English, not in opposition&nbsp; to any group. “It’s not prejudicial or anything like that,” he said.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 729260, member: 12952"] [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/nyregion/13towns.html?hp[/url] It’s about 2,500 miles from this green, rural town in the rolling hills near Vermont to the Mexican border at Nogales, but that hasn’t stopped Jackson from making a bid to be New York’s small version of Arizona in the immigration wars. Or that’s how it is beginning to feel two months after Jackson — which has 1,700 people, no village, no grocery store or place to buy gasoline, no church, no school, two restaurants and maybe a few Spanish-speaking farm workers — decided it needed a law requiring that all town business be conducted in English. One nearby town, Argyle, has since passed a similar resolution. A third, Easton, is likely to consider one at its Town Board meeting in June. The law has already put Jackson at odds with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which says it violates state and federal law. But in the great American echo chamber, every mouse gets to roar, so Roger Meyer, who proposed the law, feels he is making progress toward protecting the English language from threats near and far. “For too long, the federal government has shirked its duty by not passing English as the official language of the United States,” said Mr. Meyer, 76, a Town Council member and retiree who runs Chains Unlimited, a sawmill and chain saw and logging supply company. “So seeing as this law couldn’t be passed from the top down, I felt I’d start a grass-roots movement to try to get it passed from the bottom up.” The law designates English as the town’s official written and spoken language, “to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and their appointees.” “We have records going back to 1816, and they’ve never been written in anything but English,” Mr. Meyer said. “This law isn’t changing anything. It’s just making it official that we’re going to do what we’ve been doing for 190 years.” And Mr. Meyer said the law was in support of English, not in opposition to any group. “It’s not prejudicial or anything like that,” he said. [/QUOTE]

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