Thought this was hilarious...

[j2k4]

Breaking from NewsMax.com

ACLU Doesn't Want English Signs

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked officials in a Detroit suburb to reject a proposal that would require businesses with foreign language signs to add English translations.

"We write to strongly urge you to abandon the measure as unconstitutional, anti-immigrant and unnecessary," the ACLU wrote to the city Thursday in a letter that was also signed by officials with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Michigan and Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development Inc.




In May, Sterling Heights, Mich., Councilwoman Barbara Ziarko asked the city's attorney to prepare an ordinance requiring businesses with foreign language signs to have identifiers such as "bakery" included, the Detroit News reports.

Fire Chief John Childs supported the move, arguing that people passing by the site of a fire or other emergency could inform dispatchers about the location more easily if they could read the signs.

He maintained that the issue has nothing to do with race.

"This is about response time," he said.

The city issued a statement Thursday defending the proposed ordinance.

"Any assertion that the city's public safety effort is intended as a restriction on the expression of cultural diversity is categorically denied," the statement said.


According to the News, Michael J. Steinberg of the ACLU said the proposal is unconstitutional "because it singles out businesses with signs."

EDIT:

Might I prevail upon a moderator to add the missing "t" to the end of the first word in the thread title?

[vidcc]

The reasoning stated above aside surely you would object to this attempted regulation on private businesses.

[Busyman™]

This is somewhat different but it amazing that in Chinatown in DC, every business is required to have Chinese signs.

[j2k4]

This is somewhat different but it amazing that in Chinatown in DC, every business is required to have Chinese signs.

It is the same in all essential aspects.

It's a goose/gander thing.

Actually, vid, Government and it's urge to regulate every little thing (only in the politically-correct way, of course), should just fuck right off.

[vidcc]

Actually, vid, Government and it's urge to regulate every little thing (only in the politically-correct way, of course), should just fuck right off.

Do you not object to the politically incorrect regulatory urges then ?

[j2k4]

Actually, vid, Government and it's urge to regulate every little thing (only in the politically-correct way, of course), should just fuck right off.

Do you not object to the politically incorrect regulatory urges then ?

I think that's what I just said.

[Skiz]

Not only is it hilarious, but is really shows the absolute stupidity of the
ACLU. Singles out businesses with signs??????

I'd say, "What's next?", but I don't think anyone here is as imaginative as those pricks.

[Skweeky]

I don't quite understand...

Are these signs printed in some other alphabet or something? Because surely if it was just Spanish or Italian or something people would still be able to read it?

What's the use of being able to say to the fire department ' Yes, it's a shop called Het Zoete Broodje, oh, and it's a bakery, I can see it on the translation sign' ?

[j2k4]

I don't quite understand...

Are these signs printed in some other alphabet or something? Because surely if it was just Spanish or Italian or something people would still be able to read it?

What's the use of being able to say to the fire department ' Yes, it's a shop called Het Zoete Broodje, oh, and it's a bakery, I can see it on the translation sign' ?

Ah, but you were inculcated in a multilingual society, kiddo.

This issue is actually an offshoot of the current trend of adding Spanish and other languages to signage that was heretofore English-only, so as to be more hospitable and inclusive-this gives rise to the difficulty of, say, a Spanish-only speaker trying to order a steak-and-cheese sandwich from an English-only speaker, with the attendant frustrations.

It has reached the point where, in some locales, municipal authorities have decided multilingual signage is a condition of doing business, and in many instances, businesses are viewed askance for not having multilingual staff capable of taking orders in other languages.

Now comes the ACLU stipulating that immigrant-owned businesses will suffer no such requirements, and there are many Arab-owned businesses (for example) strung out end-to-end as far as the eye can see-they do not cater to English-only speakers, and they couldn't care less about accomodating them.

Now, I don't read that language, and don't recognize the runes which make-up the signage.

That effectively means I cannot shop there, nor can I indicate what the establishment sells to anyone else, and I certainly wouldn't be able to indicate it's location in an emergency by any means other than gestures.

Damned inconvenient.

[vidcc]

Who cares? to be honest a private company should be able to put any signs (apart from safety notices like fire exit) in whatever language it desires. There should be no requirement other than health and safety reasons to have translations in any other language than that desired by the business. It seems to me that if it was in a language other than English in the USA then the company would lose custom of english only speakers...that is their choice and their loss......