Legal Bigotry

Hey Folks -

Mark Twain called us "The Damned Human Race." Looks like he was right.

- Uke Man

Thomas Suddes: English-only bill speaks ill of Ohio
Sunday, June 1, 2008
By THOMAS SUDDES

Only because a handful of Democrats helped, House Republicans got to take a swipe at Ohio's Spanish-speaking residents, though everyone will deny that -- except on the campaign trail.

The measure, pending in the state Senate, would add yet another seamy page to Ohio's history of "legal" bigotry. That might be one reason the House's black members, who know a thing or two about discrimination, opposed the measure. But six of their fellow Democrats voted yes.

Due to roll-call math, each of the Democrats, like suspects in Murder on the Orient Express, has some deniability as the decider. No matter. The shame should be shared.
The bill, sponsored by a suburban Cincinnati Republican, Rep. Robert Mecklenborg, would require every public body in Ohio to use the English language in its actions, proceedings and records.

As a practical matter, all state business is conducted now in English. So, goes the argument, what's the bill's harm? Plenty, starting with the message it sends about Ohio's mentality. That's why Gov. Ted Strickland has vowed to veto the measure if it reaches his desk.

Otherwise, if Mecklenborg's bill became law, the wording on those border signs might still seem to read "Welcome to Ohio" to potential overseas investors, international visitors and the world-class scientists Ohio's colleges and universities want to woo. But the Mecklenborg bill would effectively tell new arrivals, "Welcome to Dogpatch."

But, hey, it's an election year, with control of the Ohio House, 53-46 Republican, in play. And "nativism" -- politicking against black people and immigrants and Jews and Catholics -- has had success in Ohio politics. That's how the Ku Klux Klan ran Ohio's House for a time in the 1920s; how Ohio in 1960 voted not for John F. Kennedy but Richard M. Nixon; and why in 1968 no never-a-slavery state bigger than Ohio gave more of its presidential vote to George C. Wallace.

That's also how a GOP-run General Assembly in 1919, with "liberal" Democratic Gov. James M. Cox's OK, passed a law forbidding any school -- public, private or parochial -- to teach German to pupils below the eighth grade. Reason: Anti-German hysteria fueled by World War I, and, oh yes, Cox's planned 1920 run for president. (The U.S. Supreme Court junked the law in 1922.)

Mecklenborg needed at least 50 House votes to pass his bill last month, just before Memorial Day. Of 53 House Republicans, three were absent; two others -- Reps. Jon M. Peterson of Delaware, and Clyde Evans of Rio Grande -- had the gumption to vote no. That meant Mecklenborg had only 48 GOP votes and needed to land at least two House Democrats.

Six obliged: Reps. John Otterman of Akron, Thomas Heydinger of Norwalk, Dan Dodd of Hebron, Jay Goyal of Mansfield, Matt Lundy of Elyria and John Domenick of Smithfield in Jefferson County. Heydinger, Dodd and Lundy sit in House seats Republicans long held -- and will target this fall. Goyal's district leans Republican. Translation: The price of a competitive Ohio House seat is to make Ohio look stupid.

Three House Republicans with districts including big state university campuses also have some explaining to do: Reps. Randy Gardner of Bowling Green, Jimmy Stewart of Athens and Shawn Webster of Millville (Miami University), voted yes on Mecklenborg's bill.

What's next? Illegalizing colleges' Latin mottoes (Ohio State's is Disciplina in civitatem) to keep Roman centurions from invading Ohio to claim it for Caesar? You laugh, but then think of the General Assembly and you cringe.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University.
tsuddes@gmail.com