Eric Crafton Plays Right Into Their Hands
Posted on August 19, 2008 at 7:28 amMichael Cass links up Nashville’s English First movement to a man who founded a national English First movement 15 years ago:
In 1986, Tanton wrote a memo to “colleagues who met at retreats to discuss immigration,” according to “The Puppeteer,” the law center’s 2002 article on Tanton. The memo, leaked to The Arizona Republic newspaper in 1988, was full of questions and statements about “the non-economic consequences of immigration to California, and by extension, to the rest of the United States,” in Tanton’s words.
Tanton asked, among other things, “Will Latin American migrants bring with them the tradition of the mordida (bribe), the lack of involvement in public affairs, etc.?” and “Will Blacks be able to improve (or even maintain) their position in the face of the Latin onslaught?”
Gregg Ramos, a Nashville attorney who is working to defeat the official-English plan, said Tanton’s memo was repulsive.
“We shouldn’t let people like John Tanton and his hate mongers come into Tennessee and dictate how we’re going to treat people,” said Ramos, a first-generation American of Mexican heritage.
Ramos also contended that Crafton didn’t want to reveal the source of Nashville English First’s funding until after it submitted its voter petition last week because “he didn’t want everybody to know he was taking money from these hate groups.”
“It’s all coming into focus,” Ramos said. “It all makes sense now.”
