Here is a story from the Tennessean on Saturday that laments the lack of foreign language translators for hospitals, courts and so forth.
Children interpreting for parents at medical appointments and school meetings and witnesses unable to testify are signs of a shortage of translators in Nashville and statewide, according to translators at a state convention.
There are almost 50 certified Spanish interpreters for the state judicial system, according to the Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators, which is holding its state conference at Belmont University.
[….]
The state’s changing demographics — stemming from refugee resettlement and the arrival of more Latinos and other immigrants — has highlighted the need for professional translators.
Of course this organization is whining and looking for more money to hire more certified language interpreters using your tax dollars.
What bothers me so much about this is that Nashville community organizers, businesses and open borders advocates last year defeated an initiative in that city to make English the offical language of the city which I believe would have encouraged everyone to step up the process of learning English. Here is a list of all those involved in killing English Only in Nashville.
Medical interpreters
The medical field needs intepreters they say citing kids interpreting for parents, which frankly I see no problem with. Generations of immigrants had to get by with just that— no taxpayer funded interpreters.
The medical field also needs interpreters — children often serve as translators for their families.
[….]
You have 7-year-old children translating for their mothers at an OB-GYN visit,” said Belma Ismailovich of Health Assist Tennessee, a nonprofit that helps people overcome health-care barriers. “They shouldn’t do that.”
They shouldn’t do that because this group wants more taxpayer funds available for translators.
Translation and interpreting can be expensive, and many health-care providers are reluctant to spend the money, Ismailovich said.
But under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, hospitals and doctors are supposed to provide translators for patients.
“Doctors want a competent translator,” Ismailovich said. “Managed-care providers also want translators.
“But nobody wants to pay for it. Title VI says it’s the law, but there is no funding for it.”
In the 1980s, the state recognized that it was becoming home to many resettled refugees and would be culturally diverse. In 1986, it formed Tennessee Foreign Language Institute, which helps with training, translating and interpreting for state government, businesses and residents.
The need will not slow as Somali, Vietnamese and other languages move
in, said Hope Collins, director of the institute’s interpretation and translation services.
The coalition to kill English as the official language of Nashville was funded by a hospital business among others!
So why do I think this is so incredible—a story lamenting that there aren’t enough interpreters in Nashville? The Nashville English language initiative was defeated, as I mentioned above, by a joint effort of businesses, open borders advocates, and community organizers headed by the likes of Alinsky/Chicago style organizer Avi Poster and Tom Negri (Loews Vanderbilt Hotel) among others.
Last spring I did a little research and noted that many interlocking “community organizations” had been created in Nashville involving those two and others. This is a typical George Soros strategy—creating lots of groups and coalitions to make it appear that the opposition was massive. You can see two of the groups here and here.
The latter, Nashville For All of Us, gathered enormous funding from individuals, businesses and law firms to defeat the English Only initiative. And, in light of this story, here is the funniest part of all. One of two top funders was a huge hospital business—HCA! HCA gave $50,000 to stop English Only! Now, it’s the hospitals whining (Boo Hoo!) they don’t have interpreters!
The link to the funders* of Nashville For All of Us has disappeared, but back in May I wrote down the donors over $10,000 and here they are below. I can’t read my writing on a couple of names so I might have the spelling slightly wrong. Readers, if you find a link for the original list, let me know!
Bass, Berry Sims: $10,000
Steve Turner: $50,000
Caterpillar Finance of Nashville: $25,000
Vanderbilt University: $10,000
Gaylord Enter.: $10,000
Cal Turner: $10,000
Andrew Byrd: $10,000
HCA (Hospital Corporation of America!): $50,000
Tom Cigaron: $10,000
Ben Richter: $25,000
Ingram Industries: $10,000
Waller Landerson PAC: $10,000
William Freeman: $10,000
In addition to these large contributions to this political campaign to stop English Only in Nashville, the list went on and on with smaller donors.
So, what was in it for these large donors—surely something more than helping Nashville’s image as a world class welcoming city? And besides, if they have that much money kicking around for a lobbying initiative maybe they could now fund a few interpreters!
*Incidentally, I could find no record of Nashville For All of Us becoming a 501(c)3, so I presume none of the donors were able to write off these donations that were obviously for lobbying purposes.