Beaufort County: fear of nation going bilingual

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Beaufort County Rejects Non-English Signs

Commissioners in Beaufort County in eastern North Carolina have voted to
Remove non-English signs and information materials from county property.
Commissioner Hood Richardson said he was concerned about the nation
becoming bilingual when he proposed the idea. The policy doesn't apply to
programs mandated by the state and federal government, including health
and social services offices.

The law doesn't specify a language, but Hood said Spanish was a target of
the policy. Juvencio Rocha Peralta of Greenville, president of the Mexican
Association of North Carolina, said the ban doesn't help people who can't
speak English and that fluency in other languages helps America in the
global economy. "To be honest, it is one of the craziest things I've heard
in Eastern North Carolina," he said.

Census figures show that about 3.8 percent of the county's 46,000
residents are of Hispanic origin. Commissioner Ed Booth was the sole vote
against the policy and said people coming from other countries should be
given an opportunity to be successful. "To me, it's shameful," Booth said
of the policy. "It's embarrassing." Spokesmen at state associations for
city and county government said they didn't know of other jurisdictions
that had banned signs or information materials in a foreign language.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1207533/
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