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Armenian language induced inhabitants of Washington suburb to take
decisive actions
21:45, 27 November, 2012
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: It was the "Armenian threat" that
caused Carroll County Commissioner Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. to act.
As reports Armenpress referring to The Washington Post, after hearing
that a Washington suburb had spent a fortune translating some land-use
documents into Armenian, Shoemaker proposed an ordinance that would
make English the county's official language. The measure has opened a
fierce debate in this once-rural farming community, where the rolling
countryside is now dotted with rapidly spreading bedroom communities.
`It's divisive,' said Dane Manges, 31, a Manchester resident who works
in Cup, a tea bar on Main Street here. He thinks the ordinance
distracts from more substantive threats to the community's traditions
and heritage, such as rapid suburbanization. `These things could be
maintained without an `us' and `them' mentality,' he said.
But Commissioner Richard Rothschild said the ordinance has nothing to
do with xenophobia and everything to do with common sense.
`If you immigrate to America, then you're going to learn our language.
I'm not going to learn yours,' Rothschild said. `It's simple - when in
Rome, do like the Romans.'
About 35 miles northwest of Baltimore and bordered to the north by the
Pennsylvania line and to the south by Howard County, Carroll seems an
unlikely place to discuss a threat from any foreign language. Although
the Latino population has more than tripled since the 2000 census, its
numbers are still small: In a county of 167,134 people, only 4,363
residents, or about 2.6 percent, are Latino. More than nine out of 10
people are white and native-born and speak English in their homes,
Census Bureau data show.
The county is also about as politically conservative as Maryland is
liberal, with 65 percent voting for Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney. Divisions there over growing diversity and immigration
reflect the nation's divide on the topics. Some residents think the
proposed ordinance is necessary to preserve American culture and its
idea of the melting pot. Others think the measure is nothing but a
symbolic form of barbed wire that suggests immigrants should go
elsewhere. If the ordinance is approved by the all-Republican board,
Carroll would join Frederick and Queen Anne's counties in passing such
a law. A public hearing on the measure is set for December 11.
decisive actions
21:45, 27 November, 2012
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS: It was the "Armenian threat" that
caused Carroll County Commissioner Haven N. Shoemaker Jr. to act.
As reports Armenpress referring to The Washington Post, after hearing
that a Washington suburb had spent a fortune translating some land-use
documents into Armenian, Shoemaker proposed an ordinance that would
make English the county's official language. The measure has opened a
fierce debate in this once-rural farming community, where the rolling
countryside is now dotted with rapidly spreading bedroom communities.
`It's divisive,' said Dane Manges, 31, a Manchester resident who works
in Cup, a tea bar on Main Street here. He thinks the ordinance
distracts from more substantive threats to the community's traditions
and heritage, such as rapid suburbanization. `These things could be
maintained without an `us' and `them' mentality,' he said.
But Commissioner Richard Rothschild said the ordinance has nothing to
do with xenophobia and everything to do with common sense.
`If you immigrate to America, then you're going to learn our language.
I'm not going to learn yours,' Rothschild said. `It's simple - when in
Rome, do like the Romans.'
About 35 miles northwest of Baltimore and bordered to the north by the
Pennsylvania line and to the south by Howard County, Carroll seems an
unlikely place to discuss a threat from any foreign language. Although
the Latino population has more than tripled since the 2000 census, its
numbers are still small: In a county of 167,134 people, only 4,363
residents, or about 2.6 percent, are Latino. More than nine out of 10
people are white and native-born and speak English in their homes,
Census Bureau data show.
The county is also about as politically conservative as Maryland is
liberal, with 65 percent voting for Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney. Divisions there over growing diversity and immigration
reflect the nation's divide on the topics. Some residents think the
proposed ordinance is necessary to preserve American culture and its
idea of the melting pot. Others think the measure is nothing but a
symbolic form of barbed wire that suggests immigrants should go
elsewhere. If the ordinance is approved by the all-Republican board,
Carroll would join Frederick and Queen Anne's counties in passing such
a law. A public hearing on the measure is set for December 11.