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Ohio bar owner edits ?Speak English? sign
Associated Press
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
MASON, Ohio ? A bar owner who faced a discrimination complaint over a message in his window has removed a sign that read "For Service Speak English" and replaced it with one reading "Here We Speak English."

"If someone doesn't like it, have them call me," Tom Ullum, owner of the Pleasure Inn in this city northeast of Cincinnati, said yesterday. "The sign will stay up because it's my right."

Housing Opportunities Made Equal, a Mount Auburn-based agency that handles fair-housing issues, filed a complaint with the state in July 2005 over the original sign. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission later ruled that it was discriminatory.

Ullum, 64, removed the "For Service Speak English" sign in November as part of a settlement agreement.

The housing agency will not take issue with the new sign, executive director Elizabeth Brown said.

"There is a difference between signs that express political opinions and those who deny service," Brown said. "The settlement said he would not put up any sign that would limit service. I do not see that (new) sign as limiting service."

Ullum never intended to discriminate against anyone, posting the sign to show support for English becoming the national language, said K.C. McAlpin, executive director of ProEnglish language advocates in Arlington, Va., which represented Ullum before the state civil rights commission.

"The new sign still gets his point across," McAlpin said.

** What I don't get is how a Fair Housing agency is involved in battling a BAR that is promoting the english language in AMERICA!

or how he lost a suit over who he can and cannot choose to offer services to.

Ullum never intended to discriminate against anyone

This is the whole key,...if he INTENDED to discriminate, then you bring in the law. He was expressing his displeasure, his right provided thereto by simply being an American.

It's back to the ATM machine thing for me,...why do I have to press a button to get English, when the right thing to do would be to provide a button so one could elect Spanish instead ?

The right thing to do would be to only have a button for English. If somebody can't understand it, then they can get off their arse and learn english <img src="/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

No, no and no!!! He wants people to speak english in his establishment. I see this every day. We have to hire bi-lingual people because too many Mexicans/Hispanics are too lazy or too adhered to learn the language.

I'm fluent in Spanish. I wait tables. Guess who gets the Hispanics? Me. And Hispanics are some of the warmest and kindest people in the world but many of them, too many of them, are the worst tippers. So, I have a new policy. If they pay me ahead of my service, I will speak spanish. But what I will not do is offer them something I worked hard to do in order to make it convenient for them. So I only speak English with my talbes because too many times I took a hit by taking these tables, giving them better service than they have ever had in this country and then walking out feeling ripped off by an under 10% tip.

I'm not discriminating. They still get service. They just have to point alot and don't get things taken from their food if they want to be picky. They chose not to learn the language, I chose not to speak theirs. If I'm going to get ripped off, it's going to be made more difficult on them.

People practice the right to speak their own language...owners of businesses have the right to speak their language too.

We have catered to the immigrants too much. English should be made the national language.

If you want to speak another language fine, but you should try to learn some basic english.

We offer driving tests in english and spanish, not like any of the road signs are in spanish for them to understand.

We spend billions on translating every day documents, signs, and programs into spanish to meet the needs of these people. If I moved to Mexico, I sure wouldn't expected them to translate everything to english for me.

Luckily I know just enough spanish so that I wont get coaxed into a dark alley and mugged. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Actually, I agree with this restaurant owner. English should be spoken as it is the common language of the country. When I go travelling, I don't expect the locals to know my language so I do my best to speak theirs.

Immigrants should acknowledge this point. They want to become part of a country, they should speak the language. period.

That is how it should be. When I lived in Germany I made it a point to learn the language because alot of the places I went did not speak English. It's my language not theirs. When I left after 3 years there you really couldn't tell that I was an American and English was my 1st language. I raised my daughter using German as her cradle language to make things easier on us. Plus it helped alot to keep us safe.

You hit the nail on the head.

Like the person who learned German, I too learned Spanish. Learning another language is not easy and it takes determination. Why someone wouldn't want to learn the language of the country they live in is besides me, it is either because we make it too easy for them not to learn our language or that they are too lazy/too excited to gain American wages but really don't care about our country.

Here's something to amuse you,...I got ORDERED by my own Government to learn Farsi when first sent to Afghanistan, and I didn't <insert word for complain>,....then a year later in Austria when I got "ordered" again to take the required German, I politely requested to be exempt since I had taken it for 4 years in high school,...and was granted the exemption.

Learn the language, or expect no special treatment.

As I have said at least 100 times on the board. Learn english or get the hell out. <img src="/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

187... but who's counting. <img src="/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif" alt="" />

I could have sworn it was 192 <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

nordawg

How about this....automatic nationalization for all immigrants who can pass a HS-level test IN ENGLISH.

Anyone wonder how quickly Mexicans and many other cultures would go out of there way if this happened?

hmm, one downside. I would bet that less than 50% of natural born Americans don't have a HS english level <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

That's true, it would de-nationalize a lot of rednecks wouldnt it?

Come to think of it, would that really be a bad thing either?

To hell with the high school level. They just have to do better than 123 does <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

COLD!! <img src="/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/rofl.gif" alt="" />

He has to serve non-English speaking customers, but can go to jail for serving an English speaking drunk. That's discrimination!