Giving our local paper it’s five-minutes-every-morning due, I came across the Mark Silverman piece focusing on Councilman Eric Crafton’s English-only legislation that will soon be pending voter approval.

For one, I oppose the measure. It is unnecessary, and will end up costing Metropolitan Nashville’s government (or, as I view it, its taxpayers) potentially hundreds of thousands in legal fees to defend it. However, Silverman’s attacks go overboard

, making his critique just as frivolous as the law he attempts to debunk

And our editorial board will continue to urge residents and officials to do what it believes is right. Our position is that an English-only law is potentially dangerous from public safety and economic development standpoints; further, we believe it to be a morally reprehensible measure that appeals to some well-meaning people on an emotional basis in the same way that Adolf Hitler appealed to some Germans’ national pride after World War I.

Talk about a lack of historical perspective.  Silverman of all people should know that most legislation appeals to emotion, as do most successful politicians. Silverman’s metaphor, as is the case with most over-the-top comparisons, ends up proving too much.

If Silverman wants an honest debate on the bill, let’s have it. But stoking the fires of Nazism to make one’s point on what is really just a short-sighted piece of local legislation reeks of someone occupying what should be a better defensed position.  At the very least it is shameful – at most it is a sure way to lose the public debate.

Perhaps the editor should get an editor.