I think Council Member Eric Crafton should revise his tactics, not his wording, when it comes to dealing with immigrants:

“We want to demonstrate that we’re trying to be reasonable, that we want to listen to what people are saying while still making English the official language,” Crafton said Wednesday in a phone interview. Crafton said new petition postcards would be mailed to some registered voters today or Friday. The petition would call for a special election on Thursday, Jan. 22, at a cost to taxpayers of about $350,000, to hold a referendum on changing the Metro Charter.

Imagine what $350,000 would do to help the Davidson Group, which is being revived to foster positive relations among diverse local residents:

The Davidson Group, which started in 1981 to pair up black and white Nashville community leaders who didn’t know each other, is reorganizing to do the same work in what has become an even more diverse city. It will restart soon with administrative support from Lipscomb University’s Institute for Law, Justice & Society. “The way to really get somewhere in race relations is through personal friendships,” said Nelson Andrews, a real-estate developer who organized the initial Davidson Group and helped get it going again. “If you’re committed to a year and you keep meeting with somebody, I don’t care who you are; you’re going to get a pretty good sense of them.”

You can do a lot more good, I think, by extending a hand than by shaking a fist. I applaud those who are participating in the Davidson Group’s reemergence at a time when this kind of effort is sorely needed. We need less political posturing and empty initiatives such as English Only and more efforts to make our community a better place for everyone to live.

I’m especially proud to see Lipscomb University, an institution that once insulated itself from the surrounding community, step up to support the Davidson Group. We’re all neighbors here, no matter how we arrived. Let’s start acting like it.