Backlash against Ohio civil rights panel over "Speak English" sign

Janice Morse:

In the week since a state agency ruled that a small tavern's "For Service Speak English" sign violated Ohio civil rights law, the agency has experienced an unprecedented backlash - and the bar has enjoyed an influx of new customers.

While the Ohio Civil Rights Commission's executive director says people have misinterpreted the ruling, the owner of the Pleasure Inn says the commission reached an unfair conclusion about his sign.

"People are getting themselves whipsawed into a frenzy over what this case is not about," said G. Michael Payton, the commission's executive director.

"This is not a referendum over English being the predominant language," he said. "It's plainly about a sign in a place of business that has a chilling effect on people who don't speak English. The plain meaning of the sign would chill someone from coming in and using that establishment. It's just a step away from earlier days when signs said, 'No colored people.' "

While some people rationally debate the decision, others launched into hate-filled rants that Payton says reaffirm the reasons why the commission's work is necessary.

"Every citizen in the state of Ohio, no matter what their race, can benefit from a civil rights law sometime in their life," he said. "This case just happens to deal with national origin discrimination. We reasonably believe that (sign) violates the law as provided to us by the General Assembly of the state of Ohio."

But the bar's owner and some customers say they don't understand the fuss.

Pleasure Inn owner Tom Ullum, 63, of Lebanon, said he intends to fight the ruling, which could eventually force him to remove the sign, undergo diversity training or pay for anti-discrimination advertising.

As of Friday, the commission had not received a request to reconsider its Oct. 6 ruling; the deadline for appeal is Wednesday.

The Pleasure Inn, a small yellow brick building with a tattered maroon awning, isn't an attention-getter.

But its yellow sign, perched in a window facing U.S. 42 near Mason-Montgomery Road, stirred controversy that hit talk-show airwaves, newspaper opinion columns and e-mails to the Civil Rights Commission.

Ullum said he has received no complaints about the sign. In fact, he said, the controversy has been good for business.

He said one woman called to say, "We've been in Mason 18 years. We've never been in your bar, but we're coming in to show support."

Ullum said he enjoys verbal jousting with his customers, even if the exchanges might be considered politically incorrect.

One regular, a die-hard Democrat, pasted Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry stickers on the bar wall to get even with Ullum for posting a Republican Bush/Cheney poster.

"I think it's funny when they do that to me," Ullum said.

Ullum said he hasn't discriminated against anyone. He says several Mexicans - who speak broken English - have come into the bar in recent months without incident.

"I think the sign's great," said patron David Joslyn, 67, as he sat at the bar Thursday afternoon. "They ought to speak English. This is America, ain't it?"

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