I Desperately Need to Leave this State
Posted on October 3, 2007Usually when I read the opinion page of the Lincoln Turco Star (thanks Mr. T) I get all riled up by the usual cavalcade of idiots that write in to the letters section. However, today’s letter’s page has me furious. Quick summation of what happened: Maria Rosario Moreno, a hispanic immigrant, was found by police, brutally murdered by her ex-boyfriend. The police had already had the ex-boyfriend in custody when the body was found. The Lincoln Journal Star ran the story in English on the front page last Tuesday, and in Spanish inside the paper. It was decided to run in Spanish as a courtesy to the Spanish speaking population, being as the story was of importance to them, and also to clear up any of the rumors that were going around in the community. When I saw the article in Spanish, my thought was, “I bet some people won’t like that.” How unfortunate that I was right.
I want to say first that I am all for equal treatment for everyone. I am also proud to be an American, and I am not happy about a Sept. 28 Lincoln Journal Star article being repeated in a foreign language. I don’t care what language.
If you want to live in America and be an American, learn the language. The language of America is English.
We are leaning over so far backward to please other nationalities that we are forgetting who we are. There have been calls to have the national anthem sung in Spanish.
It is required in some states that some teachers be bilingual and teach in both English and Spanish. I do not believe that if you go to Mexico they will do the same for you. You would have to buy an English newspaper and send your children to an English-speaking private school.
It is high time that we reclaim our country. We are Americans, and we speak English.
Marguerite H. Lehr
I don’t know if it was a mistake that could have possibly gotten through all the editors and page layout people, but on page 7B of the Sept. 28 Lincoln Journal Star, there was an entire article written in Spanish.
I do not appreciate paying for a paper that I can’t read … and if you wish to continue to publish articles in a language other than English, I will be discontinuing my subscription and wanting a refund for what I have already prepaid for the year.
I do not live in Mexico, Guatemala or any other Latino country; I live in the United States of America and did not sign up for a Spanish newspaper. I speak a foreign language (German), but I don’t want a newspaper written in German, either. … I paid for English, and I want an English-written paper.
Teresa A. Liesemeyer
Really? This is that much of a big fucking deal to you people? God forbid the newspaper try to disseminate information who maybe cared about the victim. Maybe some of her friends and family would like to know what happened to a women that was well-liked by her neighbors and co-workers. Maybe you could take a moment of your day, Mmes Lehr and Liesemeyer, to find some fucking compassion in your hearts for a community that has been hit by a tragic death. Maybe if you weren’t so wrapped up in your little bullshit “The spics are coming!” rhetoric, you would notice where your outrage should lie.
I want to write more, about how the letter writers are wrong, how they are ignorant, how their blatant lack of compassion or tact and their undercurrents of racism are an ugly stain on a city that I generally write, but unfortunately I’m far too pissed off about this to put words together with some strain of coherence, so I’ll leave it where it’s at, and hope that the number of people here that are in disagreement with the letter writers far outnumber those who feel the same as Teresa and Marguerite.
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For a newspaper? All y’all need to calm down. And be sure to NOT to come to California. Newspapers, teevee and (gasp!) billboards are all in spanish. Oh yea, plus the dual menus at every McDonalds.
But…
Full agreement here. I know in CA that if you do not take the courses to better ‘prepare you’ to teach hispanic students, you can loose your job as a teacher. I don’t think that’s right.
We knew there would be letters to the editor, and after the editor splained I thought they would not print any of them. I was wrong.
Good thing is the comments called these folks out and it made me proud. Todays was awesome. And one comment had me rolling:
“It might be cool to have a page where one column would have a story in “American” and beside it, the same story in “Mexican”"