Colorado is about one "comprehensive migrant plan" away from becoming a third-world state.
Good luck to 'em all, because people like Curry are going to run that state straight into the ground.
Posted on 04/22/2008 1:13:22 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
DENVER (AP) ― Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday after calling Mexican workers "illiterate peasants."
Bruce, a Republican with a history of provoking controversy with his statements and actions, made the comment during a debate on a bill designed to ease a farmworker shortage in Colorado.
It drew an audible gasp from the House.
"How dare you," said Rep. Kathleen Curry, a Democrat who was serving as chairwoman during the debate. She told Bruce he was no longer recognized to speak.
The bill under discussion would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary visas.
Bruce said the bill was about "having more aliens coming into Colorado" from Mexico.
"I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don't think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado," Bruce said.
Rep. Mike May of Parker, the House minority leader and head of the GOP caucus, said legislative leaders were trying to determine what action to take against Bruce.
Rep. Terrance Carroll, a Democrat from Denver, said the remark could result in a formal ethics complaint that would require a hearing and possible suspension, censure or expulsion.
"There's no room for bigotry on the floor of the House," Carroll said.
Rep Jack Pommer said calling immigrants "illiterate peasants" is deplorable. He said even for the controversial Bruce, it's a new low.
"It's a horrible thing to say, but we've kind of gotten used to that with him," Pommer said. "He's just the sort of person who seems to enjoy insulting people, and enjoys the reaction he gets when he insults people."
Bruce defended his remarks later.
"I was expressing my view, which is a true statement, that I don't want up to 5,000 more illiterate peasants coming to Colorado," he said. "And I certainly don't want to have a government program to bring them here.
"I looked up 'illiterate' in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write," he said. "I don't think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word 'peasant.' The word 'peasant' means a person who works in agricultural fields.
"These people, most of them, don't speak English. Most of them haven't had any formal education, that's why they're coming over here. I don't blame them for trying, but I don't think we should pave the way for more aliens to come here," he said.
In a statement, Consul General of Mexico in Denver Eduardo Arnal called Bruce's remarks "unfortunate" and "offensive."
"I believe these types of comments do not contribute to the discussion on immigration between Mexico and the United States nor in the search of solutions regarding this topic," Arnal said.
Bruce, of Colorado Springs, has had had other run-ins since arriving at the Capitol in January as a midterm appointee to fill a vacancy.
He became the first Colorado lawmaker censured by the House after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer. Republicans later removed him the powerful State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee because he refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring military veterans.
Bruce said he believed resolutions were a waste of time because they have no legal impact.
Before becoming a state lawmaker, Bruce was best known as the author of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that limits taxes and government spending.
And yet I personally find nothing wrong with calling a spade a spade either....
The papers and TV stations quote the vacuous dhimmicrat female expressing outrage over Bruce (he is an ass, but not often wrong) . The talk show call ins are saying, “...what did he say that was incorrect?”
And one wonders why the MSM is collapsing.
I just love watching libs getting completely pissed off by a statement that is factually correct.
Political speech in government proceedings is the most protected speech we have. If that goes away....then I dunno.
Everyone knows most of these lettuce pickers are college educated.
Which word is bigoted? Illeterate or Peasants?
Have these legislators never heard of the First Amendment? The First Amendment right to free speech was first and foremost intended to protect political speech, which this obviously was. Why isn’t Rep. Bruce hauling Rep. Curry into federal court?
That said, Bruce really ought to refrain from things like kicking photogrpahers for taking his photo. That little snippet of his history will make it a lot harder for him to get justice in connection with this egregious infringement of his First Amendment rights.
Mexico's literacy rate among the under-45 set is about 95%.
Less than 18% of Mexico's population are peasants.
So his statement wasn't just infelicitously stated, it was also factually incorrect.
5,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico will, on average, yield you 4,100 city dwellers and 4,750 readers.
There’s a poll about this incident on www.9news.com that’s ripe for FReeping.
Yes, but this guy is a maniac. He has a long history of “acting out.” Some people there are sick of this man’s antics.
Even though he is right on some issues, kicking people and rejecting resolutions praising veterans is ridiculous.
He got into trouble for being a slum lord, in the past, and has many other brushes like this.
Loose cannon, IMO.
Colorado is about one "comprehensive migrant plan" away from becoming a third-world state.
Good luck to 'em all, because people like Curry are going to run that state straight into the ground.
The only claim to offense these people have is the politically correct climate they set up.
If they would figure out what the words meant and understand them (instead of dressing them up) they would recognize that some words are exactly what they mean.
Seems like Bruce nailed it, and the legislature hates the truth.
Thanks for your input, Dane.
I hope you don't have any Illegal Aliens driving drunk on your highways.
But how many can read ENGLISH?
Thanks for your 2 cents.I like his TABOR Bill.
Wow, you must be a statistician or something coming up with those impressive figures. Or you are an idiot.
“debate on a bill designed to ease a farmworker shortage in Colorado. “
IIRC Mark Twain was the one who spoke of “Lies, Damned lies, and statistics.”
Do you seriously believe that illegal Mexican FARMWORKERS in Colorado are 95% literate (let alone in English) and that 82% are city folks who just got the urge to go a thousand plus miles north to pick lettuce (or whatever they are growing in Colorado)?
Dnae, someone is thanking you for your input to a thread that you haven’t even posted on.
While your statistics maybe right why would you assume that the ones crossing the border cross in the same percentages as the illiteracy rate?
If I get killed by a drunk driver, I won't take any solace in the fact that the slob who killed me was a foreigner on a tourist visa, say, rather than an illegal immigrant.
What's your argument? That someone can only be considered literate if they read English?
You are welcome. Too bad the state’s voted to suspend the TABOR limits when the sales tax receipts dropped in 2001.
His argument is that is that the Republican state representative meant when HE said “illiterate.” He did mean that (illiterate in English), and I suspect you know it.
Someone could come to the United States literate in ancient Sanskrit, but, if he doesn’t read and write in English, it is perfectly fair to call him “illiterate” because the linguistic coin of this realm is English.
Absolutely.
Comprehensive schooling has been available everywhere in Mexico for free since the 1970s.
and that 82% are city folks who just got the urge to go a thousand plus miles north to pick lettuce
The urge was not to pick lettuce, but to get paid more in cash than they would get paid for walking around the streets of Monterrey unemployed.
But, I'm happy to report that Dane is no longer with us. A search for him yields "No one by that name."
I'm gonna miss him (not.) ;-)
Yes, he should have been booted off for not including “and a tremendous financial burden on taxpayers”.
read this
They can only be considered literate in an English speaking society if they are literate in English. I hardly think there are any Rhodes Scholars Spanish or English coming to Colo. to pick vegetables.
The highest rates of illiteracy in Mexico are the jungle territories in the Chiapas region.
The bulk of Mexican immigrants come from Mexico City and north of there, where literacy is higher.
Mexico is actually undergoing an internal version of our situation as southern Mexicans come north to Mexico City in search of work and take lower wages than Mexico City residents.
Not in the slightest. It is an abuse of English to call such an individual illiterate.
Millions of Germans came to the US in 1800s, a highly literate people who generally knew no English.
People who are already literate are much more likely to learn and master English than those who are not literate.
I think the average person would understand, that if you can't read, write, or speak the language of the country you live in, basically your illiterate to those who matter most.
Maybe Jose (or hose b) can read spanish, "I"talian, portuegese and greek. That probably would not benefit them much in Russia or China.
Legislators should be free to say what they want as a general principle. Further, anyone getting worked up over this as “racism” is drunk with political correctness. He shouldn’t point out the state may not want to attract uneducated poor people from another country? We seem to be falling behind in science, engineering and patents. It’s logical to seek skilled folks who are in high demand.
I will draw on the same example I drew on before: for much of the period between 1848-1917, the first language of a large percentage of North Dakotans was German.
They spoke German at home and in public. They read German newspapers printed in America, drew up contracts and wrote letters in German and taught their children in German-speaking schools.
Were they illiterate? Clearly not. They could read and write better than most Americans, actually.
Calling someone illiterate is a deliberate insult, as is calling someone a peasant.
It adds nothing to the discussion and actually discourages rational discussion.
Thanks for the address.
I just emailed her the story today about the woman who was stabbed to death by the illegal during a carjacking and asked her “how dare you?”
These are the people who are supposed to protect us - they are accessories to the carnage.
1. He’s Republican. Republicans are impaled, roasted, drawn and quartered for innocent words.
What if he had said “people who work the fields, who have had not had the benefit of much formal education” Would they have gotten him for that?
The country is now in a situation where a conservative who says, or doesn’t say, or is said to have said, anything about any member of a protected group will be attacked and silenced.
Our local Columbus liberal media outlets have informed us that most of the illegals in Central Ohio are indeed from that area. Mestizo indians make up a large number.
He must hold some kind of record for being banned:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~dane/
This account has been banned or suspended.
My understanding of most of these “immigrants” is that they can’t even read and write in their native language. Someone here said he works with these people in LA and they’re proud if they made it through 3rd grade. That makes them illiterate.
My Dutch brother-in-law has a PhD and he had to go through misery to get into this country....but then, he wasn’t going to be doing manual labor and wouldn’t likely become a member of a dumbed down voting bloc.
True. Lawrence Welk for example.
It’s amazing he lasted as long as he did.
Definition - A peasant is an agricultural worker who subsists by working a small plot of ground. The word is derived from 15th centrury French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside. The term peasant today is sometimes used in a pejorative sense for impoverished farmers.
When will we have a constitutional amendment listing words one must not ever say? The list is getting longer.
Of course some us can be called anything you wish to call us - no problem.
Too many Californians moving to Colorado and converting it to their ways.
But a large percentage of english words are of germanic origin.
Also, the immigrants of the 19th and early 20th century wanted to be Americans. Their desire was first and foremost to be Americans and germans second or somewhat farther down the line. They wanted to be assimilated by our country. There was a time when being an American was a PRIVELEDGE, and people were PROUD of becoming one.
There are some today who still come to this country and value that.
But there is a certain contingency that view BEING IN the United States as a personal right and equivalent to being a citizen.
My great grandmother spoke read and wrote english and german fluently, she came here in the 1880's. My grandmother from the other side came here around WWI. She spoke wrote and read english and dutch fluently.
I maintain that the Rep. was referring to their ability in English. You may feeeeel that his comment was unfair, but that’s your opinion, not a factual matter, no matter your balletic spinning.
This, of course, is in addition to the unconvincing/unsourced matter of your statistics and, worse, how one reasonably may assume that folks who illegally come here from Mexico are likely to be average in their literacy. (You also do some nice assuming, because education has been free there since the 1970s, that therefore most young illegals in the USA have been made young Cervanteses thereby.)
I think you and I are done on this topic. Enjoy your planet.
People need to be more niggardly in their use of words that others don’t understand and take offense to because they don’t know the definition of the word.
Ahoneah, ahtwoah, ahthreeah... :)
Sure - they are literate - by MEXICAN standards.
NOT US standards.
For all practical aspects they are illiterate.
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