That won't stop the anti-hispanic kneejerkers on FR who will b!tch to the moon, but ask them to become a firefighter and you will hear crickets.
Also, However, Manuel did say he felt the situation would improve if everyone spoke English. "We're living here. We should speak the language.", which I agree with.
Does having brown skin magically give you the ability to speak Spanish?
but ask them to become a firefighter and you will hear crickets.
hmmmm hubby was a firefighter for 33 yrs. I know by sight or name almost everyone in a 450 man/woman dept. I also know many CDF and BLM people. I know quite a few BFD (city) firefighters here. Guess what? they ALL speak English!
What an assinine statement.
How's your Spanish?
I was on a ship and heard a fire called out in Spanish because the man at the desk in DC Central Panicked. So should every Sailor have to learn Spanish? We had Filipino's also who barely spoke English so you think every sailor should have had to learned their language? Trying to understand them on a 1JV talk circuit was nearly impossible.
Solution and it would work. Make the contractor hire English speaking fire fighters. Second option and cheaper. Do like many state forestry services and use prison labor.
Now what is going to happen is trained crew chiefs will not be available and Pedro's Fire Fighting Service will take over with very inexperienced persons being made Crew Chiefs likely illegals as such stupidity also likely involves don't ask don't tell policy on that as well.
After a few dozen are killed because of the state lawmakers Political Correctness for not refusing to hire non English Speaking Fire Fighters which was likely a budget saving measure to start with a crisis will occur.
Experienced Crew chiefs who could predict fire behavior will be working in states that have a tad bit more common sense than to let dangerous jobs become the proving ground for the big mix America.
Now let me ask you a practical question. You have several different language speaking members on your crew none speak English. How much time gets wasted saying It's broke the line and headed our way. Get out now.
Government mandated stupidity in one form or another has cost lives of those fighting forest fires. I remember reading about one several years back where the fighters were in a position thinking they were safe because a water drop was on the way. But their was a political issue that prevented it.
To make the drop the chopper would have had to have dropped the bucket in a lake where endangered species were living. The tanker crews were waiting on permission to get water and no moron would say yes do it because they did not have permission from the U.S. Dept of Interior.
The Chief was told several times the drop was coming and his crew became trapped and most of them killed IIRC. I wonder if Chrissie {then head of the EPA} and Gail {Sec of Interior} when the event occurred even discussed this issue to prevent it from happening again?
How much more can government be allowed to screw things up so this group and that group will be happy and then trained Americans can then do their job? 20 years from now none of Manuel's crew will likely still be required to speak English by him or the government. Why should they the stupid American politicians will pass a speak Spanish law for them instead.
I've been a fire fighter before. Actually what was called in the Navy 1 on 1 and it's no place to play guess the language of the day. So why is the government going there? There are other options available including providing state scholarships for services rendered. Many things make more sense than what was done.
Add to this in many cases milti-agencies are involved. The local Volunteer FD that may be on hand will likely not speak Spanish either. All around it is a bad idea aimed at scoring political points with the immigrant voters and nothing more except it looked good to some dunce politico on paper.