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.
Political correctness is a liberal belief, supported by the media, that one can pick up a turd by the clean end.
read my saying and then read my tag.
Large parts of Iowa were Czech as well I believe. And of course the various Scandinavian communities in Minnesota.
Great tag. It’s the truth.
There is much danger in political correctness. I hope this guy sticks to his guns and takes this bitch to task over here own prejudice.
Illegal immigrants are mostly illiterate peasants.
50% of the adult male work force in Los Angles cannot read or write functional English.
Any questions lady?
Cheeze whiz what a bunch of itiots we have representing our nation’s citizens at about every level.
That’s right. They’re trying to make a go of it here, and here is where they have to be literate. They don’t have to be literate by Mexican standards. Those standards don’t apply here.
Try going into an office to apply for a job, and tell the person that’s going to hire you, that you’re not literate in their profession, just in some alternate profession.
See how far that gets you.
I can’t believe people can’t understand this, and you’re right to point it out to them.
Too many carpetbaggers from California want entitlements from Government.
Yeah, I read about this yesterday. Apparently this Bruce guy makes a habit of being an idiot. He just tossed some free points to the open borders side.
Ping!
Let's leave aside for the moment that you apparently don't understand the definition of the word "murder."
Let's do the math, shall we?
Approximately 220,000 Americans have died in road accidents since we invaded Iraq - we average about 43-44 thousand per year.
4,045 US soldiers have died serving in Iraq.
Using that 4,045 number, it would translate to illegal aliens being instrumental in 1.8% of US road fatalities.
How many illegal aliens are hidden among America's 300 million inhabitants? 10 million? Most anti-illegal immigration activists would say more than that.
If it were 10 million out of 300 million, that would be 3.3% of US inhabitants - versus 1.8% of road fatalities.
So, using your statistic, it would seem that legal US residents are significantly more dangerous behind the wheel and a greater threat to public safety than illegal aliens.
Perhaps they think that sounds romantic, but it doesn't really match Mexican demographic shifts.
Mestizo indians make up a large number.
"Mestizo" does not indicate a tribe or a kind of Indian. A mestizo is a person of mixed Indian and Spanish parentage - which describes about 85% of the Mexican population.
In the Mexican educational system 3rd grade refers to both 3rd grade of primary school and 3rd grade of secondary school.
The 3rd grade of secondary school is analogous to our 10th grade. Mexican education is compulsory until the 3rd grade of secondary - age 16.
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
I would argue that the stupidest voting bloc in this country - based on whom they generally vote for - are PhDs.
The bulk of their vote this year is going to Obama.
No room foir ethical breaches, but plenty of room for criminal aliens asking for handouts in a sanctuary city
As someone who speaks both English and German, I can assure you that the similarity of many words does not help you at all in mastering the very different verbal systems of the two languages.
Also, the immigrants of the 19th and early 20th century wanted to be Americans.
Manifestly false.
Plenty of 19th and 20th century immigrants to these shores hated America or were completely indifferent to it and came for economic reasons alone. I point you to the Galleanists among the Italian immigrants, the radical Socialists among the Jewish and German immigrants (Haymarket Riot, the Wobblies, etc.) and the Fenian brotherhoods among the Irish immigrants.
Many immigrants from that time period did love America and were 100% committed ideologically to their new home - but plenty were not.
Their desire was first and foremost to be Americans and germans second or somewhat farther down the line.
Again, the continued existence and maintenance of ethnically exclusive churches, communities, newspapers, businesses, clubs and societies was pervasive.
The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, for example, conducted its services almost exclusively in German until WWI - services conducted by German-speaking pastors whose parents were born in the USA.
I grew up in a neighborhood where there were Italian women in their 60s who were born in the USA who spoke little to no English.
There was a time when being an American was a PRIVELEDGE, and people were PROUD of becoming one.
It still is and they still are.
But there is a certain contingency that view BEING IN the United States as a personal right and equivalent to being a citizen.
Residency and citizenship are not and can never be equivalent.
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.
My great-great-great grandfather came from Germany in 1848 and fought in the Army Of The Potomac. He learned English within a few years of arrival - but he lived in NYC and not an all-German enclave in the Midwest.
By the way, he just got on a ship and walked off onto US soil and found a job as a stable boy in Brooklyn.
No papers, no green card, nothing.
My great-grandmother on the other side arrived similarly "undocumented" and she spoke almost no English - Gaelic, because she came from the Western Islands.
She learned English soon after arriving, though - her work as a seamstress demanded it.
I also have ancestors who arrived here from Kent in England sometime in the 1820s. I highly doubt they had green cards either.
Telling the truth will always get you in trouble with liberals especilly of the MSM sort.
You're the one spinning this loudmouth's comments, not I. He said what he said.
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.
The primary source is the CIA World Factbook, as well as a Bloomberg article about the sector breakdown of the Mexican economy.
Feel free to present a competing source that states that literacy in Mexico is 10% or that 90% of the Mexican population are peasant farmers.
The fact remains that 95% of Mexicans under 45 or so can read and write - the statistical likelihood that only the 5-6 million Mexicans of that profile who cannot read or write have come to the USA is zero.
(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 made no claim for Cervantes status - just as I made no claim for Shakespeare status for American 10th graders.
School has been free and theoretically compulsory for mexicans since the 1920s.
Only since the late 60s/early 70s have these free and compulsory schools been actually present in every nook and cranny of Mexico.
I think you and I are done on this topic. Enjoy your planet.
Personal invective is not an argument. If you had the courage of your convictions, you would be able to argue them.
Your statement indicates otherwise.
Someone who is literate in Spanish can, in the USA:
Vote in Spanish.
Fill out an employment application in Spanish.
Open a bank account in Spanish.
Take out a loan in Spanish.
Pay his utilities and taxes in Spanish.
Shop in Spanish.
Participate in religious services in Spanish.
Take exams and learn trades in Spanish.
There are a large number of native-born Americans who cannot manage all of the above activities in English.
I understand that. I spent mucho time in Colorado in the 90s when TABOR was being debated. And, where I live, we are fighting the influx of liberals from Taxachusetts who are trying to change our state. So I get it.
I just think Bruce’s methods hurt the cause. Ronald Reagan, a conservative hero of mine, would not endorse his methods either, I think.
The Mexican government considers these persons to be Mexicans and includes them in its statistics.
Seems to me figures always lie, and liars always figure.
Original sentiment. So you are calling me a liar, then?
If Mexico is 95% literate, then explain why it is so third world and so damn poor.
Three basic reasons:
(1) All major industries in Mexico are cartelized by the govenment and are effectively concentrated in the hands of a couple of hundred families. It is almost impossible in Mexico to legally establish a new business - and if you are able to, your business will be crushed by regulations that are designed to favor the two major players of the government duopoly.
(2) Mexican bankruptcy law, which is biased against creditors. In Mexican bankruptcy, creditors' interests are actually subordinated to equity holders - the exact opposite of the United States. As a result, lenders have almost no incentive to lend money to any but the largest and most well-capitalized businesses.
(3) Unions. Almost every decent job in Mexico, in either the public or private sector, is dominated by unions and doled out as patronage to favored individuals. If you are not an insider, you can only hope to hold the most marginal jobs for the rest of your life.
I do not believe this at all.
The mere ability to read and write, while nice, is not much of a help when the laws of the country are deliberately structured to make it impossible for any but a favored few to rise in life.
The reason why products are advertised in Spanish is not because the advertisers think that Spanish speakers will not be able to piece together what they mean.
They are in Spanish because the advertisers are hoping that the use of Spanish will create a feeling of comfort and at-homeness with their product or brand. If you feel that the company considers you an important enough customer to market directly to you, you will be more loyal to their brand. Spanish speakers are a growing demographic and a young one.
I have traveled in many lands where I don’t speak the language and somehow survived. I always felt it was great that I went home having learned a few words by necessity.
The only country I ever traveled to where I did not have some basic knowledge of the local language was Slovenia - but I got by in German. I still learned some Slovenian on the hop, though.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.