BIENVENIDO A UTAH
The state of Utah came out with a new web page yesterday.
It’s in Spanish.
And it’s red, white and green.
And it tells people how to get welfare, Social Security and how to contact the Department of Corrections.
Translation: La Reconquesta is coming along quite nicely in Salt Lake City.
Or at least the surrender is.
In an extreme example of just-how-far-can-we-bend-over-to-grab-our-ankles, the Utah state government has taken its place alongside the federal government as facilitator-in-chief of the illegal alien movement.
And no doubt Vicente Fox is glad to know that, a week after his visit to the state, Utah has chosen to use the colors of his nation’s flag on its website. In a state that’s known for its patriotism, it seems that red, white and blue wouldn’t do. It would probably be seen as offensive and disrespectful. And so this official page, underwritten by the taxpayers, speaking on behalf of the state, uses a theme based on the colors of the Mexican flag.
To tell Spanish speakers where to get free health care.
In an era when the cost and availability of medical care are huge issues for English speakers, when American-citizen families are strapped to make health-insurance payments, Utah’s Spanish-language website includes directions to the free clinics.
Directions, by the way, which don’t seem to be on the state’s English-language website.
Must be only Spanish speakers get sick in Utah. Or maybe only Spanish speakers can expect to get treated for free.
The site also has food stamp information, and where to get government benefits and how to access private charities. It offers special help to those with handicaps and talks about recognizing discrimination and how to file a complaint and what worker’s compensation is.
Ironically, it doesn’t seem to list any information on the subject of immigration.
But it does promise to at all times be “culturally competent.”
Not in the culture of the United States, mind you, but in the culture of wherever it is the people reading the state’s page are from.
In the great controversy surrounding illegal immigration, Utah seems to have taken a stand.
South of the border.
The notion of being hospitable is not bad, but the timing, nature and extent of this new Spanish page are a slap across the face of Utahns opposed to illegal immigration.
Two weeks after the U.S. Senate declares English the “national language,” Utah declares Spanish just as good. With the issue of illegal immigration galvanizing the state – in overwhelming opposition – the state government has gone the other way.
And the odd irony of Utah’s immigration duplicity drags on.
This is a state whose citizens in large part take obeying the law as an article of their faith. It is a conservative state that votes Republican heavier than any other in the Union. It is a state with one of the largest annual patriotic spectacles in the nation. It is a state where a Republican congressman is in danger of being thrown out of office this election for being George W. Bush’s “point man on immigration” in the House.
And yet this is a state which was one of the first to give illegal aliens drivers licenses.
And it is the state whose delegation to Washington came up with the idea of giving illegal aliens in-state college tuition.
It is a state whose capital city is presided over by a mayor who chides federal officials for immigration raids. It is a state whose attorney general told a mass demonstration in favor of illegal immigration that he had a “Latino heart.”
And he said it in Spanish.
And it is a state whose new Spanish-language website honors the colors of the Mexican flag.
And this final insult is unveiled in the midst of a national debate, at a time when symbolism counts, at a time when people are taking sides.
At a time when, it seems, the state’s web designers are taking sides.
By way of comparison, if you visit the websites of New York, Florida and California – states whose Latino populations dwarf Utah’s – there is no reference or link to a Spanish-language page. And while there is a Spanish link on the Texas state page, it comes up with a prominent picture of the Alamo.
And the color scheme is red, white and blue.
(FOLLOW-UP NOTE: Within hours of the publication of this column, the state of Utah began intermittantly taking down the Spanish site. By the end of the day, the Spanish page was gone, its url had been changed and the link to it from the main Utah state page had been deleted. The new link for the page -- now mostly translated into English -- is www.utah.gov/espanol. They've fixed most of the language, and tried to hide their mistake, but the color scheme is still the same -- Mexico's proud red, white and green. Lonsberry 10:28 Eastern Daylight Time Thursday)
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2006
