June 14th, 2006

La cara latina de Utah.gov

If you live in Utah, chances are you’ve heard of the recent spanish website put out by Utah.gov.

If you live in Utah, chances are you’ve heard of the recent spanish website [2] [3] put out by Utah.gov.

It was espanol.utah.gov.

For about two days.

Sure enough, a bunch of people freaked out about it, and complained to the governor‘s office. The site was taken down in less time than it takes for a street vendor’s burrito to pass through your digestive system.

So why the fuss? People who don’t hablar español (such as Bob Lonsberry, it would seem) immediately assumed two things:

  1. This site was created for illegal immigrants
  2. This site advertised free health care, free education, and other taxpayer-usurping benefits

In actuality, neither are true. Granted, the timing of the release of the spanish Utah.gov portal was not the best; the debate regarding illegal immigration was raging country-wide, and Mexican Presidente Fox had just made a pit stop in Utah (much to the dismay of the minutemen). However, the site itself did not advertise “free goodies” for illegal immigrants.

My thoughts on this matter turn less from the right-and-wrong debate of the state having a spanish-only website, but instead towards the invective spewed forth from the mouths of semi-ignorant people, ready to vilify before doing their homework. Shame, shame…

Seems to me that the counsel found in James 1:19 is of needed attention.

[UPDATE: Sometimes it’s interesting to ponder a role reversal. ]
[UPDATE x2: The site is back online. ]

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Leave your opinion here. Please be nice. Your Email address will be kept private.