A Pennsylvania State Employee Reports That The Quaker State Is Going Latino
07/31/2012
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From: An Anonymous Pennsylvania Employee [Email him]

I have experienced two things in the past six months that make me question not only the future of the historic American nation, but the desire of the historic American nation to survive.

First, my employer, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, regularly issues directives regarding policy and operational matters. This is, of course, standard for any bureaucracy. However, a significant change occurred upon Republican Tom Corbett taking office.

Specifically, in the Department of Public Welfare. I came into the office one morning to find two policy directives on sexual harassment and equal opportunity in my inbox. Of course, such memoranda are annoying enough on their own, but I have become accustomed to this annoyance because they are usually sent once a year, if not more.

What distinguished this particular instance was that the directives were issued in Spanish and English.

This is the first time this has happened. Democratic Governor Rendell, as horrible as he was, never issued these kinds of memoranda in two languages. I wondered why it was necessary to issue operational documents in two languages. Don't all Commonwealth employees speak and write English?

Is was distressed enough by this, and the ongoing discrimination authorized in the so-called equal opportunity policy, that I decided to contact my state representative and senator. The representative did not respond. The senator addressed the equal opportunity issue, but did not have anything to say about the memoranda being issued in two languages.

Secondly, I attended a professional soccer game (Harrisburg City Islanders) with my family. Unfortunately, the game was designated "Latino Night." At halftime a "Latino" singer appeared with a group of kids in the background holding all of the "Latino" flags and sang a song in Spanish. There was also a group of dancers on the field doing some kind of Spanish/Latino dance.

The "Latinos" present made a good bit of noise at the conclusion of the song, but I think that was just in support of the singer. I have no idea what the song was about. At the conclusion of the song the announcer went into a spiel about the 21 "Latino" countries and their flags.

The spiel included announcing the Latino countries as the flags proceeded to form a line. And the first "Latino" flag - the US FLAG! I had not been paying close attention up to this point, but when I heard that I was taken aback. I said to myself, loud enough for the people beside me and behind me to hear, " the U.S. is a Latino Country - that is news to me." No one said anything in response, but I could tell the guy sitting next to me was uncomfortable. He was what could be described as part of the historic American nation. My wife was also uncomfortable and gave me a look of disapproval.

It is important to note that although it was "Latino Night" probably 85-90% of the crowd were white Anglos (i.e., English speaking). None of the people I saw seemed to have any concern about the U.S. being a "Latino”country.

As an aside, the presenters did not consider Canada, Argentina, or Brazil as "Latino" countries.

This raises a number of questions in my mind. Can this country's culture, and everything it entails, survive? Does it want to survive? Is it even worth saving?

The writer’s name and email are withheld, by request, to protect him from retaliation—which would be illegal, under civil service rules, but still goes on.

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