Cong. Mike Coffman (R-CO) vs Peace Corps
I say print the ballot in all languages spoken in the USA. It could create some new jobs.
John is away from his computer for a couple of days but I didn’t want you to miss this article at ThinkProgress.com. (Thanks to Tom Gallagher – another Ethie 1 – for the “heads up.” — Marian
PS – They have changed the link so go to that site and search for “peace corps”
Article has been deleted
I googled “Peace Corps out of China”and found the article. Thank you, Marian. There is one way to sober up Mike Coffman, Republican of Colorado- write him an electronic note, “You just spent more on the China junket than the annual Peace Corps budget in China. Stop the nonsense and get to work!”
YO, Joey! You’re in Colorado. Reign this bozo in! Even Barry Goldwater from my home state of Arizona was pro-Peace Corps.
Oh sure, Lorenzo, I can reign in this bozo? I can’t even get people to read my comments…like yesterday when I mentioned the Representative who wanted Peace Corps out of China. Seriously, I would urge people to google the Denver Post and then google Coffman. There are two places where readers can post comments to this story. One is the article by Allison Sherry and the other is a political blog called “The Spot.” I think that a response there would be good feedback for Coffman. So, please let them know what you think.
A little bit about Coffman: He is a Republican Representative from a very conservative and secure district. It was once the district of Tom Tancredo, who is legendary for his anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant stances among other radical positions. It is rumored that Coffman will run in 2012 against sitting Senator Mark Udall. Udall is a supporter of Peace Corps. His mother, after her family was raised, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal. She recently passed away. I don’t know if the attack on Peace Corps is one way of jump-starting that campaign against Udall.
Last week, Coffman called on County Clerks in Colorado to defy the 1973 Civil Rights Voting Act and stop printing bilingual ballots. The law requires the bilingual ballots because Colorado has a percentage of Spanish speaking citizens; people born in the US but into non-English speaking families. Many such families have lived in the San Luis valley of Colorado for hundreds of years.
So, Coffman may continue to target the Peace Corps or next week, it might be school lunch programs or school safety guards or apple pie.
I met Mark’s dad- Mo Udall. He was a very funny guy. You are hereby empowered. Get tough!
Mo Udall was Secretary of the Interior in the Kennedy Administration. I have a Peace Corps story about him. One of my best friends in my Group, from the Heartland of Ohio was assigned up on the Magdelena in Colombia. After a few months, she realized that her site was in the middle of a jungle. She was overwhelmed with the realization and wanted to tell someone. So she wrote to
Secretary of Interior Udall. The letter had this great beginning sentence, “Dear Secretary Udall, You don’t know me, but I am a Peace Corps Volunteer…” and she told him of her wonder. He did reply and he sent her a book that had just been published – “Silent Spring.”
Now, reporting from the Colorado front, Coffman’s latest column is thoughtful. He calls for big reductions in Department of Defense spending by closing out our overseas bases in Germany and Korea.
I think he is definitely going to run for the Senate. Ironically, his biggest supporters of this plan, might well be RPCVs!
It wasn’t Mo, it was Stewart. I goofed. The rest of the story is true.
My grandfather spoke fair English and became an American citizen. My grandmother never spoke a word of English and never became an citizen of the USA. Does it matter, no.
My grandparents were born in Eastern Europe and came to this country. They remained resident aliens because they could not speak English. Their five surviving sons were all born in the US, all were citizens and none spoke English until they went to school.
What does matter is the right of natural born citizens to vote. It has been determined that is there is a certain percentage of non-English speaking natural born citizens in a given area, then ballots should be printed in that language.
I say print the ballot in all languages spoken in the USA. It could create some new jobs.