Why I Started This Site…
I’ve been hearing about Lou Barletta and his antics for some time, now. I followed, in disgust, his national media tour in which he did everything he could to blame as much as he could on illegal immigrants. His push to pass a law making English the “official” language of his city annoyed me, but I brushed it off as just another small-minded idiot acting like small-minded idiots act.
Even when he announced his campaign for Congress, I really wasn’t all that impressed. I knew that aside from his fanatical attacks on immigration, he really didn’t have any other issues to run on, at least to my knowledge. I was content to sit back and watch him make an idiot out of himself and embarass his city of Hazelton, something he’s become quite good at.
However, today while reading the Scranton Times, I came across an article entitled, “Barletta supports ‘English’ sentence“. After reading the article, which explained how Lou Barletta had come out in full support of a local judge giving three convicted criminals the choice of “learn English or go to jail”, I became extremely motivated to do everything I could to stop Barletta from obtaining a seat in Congress.
Quite honestly, this man scares me. He is a xenophobic, fear mongering idiot of the highest order, in my opinion. This country, the United States, has no “official” language. This is a land made up of immigrants. Many of the people who have come to this country through the years have come not speaking a word of English. Not knowing English does not a criminal make. Therefore, it makes zero sense to force someone to choose between learning the English language or face jail time.
If they are guilty of a crime, either put them in jail or put them on probation. Do not dream up some politically motivated stunt, and this is what this sentence was, and make someone choose between learning English or serving prison time. And for Lou Barletta, a candidate for the United States Congress, to come out and support this crazy sentence is just wrong. It is, however, a prime example of how this man operates. Rather than make a stand on important issues, the War in Iraq, the Housing Crisis, soaring gas prices, take your pick, he comes out and defends one of the stupidest judicial decisions ever handed down.
It is this type of mentality that frightens me. If this man, Lou Barletta, is allowed to represent Pennsylvania in Congress, only bad things can and will happen. He will, as he always has, stand up for indefensible positions, ignore and sidestep important issues, spit anti-immigration propaganda, and attempt to embarrass his constituents. Lou Barletta should not be elected to Congress and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and watch him try.
-Dan Cheek
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
Thanks for visiting my blog. What lou Barletta is trying to do by recommending English lessons instead of jail time is a very compassionate act. He knows that jail will probably not help this person in the long run, but learning English will give this person a chance to improve his life. The reason we want immigrants to learn English isn’t because we hate them or because we want them to abandon their culture. English is the language of opportunity and without it immigrants are stuck with remedial jobs their entire lives. Spanish is a very important language to know but if that is all you know it is very difficult to make anything of yourself. The same is true for any immigrant from any country. If someone from France moves here and refuses to learn the English they too will find it difficult. What is inexcusable are so called immigration advocates that discourage people from learning English. They are the true enemies of immigrants because they stop progression in its tracks. Lou Barletta’s inspired idea should be heralded as an example of true compassion instead of the counterfeit of compassion which is political correctness.