The other day when the power went out for about 1/2 hour, I called the Lake Worth power outage number just to see if anyone would answer the phone. I had just given them a kudo a few days before at the city commission meeting for actually answering the phone and letting me know when the power would be restored at the last outage we had.
The first thing I had to do was dial 1 for English. I was totally taken back by this request. Then the phone just rang and rang and rang. No person. No recording. No nada (that means "nothing" in English).
One of the basic requirements to become a naturalized citizen is the ability to read, write, and speak basic English (the English test). We are part of the problem by asking residents to dial one for English and printing materials in other languages. We are making it easy for illegal immigrants at the expense of American citizens. If an illegal immigrant does not want to learn English and become a part of this culture, perhaps he should go home. That would be the right thing to do.
Why would I expect information in any other language. I am an American. Instead of worrying about all these people who don't understand our language who were not invited here and forgetting that English is the official language of Florida, let's solve our customer service problems and give us some service. What about that for a novel idea.
Now if you want to hurry and run for Mayor or a commission seat, follow the following advice--if you can't read this, then you will have to take the English lessons that will be taught at our new Community Center, you know, the facility that kicked out our English speaking Seniors and we won't have to print this stuff in a foreign language any longer:
City Clerk
AVISO DE ELECCIÓN GENERALCIUDAD DE LAKE WORTH
AVISO DE ELECCIÓN GENERAL
Con la presente se NOTIFICA que el martes 8 de noviembre de 2011, se llevarán a cabo los comicios generales en la Ciudad de Lake Worth (y en caso necesario, votación para desempate, el martes 22 de noviembre de 2011) con el propósito de elegir un Alcalde, un Comisionado del Distrito #1 y un Comisionado del Distrito #3, por un período de dos (2) años cada uno.
Las personas que deseen postularse pueden calificarse con la Escribiente de la Ciudad, desde el mediodía del martes, 2 de agosto de 2011 hasta el mediodía del martes, 16 de agosto de 2011.
Los electores serán todos los ciudadanos calificados por los estatutos de la Ciudad de Lake Worth, la Constitución, y las leyes de la Florida y que sean votantes inscritos en el Condado de Palm Beach con residencia principal en la Ciudad de Lake Worth.
Los comicios se realizarán conforme a los estatutos de la Ciudad de Lake Worth, Florida, y las Leyes Electorales del Estado de la Florida.
Pamela J. Lopez, MMC
Escribiente de la Ciudad
Did the system give you an option to dial another number for Spanish or Creole? If so, you should try that option next time to see is someone answers.
ReplyDeleteThis aggravates me sooooooooo much. Will try that next time. Nothing would surprise me that I would get a live person in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteit's been going on for years,and your just now getting around to complaining about it......
ReplyDeleteSorry I have to aggravate you more but I did dial another number and got Spanish. I didn't understand what they were saying but it was very strange...
ReplyDeleteLynn your right on. It used to be if you were to take the citizen test you had to know some english.
ReplyDeleteI was totally taken aback when Miami had a massive citizen swearing in, which was politically motivated. Now in NY you still have to take the test in english and so it should be. I would rather employe someone who is bi lingual and put them to work and assisting their countrymen. Why learn english when you do not have to. Have you visited Miami lately. Try to get a job if your American born and do not speak spanish
I wanted to post this on one of your immigration posts, but none had ocmments. Today when driving into work, 8/12, I noticed several women who are likely immigrants can picking out of the recycle bins in my neighborhood. I've seen these women before, they take the cans from the residents recycling and I assume sell the cans for money.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with this in general, except that I had read an article about how stealing from Ca. recycle program was impacting the program and, in fact, threatening it. The point being that if the State, or in our situation, the City can't make money off the high value recyclables the program loses money and they can't offer it any more.
Any thoughts about this or maybe a post?