Last Friday, Ms. Tricia Swartling offered her "Other View" about embracing diversity here. As a 40-year resident of Ketchum, I take offense at her racist statement, referring to the "privileged, judgmental and unaccepting white people" of our community.
I work with people of many ethnic backgrounds in the construction industry and seldom see any prejudicial behavior. What matters most is the quality of work done, not the ethnicity of the worker. However, the few instances of prejudice I have seen have come from Hispanic workers, not "judgmental white people." The listings of arrests, in our weekly papers, show us that not every member of our diverse population respects our laws. We all know that many people in our valley
have entered our country illegally, yet that criminal act is ignored by some folks here who believe it's better to be "diverse" than to be legal.
Ms. Swartling says she is "thrilled" that taxpayers here foot the bill for a dual immersion program in Spanish and English. She urges all of us to educate ourselves in the language and culture of Mexico and South America. But there are numerous people here from France, Germany, Austria, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. All of these legal residents speak English, work and pay taxes, are generally law abiding and do not demand that I provide an interpreter, print instructions in their native language and educate their children in that language in our public schools. Why doesn't Ms. Swartling urge us to study any or all of their languages and cultures? Could it be she is discriminating against all other immigrants, in favor of Hispanics? Why? Since a large part of my property tax goes to our schools, I believe our children should be taught reading, math, science, history and English as basics. The study of a foreign language should be an elective, of secondary concern, no matter whether that language is Mandarin, Italian, Spanish or Farsi.
I completely accept the differences among peoples, as do most valley residents. Population diversity is one of the reasons living here is so enjoyable and interesting. However, many of us believe that immigrants, who voluntarily chose to come here, should be making every effort to learn English, obey our laws and embrace the entire spectrum of Wood River diversity, rather than remaining in their own closed groups. Vast numbers of previous immigrants have successfully "assimilated" and our newest immigrants should do the same, to improve their lives and those of their children.
Spence Browning
Ketchum
