On February 16, 2012 the Salt Lake Tribune had an article on page A11.  The name of the article is ""Papers Please" law would harm all Utahns".  The article was written by Chris Burbank, who is Salt Lake City's chief of Police.    The article centers around the HB497 "Papers Please" law that has been on hold since May of last year.  The proposed law would require immigrants to carry their paperwork with them or face the possibility of being arrested.  Chief Burbank makes some valid points when he stated that Salt Lake has such diverse communtity that would ultimately suffer from the federal governments inaction with regards to the inadequate immigration laws.  Police officers would end up spending their time chasing paperwork and as a result would spend less doing what is more important...protecting the community.  Not only would it strain the police departments resources but you take a huge risk that people would stop working with the police in fear of being questioned about their immigration status.  I know we need to do something about the immigration problem we have in this country.  It would be better if the federal government addressed the problem themselve, but since they haven't the individual states must now come up with their own solution.  I welcome anyone wishing to live in the United States.  What I have an issue with is the amount of illegal immigrants living within the United States.  If we were to visit any other country we would need to keep our passports etc. on hand...surely we could figure out some organized way to tackle this issue and make it uniform through out every state.  How hard would it be to go from one state to another and keep up with the changing laws?  It's not just something that one state has to figure out, but something the nation needs to solve and make uniform.  So, the constitutionality of this proposed law will ultimately be decided in court.  Good luck!

In the Deseret News on February 6, 2012 I found a small article on page A5.  The title is "Free speech rights, bully fight collide" by Rob Smietana.  The following information was taken from Mr. Smietana's article. The article is short but packs a bit of a punch. Senator Jim Summerville from Tennessee filed legislation this past January that would require schools to write bullying policies that would protect the First Amendment rights of those students who wanted to express their beliefs.  This version, as opposed to the one introduced by Senator Jim Tracy, does not specifically mention religion.  Apparently they want to protect the rights of the students who want to express their religious views on homosexuality.  Obviously there are others who see this as a license to bully.
I am all for debating and expressing one's opinions, regardless of whether I personally agree with someone's view.  However, we live in a world where we have watched the devastating effects of bullying.  There is a time and place for everything, but school may not be the best place to allow one child to publicly humiliate and demean another person's choice of lifestyle all in the name of "Free Speech".  Bullying is nothing new.  Trying to put a stop to it, and going to the extent of passing legislation to protect students, that's new.   Why would you want to take a step backwards and allow some wiggle room in an area that we know can produce such devastating results.  Bullying sugar coated as "Free Speech" is still bullying! 

I found an article in the Salt Lake Tribune on January 30, 2012.  The article can be found on page A9 and is titled "Candidate vows appeal after she is barred due to her limited English".  The title first caught my attention but it was where this took place that kept me reading.  I grew up in Yuma, Arizona and that's where this particular incident occurred!

Alejandrina Cabrera was not allowed to run for City Council because she lacked the ability to speak English fluently.  She lives in San Luis and this Arizona community has a large hispanic population where both English and Spanish are used!  The Mayor of San Luis filed a court action to ask for a determination of Cabrera's Enlish skills.  After an expert testified that the examination he conducted showed Cabrera lacked the necessary English skills to serve on the City Council the Yuma County Judge, John Nelson, barred her from running for office.  Cabrera states that she does need to improve her skills but, given the large hispanic community, feels that her English is adequate.  Cabrera stated, "He can't take away my constitutional rights, and if he takes away my rights, he takes away the rights of the community."

Having lived in that community for 18 years I can appreciate the usefullness of being bi-lingual.  I realize that the state law says that they need to be English speaking but I can also see the need for someone who also has the ability to speak spanish, and is who is also willing to learn English more proficiently.  I know it's a qualification for the position but it would seem that this is not a problem that cannot be solved.  Why not let her run for the office and place the condition that she continue to learn the English language and use an interpreter when necessary!  If she wins the election she will have further incentive to master the language!  Is it really fair to say she cannot run in a community that has a large portion of the population that speaks only Spanish?  Let every group be equally represented and give her a chance to learn the language.  I've certainly seen plenty of politicans that speak and write English and do it badly.....why not let her try!  I'm curious to know what others might think.