Every morning, when I have time, I enjoy reading the Letters to the Editor in the Los Angeles Times. These days, it may be the only thing left worth reading! Anyhow, I usually skim in search of comments that I find incredulous as such is my form of entertainment – which also explains why every so often I tune into Sean Insanity on Fox News.
With that in mind, this morning was no disappointment! A reader took issue to the recent news that the MTA approved a name in Spanish for a segment of the light railway that will run through East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. Instead of being known as the Gold Line, the vote christined it “La Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal.” In response, the reader said:
The effort to rename the Gold Line with its Spanish equivalent was misguided. While the whole world learns English as the language of science and international commerce, Los Angeles County discourages that essential key to success and education in its own Latino population.
The Latino population will never reach economic and educational parity as long as they cling to Spanish and maintain their linguistic and cultural isolation.
Larry Rivetz
For starters, I’m remarkably indifferent as to what they name the Gold Line in whatever language. However, I find it insane to opine that this renaming has any significance for the “key to success” for the Latino population one way or another! That’s taking it a little overboard! As to the reader’s last point about cultural and linguistic isolation, I agree! So let’s start off by renaming “Los Angeles” um…”Los Angeles!”
Don PalabraZ 