Hey, Tea Party: Latin Was the Language of Ancient Rome

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/02/1361916/-Hey-Tea-Party-Latin-Was-the-Language-of-Ancient-Rome

In Vermont, an eighth-grade girl who was studying Latin wrote a letter to the Minority Leader of the Vermont Senate suggesting that Vermont should have a Latin motto, in addition to -- but not replacing -- the official English motto ("Freedom and Unity&quot . So, the people involved came up with this:

Stella quarta decima fulgeat. The translation: “May the Fourteenth Star Shine Bright,” is a nod to Vermont’s status as the fourteenth state to join the union. Nice. Poetic in both languages.

So then the legislature passes a resolution, which takes very little time and costs no money. Right? Wrong. Guess what happened next?

Here's a post about the story from a Vermont blog: No good deed goes unpunished. Apparently a local TV station did a story about it and got a huge number of incredibly ignorant comments on their Facebook page, here: WCAX: One state senator thinks Vermont should have a Latin motto. What do you think?.

The crazies came out of the woodwork: "If you live in the United States, you need to learn English!" "Vermont ain't no Latino area." "This is America, not Mexico or some other Latin-American country." And so on.

The stupid... it burns.

[deutsey]

1. That is a nice motto

Regarding the morons who made the comments: I'm surprised they were able to figure out how to turn a computer on, let alone type quasi-coherent sentences.

[Historic NY]

2. Its still the language of scholarly learning and in use...

from medical, scientific, to legal terminology. I heared they ain't much on bookwork learning...

[KansDem]

3. Sempre Fidelis!!!

Hmmm...now where have I heard that before?

Sounds foreign, so probably not from TeaBaggers. They're real Americans!

[hootinholler]

4. What do they expect?

Of course Latin is spoken by Latinos, Jesus, it's right there.



I have found that lately most of my frustration is trying to fix stoopud. The more I accept that it can't be fixed, the happier I become.

[procon]

5. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

At my father insistence, I had 2 years of Latin in high school; it was the lingua franca of academia. What do these cretins learn in school if they think Latin in the spoken language of Latin America?

[mercuryblues]

6. How does that

joke go?

If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. And what the hell is with superbowl using arabic numbers

and not roman numerals? 50 vs L???/ come on....

the whole world has gone to shit. Next thing you know we will have to learn algebra another Arabic, mos-lem tyranny

[central scrutinizer]

10. Roman numerals were good enough for Jesus

'nuf said - end of argument - get that Arabic place value system outta here.

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. And the arabs stole the system from India

that heathen hindu nation

[central scrutinizer]

12. The Mayans had place value even earlier but they were heathens, too.

as well as being Hispanic

[merrily]

8. General Comment: If Vermont goes teabagger, we're all doomed.

I am generally very proud of Massachusetts but I am not sure even Massachusetts would have sent Democratic Socialist Sander to Congress. Just sayin'

[starroute]

9. Only a minority of state mottoes are in English

Reading down the Wikipedia list or state and territory mottoes, I count 24 in Latin, one in Greek, one in Italian (Maryland), one in French (Minnesota), one in Spanish (Montana), one in Chinook Jargon (Washington), one in Samoan, one in Hawaiian.

Just 25 are in English. (Some states have more than one, which is why there are 56 in all.)

Of Vermont's immediate neighbors, Massachusetts and New York's both are in Latin, while New Hampshire's is in English.

So yeah, massive ignorance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_and_territory_mottos

[mmonk]

13. Scary level of ignorance.

My red state's motto is Esse Quam Videri. Did tea party people ever attend school?

[LiberalEsto]

14. De stupidus non disputandum

or something like that.

[hughee99]

15. I like how the author assumes that all these Vermonters with the stupid comments must be Teabaggers.

If there's one thing Vermont is known for, it's their teabaggers.

[MisterP]

16. Montaña's IS in Spanish: "Oro y Plata"