Veni, vidi, vaya con Dios
by Tom Sullivan
It seems a bright eighth grader in Vermont thought it would be a good idea for the state to adopt a Latin motto. So Republican state Sen. Joe Benning introduced legislation recommending Stella quarta decima fulgeat ("May the fourteenth star shine bright”). The phrase harkens back to when Vermont entered the union as the 14th state.
Wonkette has what happened next:
And then Burlington TV station WCAX put the story on its Facebook page with the headline, “Should Vermont have an official Latin motto?” and all Stupid broke loose when morons thought that Vermont was knuckling under to a bunch of goddamned illegal immigrants.
An email from Benning to the Vermont Political Observer captured the irony:
I anticipated suffering the backroom internal joking from my colleagues in the legislature. What I did not anticipate was the vitriolic verbal assault from those who don’t know the difference between the Classics and illegal immigrants from South America.
A couple of samples:
"I thought Vermont was American not Latin? Does any Latin places have American mottos?"
“ABSOLUTLY NOT!!!! sick and tired of that crap, they have their own countries”
“How do you say idiotic senator in spanish? I’d settle for deport illegals in spanish as a back up motto”
“Hell No! This is America, not Latin America. When in Rome do as the Romans do!”
Later commenters jumped in to lampoon the earlier posts, of course. Wonkette and the Vermont Political Observer have more.
Quod erat demonstrandum.