ODELAY!

I grew up in a very diverse community, one that today, I would be the minority.  I was raised by loving parents that taught me to find the good in everyone and to love everyone equally, without bias to skin color, creed, race, or religion.  For that I am appreciative.  I love Utah, but in many ways, I miss the diversity of growing up in Southern California.  While the diversity is growing in Utah, much to the dismay of many, I have always appreciated my hispanic brothers from the south of us.  I have made many trips to Mexico and I love their history and culture.  I am smart enough to know not to categorize or generalize any groups of people based on my limited engagements with only a few...this applies in all cases, whether my experience has been positive or negative with the few, I will always try to avoid using a broad paintbrush to describe them all.  Thank goodness this is not done with me, or people may assume I am a barbaric Scot or a drunken Injun.  I am neither barbaric or drunken, thank you very much!  The closest I have ever gotten to generalizing a group of people is to say (making assumptions based on my experience) that first generation immigrants from South America are very hard working and appreciative of the opportunity they find here.  Even still, I will make the qualifying statement that I am sure there are in that same group lazy and unappreciative individuals.

This week I got my car washed at The Firehouse in American Fork.  It is by far the better of the car washes I have patronized here in Utah, but with that said, it would rank at the bottom if grouped with your average car wash in So Cal.  Why?  The Latin workforce.  When you get your car washed in So Cal, you pay half as much, have five workers attending to your vehicle and they produce a job filled with pride and perfection.  The cheapest car wash there is equivalent to the most expensive detail job here.  Our caucasian youth could learn a valuable lesson of hard work and pride by watching these Hispanic car washers.  Our Utah car wash owners could too.  Quite frankly, I am done tipping at the car wash for a mediocre job after paying way too much.  

Today is my free day.  I rewarded myself by visiting the McDonald's in Lehi.  I have been looking forward to a sausage biscuit for a week now.  I know that I am a dork, but that is not the topic of discussion here.  I went through the drive in and the conversation between me and the Hispanic McDonald's employee went something like this.

McDonald's Worker:  What do you want?

Me:  I'll have a sausage biscuit.

McD:  A what?!

Me:  A sausage biscuit.

McD:  What is that?

Me:  Uh...A sausage biscuit.

McD:  Yeah, what is a sausage biscuit?

I looked on the menu board to make sure I had not lost my memory after so long a period without one...

Me:  A SAUSAGE BISCUIT

McD:  Anything else?

At this time I completed my order and pulled around as instructed.  Totally baffled that this employee didn't know what I was talking about.  It became clear that English was the second language to this employee as was the case for every other employee there.  None of them could get my order right and the math to figure out my change was a huge issue too.  This frustrated me so I left.  I drove straight to the other McDonald's and was greeted by an English speaking employee who helped me immediately with 100% accuracy.  Now, I want to make it very clear that I was not frustrated that there were so many Latinos working at the Lehi McDonald's, but that the Latinos that were assigned to communicate with the customers didn't speak English well enough to properly communicate.  This is the poor performance of the manager and owner.   

There is a great benefit to the labor force in the inclusion of our hard working immigrated friends.  There is a way to manage them as well.  I don't know why I wanted to rant on these two experiences.  This subject is always such a sensitive subject; one which people tend to take extreme positions on.  Not me.  I observe it at face value.  If the individual has a right to work here, they better be fit for the job and do a great job at it.  If not, send them packing.  This applies to everyone, regardless of birth nationality.  If this were the case, then the workers and owners of car washes across Utah would be fired, so would the owner and many of the workers at the Lehi McDonald's.    

In the words of Dennis Miller, "This is just my opinion.  I could be wrong."