Outrage is Ridiculous When Comparing Apples and Oranges

This article is from KGW News is Oregon.
http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Controversy-over-Beavertons-Mexican-Independence-fest-102170434.html

Read it, but bear in mind that the 4th of July celebration comes every year, and is essentially a birthday celebration held once a year.

What is going on - or was going on - this article is a week or so old - was a celebration for bicentennials, a 200 year anniversary.

To complain that there's no public funding for the 4th of July - held every year - is silly, when what they wanted to celebrate was something that happens only every hundred years. Plus, presumably there would have been income from this party, as people bought food and souvenirs, so it should have been a win-win.

I'm against illegal immigration, and I'm against multiculturism - what we have here should be a MELTING POT - but when they want to celebrate a centennial...why not?

BEAVERTON, Ore. — The City of Beaverton has expanded the scope of a celebration that started out as a party for Mexico’s Independence Day.

The city on Friday announced they were broadening the festival to recognize National Hispanic Heritage Month for the “Year of the Bicentennial” in the Americas as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico all marking 200 years of independence over the month.

It was scheduled for September 16 at 6 p.m. at Beaverton’s City Park.

Earlier this week, controversy erupted when radio commentator Lars Larson interviewed Beaverton City Commissioner Betty Bode to ask why the city was officially celebrating Mexican Independence Day, but had no official celebration for American Independence Day.

According to the U.S. Census, Beaverton is the most diverse city in the state. Twenty percent is “non-white,” 16 percent is classified as Hispanic. Larson argued that fact did not necessarily mean of Mexican descent.

A request for the event was taken from the Mexican consulate, Bode said. Bode said the aim of the celebration was to allow people of Mexican heritage into closer ties with the community at large.

Beaverton’s Mayor Denny Doyle was set to speak at the event, along with performances by a Mexican folk ballet, maricachi bands and food. The cost to put on the event was $6,000 The festival is free to attend.

But critics call it ridiculous, when the city doesn’t even have a taxpayer-funded Fourth of July Celebration.