A visit to the Bergen County, New Jersey, Web site seems inviting enough, with the county executive’s message about “making the ‘American Dream’ a reality.” But for at least one Bergen County mayor, the American Dream only speaks English, and he’s calling for a boycott of McDonald’s after the fast food kings put up a billboard bearing Spanish text.

Steve Lonegan, the pasty-skinned mayor of Bogota, New Jersey (not Colombia), says the city’s whites and Hispanics are united in “our belief in the American flag and our common language.” Lonegan says that McDonald’s decision to put up a Spanish billboard advertising their iced coffee sends the frightening message that people are different, and “that causes resentment.”

Lonegan called the billboard company after he received complaints from his constituency. When McDonald’s issued a statement standing by the ads, Lonegan said they’d showed “utter disregard for this community,” and called on like-minded Americans to join him in a boycott. Martin Perez, president of New Jersey’s Latino Leadership Alliance, chalks the whole affair up to “anti-Latino” sentiment.

» Scott Saxon