This fire isn’t out

From advocate Fredi Avalos:

Human Rights Workers, Friends, and Colleagues,
 
I am writing this to express my feelings about another “fire” that was lit a nearly year ago. 
 
A few weeks ago the Mayor went on the Roger Hedgecock show to express his support for the San Diego Minute Men’s project to “clear out the canyons.”  (see The southern Poverty Law center site www.splc.org or www.minutemenunvarnished for more on the S.D. Minutemen).  These canyons have been the sites for unspeakable hate crimes committed against Mexican workers. But perhaps even more disturbing, is that the Mayor himself gave credence to the growing rhetoric of hate being spread by White Supremacist groups who are trying to blame the migrants for the San Diego fires. He said in response to Hedgecock’s accusation that the immigrants are the real fire hazard, “we can’t have the camps down there with the fire danger”. Instead of using this forum to quell the reactionary fear mongering by right wing radio hosts, he decided to join forces with them.
 
His decision to repeat a wrong he was publicly chastised for not even a year ago requires examination. As many of you know, last year, the Mayor looked a contingency of human rights workers, which included me, in the eye and said he would “never again” lend the legitimacy of his office to organized violence in our communities. This was after he had gone on the Rick Roberts’ show and gave a “wink and nod” to White Supremacist groups planning to “campout” in the canyons last fall. In the interview with Roberts, he said “a fire had been lit.”  Prophetic words indeed. Two months later after over 150 phone calls and emails, and a prayer vigil in front of his office, told us that he “was sorry” and that “it was a mistake he would never make again.”
 
I have been lied to by politicians before - but I must say-this is the first time one looked directly in my face and lied so up close and personally.
 
One can only conclude that after coming out so courageously, in support of gay rights, he needed to find another way to let his right wing contingency know that he was still “one of them.” Mexicans and Mexican Americans it seems are easily used as scapegoats for this vicious campaign of hate and mean spiritedness. A campaign he has now willing become the poster boy for-again. 
 
Of course, what is very transparent here is that if  Sanders is really looking for answers, he should look to decisions made in his own office. He, and San Diego taxpayers, have continually refused to compensate firefighters fairly for the work they do. And they have continued to turn a deaf ear to the pleas of city leaders, including the former fire chief, for more and better fire fighting equipment. The last fire chief himself resigned in frustration.
 
Please write or call his office to express your concern at 619-236-6330 his fax number is 619-236-6330. People, we have to let our elected officials know that hate radio is not an appropriate public form. In this climate of fear, we can no longer stay silent.
 
Fredi Avalos

Immigrant Families Twice Burned

A dispatch from Norma Chavez-Peterson Director of Justice Overcoming Boundaries of San Diego, on the frontlines of the fires last week…

The fires in San Diego didn’t discriminate.  They burned through low-income neighborhoods just as quickly as they burned though the cliff-side beach homes of the wealthy.  But while the government was busy protecting wealthy white folks and their homes, it was terrorizing immigrant evacuees.  At the same time, neither authorities nor employers cared enough about the well-being or lives of the farm workers or other laborers.  Immigrants were not guided to refuge but continued to work as the fire storm approached.

Read the rest at Movement Vision Lab

A tale of power and vision

Want more vision? Want to share your own? Take a risk.

We’re still glowing… Thanks Gov. Fletcher.

I’m still glowing from the recent round 0f elections that let America know- scapegoating immigrants won’t get you votes. period.

We already posted Duke’s commentary on the Virginia elections where democrats re-took the state legislature after republicans tried to use a witch-hunt against immigrants to maintain power. Voters let them know, we care about our schools, we care about our communities, and we care about our state- and that line of thought ain’t gonna cut it.

But you know, Virginia wasn’t the only place this was true- and I wanted to take a moment to point out that Governor Fletcher of Kentucky was unable to maintain his seat of power… and it just tickles me… thanks Governor Fletcher.

Several months ago, after a record of poor governance and public displeasure with his leadership, Fletcher saw the writing on the wall. In a last ditch attempt to save his position, Fletcher launched fear-mongering tactics against communities throughout the state, saying that he was going to push for state police to be trained to hunt immigrants.

Well, the taxpayers let him know, that line of thought ain’t gonna cut it. Saying it once isn’t enough- the recent round of elections really showed that the American public is smarter than anti-immigration folks think they are. The election in 08 need to be about positive change, not blind hate.

More coverage on the election victories…

From NDN blog - Links to more articles.

Hate in the Mainstream

I was sitting down to watch my favorite tv show, when I accidentally turned on Lou Dobbs…. and listened to him for about 5 minutes (I couldn’t change the channel, I was mesmerized by the sharp stare in his eyes) ranting and raving, and spreading complete lies about the drivers license bill passed by Spitzer in New York earlier last month.

I asked myself one question: How could one man’s mistruths, veiled (or not so veiled) racism, and scapegoating be considered mainstream broadcasting fodder?

Then another one followed: He isn’t alone, is he?

No he certainly isn’t. Hate groups around the country are hiding their funding sources, changing their names, and carting out their bags of mistruths to the American public in mainstream media more than ever before.

This has happened in the past. America has gone through waves of Jim Crow, McCarthy, and countless other movements to attack and demonize the “other” among us- usually to prevent the American public from focusing on the real issues at the heart of our country : wars, education, healthcare, the economy.

Lou Dobbs and his band of merry scapegoaters are just singing the same song with different words- and the Anti-Defamation League has released a new report to chronicle this latest trend. It’s only by exposing hate in the mainstream that we can root it out in our own communities, and begin to move forward, move on. Because at the bottom of the immigration debate is a choice.

It’s a choice for each and every American: Do I follow Dobbs, or do I take the high-road. As I said above, we’ve been faced with this choice before, and back then some people chose to stop black kids from going to high school, to spit in their faces, and some chose to hold the door open for them.

It’s time for us to ask Americans to decide which side of history they will be on. Dobbs, or the side of dignity and respect.

Immigrant-Bashing Fails in First Round of Elections

The country’s first test of “immigrant bashing” as an electoral strategy, has been soundly deemed completely ineffective. In hotly debated elections in Virginia, the republican party attempted to lambast immigrants rather than discuss real reform and betterment for their communities. And where did it get them? A quarter of a mile outside nowhere.

Get the full scoop from Duke at MigraMatter.

Priests Join Fight Against Hateful Oklahoma Immigration Laws

The law will make it criminal to transport, hire, harbor, house or conceal illegal immigrants. Violating the law could carry a minimum fine of $1,000, a year in prison or both. “In a broad interpretation, a church delivering groceries or any sort of humanitarian assistance to an undocumented person could be committing a felony,” the Rev. Lance Schmitz, minister of social justice at Oklahoma City First Church of the Nazarene, said Oct. 26.

Clearly this is not the kind of law they need in Oklahoma. Priests are joining the “Pledge of Resistance” to the law.

Aliens in America

Just the other week I finally got to see an episode of “Aliens in America” - the show on CW where a Wisconsin family has welcomed a foreign, pakistani, student into their home. the premise is simple, the caricatures are major (could the father’s beer belly under his packer’s sweater be any bigger?). Wondering if you’ve seen this show, and what you think….

from an interview with the co-creator:

Let’s talk about the origins of “Aliens in America.” You come up with this great idea about focusing on teenage life in Wisconsin with a dorky high school kid and, oh yeah, a Pakistani Muslim exchange student. How the heck does this happen?

DAVID: [Laughs.] You know it’s always a hard question to answer. My writing partner Moses Port and I were just in the phase of trying to think of a new idea for a TV show. We were talking about our own high school experiences and all the insecurities, anxieties, and nightmare experiences of high school. We were wondering if there was a fresh take on the form of a TV show, a comedy about high school. At the same time, we were talking about the geo political situation of the world at the time, which has gotten worse since then. We first started talking about it in 2005. We also started talking about politics and the giant gap that exists between Americans and really the rest of the world, specifically the Muslim world. In that stew, we sort of came up with the idea for the show.

Check out this interview with the co-creator of the show at immigration prof blog

Firestorm: Vulnerable Populations Abused in Natural Disaster - AGAIN

 

 Which disaster is which? (top= San Diego 2007; bottom= New Orleans 2006) 

After the countless exposes on New Orleans, someone would have thought we had learned our lesson- vulnerable communities as such as the poor, elderly, and special needs should NOT be neglected or abused during natural disasters, rescue efforts, and in the months following.

ICE, and the current administration missed the memo and the terrifying reports of abuses against vulnerable populations - including checkpoints and raids on migrant workers fleeing from the fires and trying to return to their homes - are inexcusable. CNN covered this story for HOURS each day- where was the coverage of this story?

When the mainstream media misses the story it’s up to us to push it forward. Check out the latest report out of San Diego chronicling the abuses. PLEASE share with others.