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Friday, 8 September 06 ::
a public service announcement from the Rural Organizing Project
Dear Ropnetters
A member of the Oregon House of Representatives, Kropf, traveled to the southern border earlier this year to be an active participant in the Minutemen border patrol. He did this quite publicly, using his radio time to talk this decision up.
An Oregon Chapter of the Minutemen has now formed and is demonstrating great vitality as it people's daily multi- hour protests geared to intimidate. In the past week they have gotten two front page articles above the fold in The Oregonian and other media markets are finding them to make equally excellent press - such excellent press in fact, that the media is not bothering to pay attention to the relatively dull meetings one block away, where community leaders, day laborers and area residents are meeting to ensure safety for the day laborers who carry on a biblically honored tradition of rising early each morning to see who might need a worker.
Prior to attending the strategy meeting at Centro Cultural this past Friday, I walked through the minutemen protests. They were blocking the sidewalk. But they knew the law as well as I did and parted with great cheer, welcomed me, adored my dog and reacted with politeness when I told them that my dog liked immigrants and that I was a daughter of a citizen who first arrived in this county in 1949 without any papers. They never lost their cheer.
I was thrown back to 1992 and the infamous 18 month campaign led by the OCA (Oregon Citizens Alliance) that made history by asking a populace (Oregonians) to endorse a re-writing of a constitution to remove protections from a handy category of people - gays and lesbians. And they smiled with great cheer as they stood outside of every grocery store and post office to qualify their measure for the '92 ballot. But their signs reeked of hate. Hate crimes soared, communities divided and 2 people died. One elementary school cancelled recess for much of the October leading up to election day in an effort to stop the playground brawls that acted out the parent's politics.
Immigration, historically and currently, is a heated topic. And when scapegoating is allowed to enter in, you can get the worst of human behavior - violence aimed at the target group. (Even when the target group is hard to identify - just who is documented?)
Many human dignity groups and individual members may feel torn over how to enter this policy debate especially when it is so heated. But moments like this are the real reason that groups like ROP exist. We exist to calm destructive hysteria by re-orienting tough wedge issues to the basics of inclusive democracy and human dignity.
And sometimes the issue can be made real simple - do not allow rising hysteria over immigrants, documented or not, to allow us to make sloppy community or political decisions. This past week a plane filled with French passengers refused to allow the plane to depart until a teen being deported by the French government to Nigeria was removed. They knew it was wrong to drop a child in a land unknown to them. Now those passengers will have a story of resistance to hand down to their grandchildren.
The week prior to direct contact with Oregon's Minutemen, I sat through a town hall in St Helens with Senator Wyden. Conversation was derailed by some reasonably pleasant looking folks who spouted increasingly vile statements about immigrants. Their 'facts' and venom went largely unchecked as Wyden and the room seemed stunned by the intensity. Where do you even start? How do you keep that venom from getting directed at you? As we all work to puzzle out what comprehensive immigration reform looks like in 2006, we can demand decent discourse, we can expose vigilante tactics, we can hold up our own family histories with past cycles of immigration hysteria and we can challenge slurs.
Below is a draft letter working to expose the reality of the cheery bunch at the corner in Cornelius. Does your group have a plan for when the newest face of a hate group comes to town? Contact ROP if you would like to gather and strategize - this fall is a good time to anticipate that the temperature will rise on this wedge issue.
thanks, marcy
Dear Editor,
An anti-immigrant vigilante group has been harassing the day laborers who congregate near Centro Cultural, in Cornelius. The group pickets, and also videotapes workers to intimidate them, assuming that all day laborers are undocumented immigrants. The vigilantes say publicly that their actions are not racially motivated, but a look at their website is disturbing.
Undocumented immigrants are referred to as animals, criminals, drug dealers, and rapists. People who work with immigrants also come in for abuse, as does Centro Cultural, Oregon's Governor, the Democratic Party, liberals, socialists, and of course, gays. This website's motto is "I will not rest until illegal aliens get treated like the criminals they are."
People have the right to say and believe what they will. What concerns us is when local politicians give encouragement to this type of protest. On August 19, Cornelius Mayor Terry Rilling visited the vigilante protest and posed for website pictures. The website mentioned that Mr Rilling was running for State Representative and urged support for him. The picture on the website looked like a chummy good-old-boys get together with Cornelius' mayor, not someone on a fact-finding visit.
Immigrants have lived in our communities for generations. Many people who came here as immigrants are now US citizens. A campaign to treat all undocumented immigrants as criminals tears at the heart of our community. When an elected official and a Republican nominee for state representative appears to lend support to this type of vigilante effort, everyone in the community is endangered. It sends the message that only the 'right ' people deserve representation in local or state government.
The issue here is not immigration. The issue is whether we support vigilante action and partisan abuse, or do we look for solutions that build community? We call on Mayor Rilling to publicly disavow any connection to the vigilante protests at Centro Cultural, and to denounce the tactics being used by the so-called 'Minutemen'.
Marcy Westerling - marcy@rop.org
Rural Organizing Project - Rebuild America - Join our efforts to Advance
Democracy in Rural Oregon
P.O. Box 1350
Scappoose, OR 97056
(503) 543-8417
www.rop.org
posted by brooke at September 8, 2006 11:16 AM
