0 comment Wednesday, July 2, 2014 | admin
As Rick Darby put it the other day, on his Reflecting Light blog,
New Haven secedes from the Union
New Haven, Connecticut might in fact be said to have seceded, like all other such cities who decide to officially flout our existing laws on immigration. In the article linked and excerpted below, the arrogance and defiance of the Mayor, John DeStefano, Jr., and a number of other 'diverse' scofflaw residents, is on parade for all America to see:
Immigrants, Supporters Pour in For ID
...Visitors signing up for the city�s new Elm City Residency Card passed through a gauntlet of protesters on the way into City Hall. The line included undocumented Mexican immigrants, like Jaime Rojas and (pictured with Ruby Diaz), who saw the card as an "opportunity" for a safer life.
Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. commended undocumented immigrants for their "courage" in enduring the suburban hecklers on their way in. "Tell me who represents the best of America � who�s outside or who�s inside," he said.
[...]The city created the program because U.S. legislators "don�t have the will to pass a coherent border strategy," the mayor said Tuesday. Instead legislators have allowed immigrants to move here, but forced them to be "invisible," said the mayor.
The card, which offers a range of services to people of all ages, was conceived as a symbolic gesture of recognition and a way give immigrants acceptable ID to open bank accounts, so that they won�t be easy prey for robbers. DeStefano urged those who live in the city to support one another by getting the card.
[...]West River Alderman Yusuf Shah heralded the program: "We believe that services should be given to everyone equally, to everyone." Two days after aldermen approved the ID plan with an overwhelming 25 to 1 vote, federal immigration agents swept the city, arresting 32 people whom they charged were illegal immigrants. In the terror that followed, parents were afraid to leave their homes to pick up their kids from school. Some said that sense of fear would scare immigrants away from signing up for an ID.
Pasqual Rojas (pictured at left), who came here illegally from Mexico 14 years ago, said he wasn�t afraid. "I want to be part of New Haven," he said in Spanish. The card would be signify "they respect us as citizens of New Haven."
[...]Kimber said he was supporting the ID because "it is every religious leader�s moral obligation to stand up for the disenfranchised� I do not want people to suffer as African-Americans did when they came to this country."
"If you look on the coin, it says 'E Pluribus Unum� � so they�re right on the money!" said Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh (pictured at left) before snapping a photo for his city ID. ''
So, in the above article, those heard from include Mayor DeStefano, Alderman Yusuf Shah, Pasqual Rojas (who, after 14 years in New Haven, still no habla Ingles), Harold Koh, and an African-American, Mr. Kimber, who sympathizes with illegals.
What's wrong with this picture? It seems the 'diversity' is being heard from: apparently all hyphenated 'Americans', one of whom can't or possibly won't speak the language of the realm, but where are the old-stock Americans? Do they not have a right to be heard?
Here is one of the most outrageous parts of the article, for my money:
Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. commended undocumented immigrants for their "courage" in enduring the suburban hecklers on their way in. "Tell me who represents the best of America � who�s outside or who�s inside," he said.
Apparently, the Mayor prefers his fellow scofflaws, the illegal immigrants, to the real Americans who exercised their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and express their disagreement with his actions. And notice the protesters are referred to as 'suburban hecklers.' What kind of snide putdown is that?
So it takes 'courage' to be a sneak thief and a criminal? Or does it take 'courage' to step up and get your freebies from a scofflaw, aiding-and-abetting city government? Courage is not the word that comes to my mind; brazenness comes to mind, as do phrases like unmitigated gall, shamelessness, arrogance, and nerve. But those don't mean the same as 'courage.' Courage implies a nobility of spirit, and a willingness to act heroically despite great danger, none of which are evident in any of this 'diverse' collection of individuals from victim groups.
The use of the word 'courage' implies that the illegals are somehow beset by various dangers. Dangers from whom? From mostly emasculated law enforcement officials, who have been hamstrung by PC judges and federal officials who don't want them to do their jobs? Danger from whom? Torch-carrying, pitchfork-wielding redneck citizens? Name me any attack on illegals by 'nativist' Americans. It hasn't happened. They are in danger from no one, and they know it; their brazen, in-our-face, behavior proves that. If they were afraid, and if they were in danger, illegals would not be stampeding across our borders by the thousands every day, and they would not be pelting our Border Patrol agents with stones or otherwise taunting and baiting them.
This nonsense about the poor beleaguered immigrants 'living in the shadows' is ridiculous, and whoever invented that silly cliche is as dishonest as whoever invented the laughably inaccurate phrase 'Religion of Peace.'
Mayor DeStefano is of course a Democrat, but to be fair, there are many Republicans who support open borders and illegals.
The most common factor in these attitudes seems not to be political party, but ethnicity and recent immigrant roots. And true to form, we read here:
An hour�s drive from Danbury, in New Haven, where almost a quarter of citizens are Latino, the contrast in attitudes toward the undocumented population couldn�t be more stark.
It starts at the top with Mayor John DeStefano Jr., a second generation American.
"I am all for extending the same benefits and opportunities to these folks that were extended to my grandparents," he said.
As for deputizing police to act as immigration agents, DeStefano said no such request will ever come out of New Haven.
"In the process you will collapse our economy and paint with a broad brush immigrants to this country under the guise of people�s fears about terrorism," he said.
In fact, the police are weighing a policy that would specifically prevent their involvement in immigration matters.
DeStefano�s response to these issues is visceral. Fears about anarchists at the beginning of the 20th century fed the execution of Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, he pointed out. "I don�t think it is a part of American history that we should be proud of or should repeat," he said.''
So here we have the Immigrant Grandfather/Ellis Island Syndrome. Sure, there is the occasional exception but far too often there is a correlation. And notice that DeStefano associates immigration restrictionism with the Sacco-Vanzetti case, which many Italian-Americans see as 'persecution' of Italian immigrants. Whether Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty is inconsequential to their apologists: they were poor immigrants and that makes them martyrs. The popular liberal wisdom is that they were victims of the 'Red Scare' and xenophobia.
So as the quote from Mayor DeStefano indicates, he has a 'visceral' response on the issue of immigrants. This, in my mind, disqualifies him from being a public official, because it's tantamount to saying that he has a deep-rooted bias based on his own ancestry and family history, a bias in favor of immigrants. This to me is reminiscent of the Illinois school board official who ruled in favor of admitting illegal immigrants to the school system; in an angry outburst he declared that his parents were immigrants and that he would not brook any anti-immigrant sentiment. How is this kind of naked bias allowable in a public official, who is supposed to be capable of objectivity, and to be 'disinterested' in the true dictionary definition of the word?
It appears as though objectivity and disinterestedness are simply quaint cultural artifacts of Anglo culture; it seems only those of Anglo or other European descent even acknowledge the desirability of those qualities. Everybody else seems to operate on the basis of ethnic bias or plain old resentment of traditional majority America.
And of course ethnic solidarity is intrinsic to all of us, even those of us who have learned to subordinate it to some kind of greater good. But maybe we who have tried to be objective and fair to all are being taken advantage of and suckered by all the 'new Americans' who laugh at our gullibility while they unashamedly act on behalf of their own ethnic interests.
As America becomes ever more a house divided, we will see more polarizing, and people of non-Anglo ancestry, whether they be Italian-Americans or other Ellis Island descendants, or Americans of Hispanic descent, will have to declare which side they are on. It won't be possible to stay neutral as the sides line up.
We saw that in the events in Morristown, N.J. yesterday, too.
New Haven secedes from the Union
New Haven, Connecticut might in fact be said to have seceded, like all other such cities who decide to officially flout our existing laws on immigration. In the article linked and excerpted below, the arrogance and defiance of the Mayor, John DeStefano, Jr., and a number of other 'diverse' scofflaw residents, is on parade for all America to see:
Immigrants, Supporters Pour in For ID
...Visitors signing up for the city�s new Elm City Residency Card passed through a gauntlet of protesters on the way into City Hall. The line included undocumented Mexican immigrants, like Jaime Rojas and (pictured with Ruby Diaz), who saw the card as an "opportunity" for a safer life.
Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. commended undocumented immigrants for their "courage" in enduring the suburban hecklers on their way in. "Tell me who represents the best of America � who�s outside or who�s inside," he said.
[...]The city created the program because U.S. legislators "don�t have the will to pass a coherent border strategy," the mayor said Tuesday. Instead legislators have allowed immigrants to move here, but forced them to be "invisible," said the mayor.
The card, which offers a range of services to people of all ages, was conceived as a symbolic gesture of recognition and a way give immigrants acceptable ID to open bank accounts, so that they won�t be easy prey for robbers. DeStefano urged those who live in the city to support one another by getting the card.
[...]West River Alderman Yusuf Shah heralded the program: "We believe that services should be given to everyone equally, to everyone." Two days after aldermen approved the ID plan with an overwhelming 25 to 1 vote, federal immigration agents swept the city, arresting 32 people whom they charged were illegal immigrants. In the terror that followed, parents were afraid to leave their homes to pick up their kids from school. Some said that sense of fear would scare immigrants away from signing up for an ID.
Pasqual Rojas (pictured at left), who came here illegally from Mexico 14 years ago, said he wasn�t afraid. "I want to be part of New Haven," he said in Spanish. The card would be signify "they respect us as citizens of New Haven."
[...]Kimber said he was supporting the ID because "it is every religious leader�s moral obligation to stand up for the disenfranchised� I do not want people to suffer as African-Americans did when they came to this country."
"If you look on the coin, it says 'E Pluribus Unum� � so they�re right on the money!" said Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh (pictured at left) before snapping a photo for his city ID. ''
So, in the above article, those heard from include Mayor DeStefano, Alderman Yusuf Shah, Pasqual Rojas (who, after 14 years in New Haven, still no habla Ingles), Harold Koh, and an African-American, Mr. Kimber, who sympathizes with illegals.
What's wrong with this picture? It seems the 'diversity' is being heard from: apparently all hyphenated 'Americans', one of whom can't or possibly won't speak the language of the realm, but where are the old-stock Americans? Do they not have a right to be heard?
Here is one of the most outrageous parts of the article, for my money:
Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. commended undocumented immigrants for their "courage" in enduring the suburban hecklers on their way in. "Tell me who represents the best of America � who�s outside or who�s inside," he said.
Apparently, the Mayor prefers his fellow scofflaws, the illegal immigrants, to the real Americans who exercised their Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and express their disagreement with his actions. And notice the protesters are referred to as 'suburban hecklers.' What kind of snide putdown is that?
So it takes 'courage' to be a sneak thief and a criminal? Or does it take 'courage' to step up and get your freebies from a scofflaw, aiding-and-abetting city government? Courage is not the word that comes to my mind; brazenness comes to mind, as do phrases like unmitigated gall, shamelessness, arrogance, and nerve. But those don't mean the same as 'courage.' Courage implies a nobility of spirit, and a willingness to act heroically despite great danger, none of which are evident in any of this 'diverse' collection of individuals from victim groups.
The use of the word 'courage' implies that the illegals are somehow beset by various dangers. Dangers from whom? From mostly emasculated law enforcement officials, who have been hamstrung by PC judges and federal officials who don't want them to do their jobs? Danger from whom? Torch-carrying, pitchfork-wielding redneck citizens? Name me any attack on illegals by 'nativist' Americans. It hasn't happened. They are in danger from no one, and they know it; their brazen, in-our-face, behavior proves that. If they were afraid, and if they were in danger, illegals would not be stampeding across our borders by the thousands every day, and they would not be pelting our Border Patrol agents with stones or otherwise taunting and baiting them.
This nonsense about the poor beleaguered immigrants 'living in the shadows' is ridiculous, and whoever invented that silly cliche is as dishonest as whoever invented the laughably inaccurate phrase 'Religion of Peace.'
Mayor DeStefano is of course a Democrat, but to be fair, there are many Republicans who support open borders and illegals.
The most common factor in these attitudes seems not to be political party, but ethnicity and recent immigrant roots. And true to form, we read here:
An hour�s drive from Danbury, in New Haven, where almost a quarter of citizens are Latino, the contrast in attitudes toward the undocumented population couldn�t be more stark.
It starts at the top with Mayor John DeStefano Jr., a second generation American.
"I am all for extending the same benefits and opportunities to these folks that were extended to my grandparents," he said.
As for deputizing police to act as immigration agents, DeStefano said no such request will ever come out of New Haven.
"In the process you will collapse our economy and paint with a broad brush immigrants to this country under the guise of people�s fears about terrorism," he said.
In fact, the police are weighing a policy that would specifically prevent their involvement in immigration matters.
DeStefano�s response to these issues is visceral. Fears about anarchists at the beginning of the 20th century fed the execution of Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, he pointed out. "I don�t think it is a part of American history that we should be proud of or should repeat," he said.''
So here we have the Immigrant Grandfather/Ellis Island Syndrome. Sure, there is the occasional exception but far too often there is a correlation. And notice that DeStefano associates immigration restrictionism with the Sacco-Vanzetti case, which many Italian-Americans see as 'persecution' of Italian immigrants. Whether Sacco and Vanzetti were guilty is inconsequential to their apologists: they were poor immigrants and that makes them martyrs. The popular liberal wisdom is that they were victims of the 'Red Scare' and xenophobia.
So as the quote from Mayor DeStefano indicates, he has a 'visceral' response on the issue of immigrants. This, in my mind, disqualifies him from being a public official, because it's tantamount to saying that he has a deep-rooted bias based on his own ancestry and family history, a bias in favor of immigrants. This to me is reminiscent of the Illinois school board official who ruled in favor of admitting illegal immigrants to the school system; in an angry outburst he declared that his parents were immigrants and that he would not brook any anti-immigrant sentiment. How is this kind of naked bias allowable in a public official, who is supposed to be capable of objectivity, and to be 'disinterested' in the true dictionary definition of the word?
It appears as though objectivity and disinterestedness are simply quaint cultural artifacts of Anglo culture; it seems only those of Anglo or other European descent even acknowledge the desirability of those qualities. Everybody else seems to operate on the basis of ethnic bias or plain old resentment of traditional majority America.
And of course ethnic solidarity is intrinsic to all of us, even those of us who have learned to subordinate it to some kind of greater good. But maybe we who have tried to be objective and fair to all are being taken advantage of and suckered by all the 'new Americans' who laugh at our gullibility while they unashamedly act on behalf of their own ethnic interests.
As America becomes ever more a house divided, we will see more polarizing, and people of non-Anglo ancestry, whether they be Italian-Americans or other Ellis Island descendants, or Americans of Hispanic descent, will have to declare which side they are on. It won't be possible to stay neutral as the sides line up.
We saw that in the events in Morristown, N.J. yesterday, too.
Labels: Ellis Island Syndrome, Illegal Immigration, Mass Immigration, Rule Of Law, Sanctuary Cities
0 comment Saturday, May 31, 2014 | admin
I've often said that the best hope of this country is in the people, the real people of America.
Foehammer over at Foehammer's Anvil has a great post called Small Town USA vs. Sanctuary City, in which he reports on his recent experiences with a citizen of a liberal 'sanctuary city' and his contrasting experiences with small-town USA. The liberal 'sanctuary city' attitudes display little real knowledge of the realities of the world, while small-town Americans, contrary to the stereotype of small-town people as being insular and backward, have a much more savvy perspective, and consequently are better prepared to deal with the difficult realities facing America and the Western world. This tallies with my own observations in my experience living in both the liberal big cities and in the small-town environment. Paradoxically the small-towners are often much better informed about the wider world than the urban sophisticates.
The discussion thread following Foehammer's piece included a comment by Bill Strong, of Seymour, Indiana, who linked to his group's website
CHOICE - Coalition of Hoosiers for Order of Immigration Control and Enforcement
'Founded in 2006, "Because Americans have a CHOICE in immigration laws"
It looks like a very worthy effort and I wish that group all success; I think such citizens' groups, acting to preserve America, are a hopeful trend, one that seems to be taking hold in many places.
And the Patriot over at the People's Patriot blog writes about
One Way to Fight a Sanctuary City
The Patriot quotes an e-mail from a group called Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, which appears to be a grassroots citizens' group. The group sent a letter to the Mayor of New Haven in response to the city's plan to issue 'municipal ID cards' to illegals. This is a novel approach: invoke the RICO laws against sanctuary cities.
For Immediate Release
CTCIC Sends Warning Letter to DeStefano
CT Citizens for Immigration Control sent a warning letter to Mayor Tom DeStefano of New Haven. The letter asserts that an identification card for illegal aliens would be a criminal violation of U.S. Immigration Law by inducing illegal aliens to reside in the United States.
The letter says the mayor and city officials issuing an ID, plus any citizen or organizations accepting such an ID card, would be subject to fines and imprisonment.
In addition, the letter says that such an ID card and its acceptance would be criminal racketeering. Officials implementing an ID Card and citizens accepting it would be engaged in immigration racketeering would be subject to private law suits under RICO.
"Mayor DeStefano will be putting himself, the City Council and other New Haven residents in financial jeopardy by passing this bill," says Mr. Streitz.
"If there is one person killed or injured by an illegal alien living in New Haven by homicide or vehicular accident, the mayor, the councilmen and anyone accepting this card would be personally liable," says Mr. Streitz.
"The parents of a murdered child are not going to want to hear the Mayor�s praise of illegals," says Mr. Streitz."
Again, it is encouraging to see the signs that people around the country are organizing and acting.
From the website:
We need you, our country needs you. Without your participation, our families' future and the future of the United States and Connecticut will remain dire. Collectively, we can reverse this trend and put ourselves back on the road to making and keeping America the greatest country in the world.''
Amen to that; we all need to be reminded that there are lots of people out there who see what is happening, and who care greatly about our country and our way of life. No doubt there are good traditional Americans living in the big urban centers, but such places are often actively hostile towards traditional American culture and attitudes. Small-town and rural America is the best hope we have for salvaging our country, or what is left of it. The internet is a great advantage for us in that even those of us who might live in alienating urban environments can find a kind of cyber-community with others of like mind. So even for those who may be isolated among the liberal multicultis in a big city can reach out to other traditional and conservative Americans via the Internet. Knowing that there are more of us than we may realize is encouraging.
And for Americans to act in this fashion is in the best tradition of this country; from such citizen activism this country was made.
We can all do something, and working with other citizens wherever we are is a heartening thing.
I applaud the good people of CHOICE and CTCIC, and all others, whether as individuals or groups, are doing their part. We are all needed; there will not be a man on a white horse to save the day for us; it's up to us.
Foehammer over at Foehammer's Anvil has a great post called Small Town USA vs. Sanctuary City, in which he reports on his recent experiences with a citizen of a liberal 'sanctuary city' and his contrasting experiences with small-town USA. The liberal 'sanctuary city' attitudes display little real knowledge of the realities of the world, while small-town Americans, contrary to the stereotype of small-town people as being insular and backward, have a much more savvy perspective, and consequently are better prepared to deal with the difficult realities facing America and the Western world. This tallies with my own observations in my experience living in both the liberal big cities and in the small-town environment. Paradoxically the small-towners are often much better informed about the wider world than the urban sophisticates.
The discussion thread following Foehammer's piece included a comment by Bill Strong, of Seymour, Indiana, who linked to his group's website
CHOICE - Coalition of Hoosiers for Order of Immigration Control and Enforcement
'Founded in 2006, "Because Americans have a CHOICE in immigration laws"
It looks like a very worthy effort and I wish that group all success; I think such citizens' groups, acting to preserve America, are a hopeful trend, one that seems to be taking hold in many places.
And the Patriot over at the People's Patriot blog writes about
One Way to Fight a Sanctuary City
The Patriot quotes an e-mail from a group called Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, which appears to be a grassroots citizens' group. The group sent a letter to the Mayor of New Haven in response to the city's plan to issue 'municipal ID cards' to illegals. This is a novel approach: invoke the RICO laws against sanctuary cities.
For Immediate Release
CTCIC Sends Warning Letter to DeStefano
CT Citizens for Immigration Control sent a warning letter to Mayor Tom DeStefano of New Haven. The letter asserts that an identification card for illegal aliens would be a criminal violation of U.S. Immigration Law by inducing illegal aliens to reside in the United States.
The letter says the mayor and city officials issuing an ID, plus any citizen or organizations accepting such an ID card, would be subject to fines and imprisonment.
In addition, the letter says that such an ID card and its acceptance would be criminal racketeering. Officials implementing an ID Card and citizens accepting it would be engaged in immigration racketeering would be subject to private law suits under RICO.
"Mayor DeStefano will be putting himself, the City Council and other New Haven residents in financial jeopardy by passing this bill," says Mr. Streitz.
"If there is one person killed or injured by an illegal alien living in New Haven by homicide or vehicular accident, the mayor, the councilmen and anyone accepting this card would be personally liable," says Mr. Streitz.
"The parents of a murdered child are not going to want to hear the Mayor�s praise of illegals," says Mr. Streitz."
Again, it is encouraging to see the signs that people around the country are organizing and acting.
From the website:
We need you, our country needs you. Without your participation, our families' future and the future of the United States and Connecticut will remain dire. Collectively, we can reverse this trend and put ourselves back on the road to making and keeping America the greatest country in the world.''
Amen to that; we all need to be reminded that there are lots of people out there who see what is happening, and who care greatly about our country and our way of life. No doubt there are good traditional Americans living in the big urban centers, but such places are often actively hostile towards traditional American culture and attitudes. Small-town and rural America is the best hope we have for salvaging our country, or what is left of it. The internet is a great advantage for us in that even those of us who might live in alienating urban environments can find a kind of cyber-community with others of like mind. So even for those who may be isolated among the liberal multicultis in a big city can reach out to other traditional and conservative Americans via the Internet. Knowing that there are more of us than we may realize is encouraging.
And for Americans to act in this fashion is in the best tradition of this country; from such citizen activism this country was made.
We can all do something, and working with other citizens wherever we are is a heartening thing.
I applaud the good people of CHOICE and CTCIC, and all others, whether as individuals or groups, are doing their part. We are all needed; there will not be a man on a white horse to save the day for us; it's up to us.
Labels: American Culture, Amnesty, Illegal Immigration, Sanctuary Cities, Traditionalism