By Sarah Viets
7-10-2008
Boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives sometimes lie to each other. They say they’re faithful and would never dream of cheating, but that’s not always the case. Instead of being honest, they lie and say, “No, I didn’t, I couldn’t, you mean too much to me, and there’s nothing I’d ever do to jeopardize what we have together.” But then again, sometimes it’s easier to believe a lie rather than dig for the truth. I know I’ll never forget the day an old boyfriend lied to my face, and boy did I feel like a fool.
Kinda like Numbers USA, a national anti-immigrant rights organization. The organization says they want to improve “community quality of life,” they say they’re fighting to increase my weekly pay, but do they?
Just like people believe their loved one’s sweet lies, NumbersUSA’s mission makes sense, but only on the surface.
NumbersUSA’s website says they aim to “reach for these honorable goals of economic justice, community quality of life and environmental sustainability.” Even more, Roy Beck, NumbersUSA’s executive director, says he’s fighting for “working people,” like janitors, housecleaners, and motel maids, and knows how hard it is to raise a family on less than $30,000 a year. And he blames weak immigration laws for low paying jobs.
But why does Beck target flimsy immigration rules for thin wallets, high medical bills, and hamburger-helper dinners, and does he have an alternative motive?
What type of organization is NumbersUSA and who’s the guy in charge?
In the 1990s, Roy Beck attended and spoke at the Council of Conservative Citizen’s (CofCC) annual conference. And for those unfamiliar with CofCC, the organization use to call themselves the White Citizens’ Council when it was socially acceptable to wear white-hooded sheets over your head and demand racial segregation.
In the 1980’s, Beck’s good friend John Tanton (founder of Federation for American Immigration Reform, FAIR) asked and received over a million dollars from the Pioneer Fund. Tanton used the money to financially support FAIR and create more anti-immigrant organizations, like NumbersUSA.
But the Pioneer Fund isn’t your average national foundation fighting world hunger. The Pioneer Fund gives money to scientists who study racial IQ differences. To put it another way, they help researchers prove that white people are biologically superior to African Americans to explain black crime and high poverty rates in African American communities.
(After working in a non-profit organization, I’ve learned that foundations only give money to those who support their mission. In other words, NumbersUSA’s goals match the Pioneer Fund’s mission.)
Currently, NumbersUSA is looking for community leaders - like business owners, social workers, CEOs, politicians, or anyone who works for an environmental, civil rights, or religious organization - to build relationships with local newspapers. Roy Beck wants reporters and editors to print NumbersUSA’s mission on the front page of every newspaper, and he needs journalists to trust NumbersUSA activists so newspapers publish his personal agenda.
So far, the organization has received over 500 emails from interested applicants and will fly over a dozen qualified supporters (who can donate 4 hours a week and commit 1 year) to their first two-day training conference on July 24-25, 2008 in Washington DC. But infiltrating 12-24 local newspapers in towns across America isn’t enough. NumbersUSA will hold another training session this September.
But just like loved ones say they’d never cheat, NumbersUSA says weak immigration laws are responsible for America’s financial crises. Why? Since its no longer socially acceptable to argue for racial segregation, anti-immigrant organizations, like NumbersUSA use immigration as a way to racially divide American families. They use the immigration debate as a way to hide how they really feel about dark-skinned immigrants.
And as an avid reader of my local paper, all I have to say is this:
NumbersUSA - don’t lie to me.
You bet I’m upset that two of my closet friends had to declare bankruptcy or why I can’t find a job. You bet I want answers. But you can’t spoon-feed me your knee-jerk response. I know the answer is more complicated than you claim, so don’t use me for your own personal interests. I’m not a fool.
I may be from a small hick town where I learned how to drive on dirt roads, but I’m not stupid. So don’t insult my intelligence.
NumbersUSA, Don't Treat Me like a Fool
Our Anti-American Supreme Court
By Jill
7-9-2008
Last week the Supreme Court overturned a Washington D.C. ban on handguns, effectively removing most of the District's gun restrictions. This ruling, unfortunately, leaves the door wide open for the National Rifle Association to challenge similar laws around the country. They've already sued to overturn handgun bans in other cities, such as Chicago, based on the Supreme Court's ruling.
The National Rifle Association has such a fanatical obsession with demolishing handgun bans, I'm curious to know more about their connection to the issue. Maybe their membership could shed some light on the subject, like, for example what is the race, gender , and age of their card-carrying members? Or if it's easier to compile, non-white men under forty? The NRA conveniently doesn't collect demographic information on their membership. If they did we might be able to compare the NRA's demographics to that of the people who are actual victims of handguns.
After all, in 2005 African-Americans were 49% of our country's murder victims, yet they made up only 13% of the population. A majority of them were 17-29 years of age, and 93% of them were killed by other African-Americans (a similar percentage of white murder victims were killed by other whites in case you're wondering).
Let's go out on a limb and assume very few of the NRA's members are African-American and between the ages of 17-29. So if they aren't going to jail for gun violence and they aren't on the receiving end of gun violence, shouldn't they be the least vocal group on handgun restrictions? And yet the NRA is one of Washington's most powerful lobbying groups in favor of handguns, and more troubling, their leadership has a long history of racist statements, read more about that here.
A few years ago I had a heated argument over handgun restrictions with a friend that ruined a dinner party. As our companions looked on in dismay, we loaded all our moral, constitutional, and logical ammunition either in favor or against handgun bans and shot them across the table. Luckily for all the suffering bystanders, my friend made a fatal mistake by citing a section of the popular book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dunbar that describes how backyard swimming pools kill far more children in the U.S. than firearms. It's a common statistical gem that gun advocates like to use. It states that 550 children under the age of 10 drown in swimming pools each year and 175 children under 10 die from gunshots. Swimming pools are obviously a greater danger to children, but the book fails to mention that children under 10-yrs-old are not the at-risk population when it comes to handguns, it's actually suicidal individuals over the age of 13.
Between 1990-1997 there were 147,000 suicides using firearms; 90,000 of these suicides were performed with a handgun.
I told my friend I would wholeheartedly support laws to regulate swimming pools, but first I would appreciate him citing ALL the information on handguns from his source, specifically the section (pp. 118-122) that says handguns undoubtedly contribute to our countries high homicide rates (2/3 of which are committed with handguns), and laws permitting citizens to carry firearms in self-defense are ineffective crime-stoppers.
As much as I love the idea of little old ladies defending themselves with pistols under their pillows the truth is in 1997 only 2.3% of handgun homicides were considered justifiable or 193 out of 8,503.
Despite the ruined dinner party, I left with the smug satisfaction that I had won the argument, but in retrospect neither my friend nor I were saying the right things. He should have argued that bans on handguns aren't effective because the black-market for firearms is so strong we now have over 200 million guns in the United States, and you can ban all you like but those 200 million have a long shelf life.
And I should have responded that we can debate statistics all we like, but highlighting racist factors or morbid death rates won't save lives, and handgun bans probably won't either, but at least they're a step in the right direction.
Regardless of all the talk about constitutional rights and civil liberties, the simple truth is that guns are designed, manufactured, sold, and used to efficiently kill people, nothing else. The gun industry is just another big business that benefits from the death and destruction of American lives, and anyone who helps the gun industry or gives in to the NRA is just plain unAmerican in my book.
Smell Something Burning? It’s Probably Arizona
By Eric K. Ward
7-8-2008
Did you ever play the “If I had lived during [insert appropriate historic period here] I would have . . .” game? Back when I was a kid my friends and I would sit in a tight circle often with popsicles juice running down our fingers while we discussed how each of us would have reacted to the Great Chicago Fire, escaped the Titanic, survived in the Land of the Lost, or ran bootleg rum from Canada, though I’m sure we didn’t even know what rum was.
As we grew older the game changed and took on even more significance. It was no longer made up of fantasies of how I would have invested in Disney and made it rich. Instead, I thought about how I might imagine myself reacting to important moments in U.S. history. Actually it was just one moment that fascinated me, the one called the Civil Rights Movement. “Would I have been able to keep my cool desegregating a lunch counter?” “Could I have worked up the courage and registered to vote knowing that I might get a visit from the Klan that evening?” Would I have left the comfortable confines of college to spend my summer in a place that very well might cost me my life?”
Of course I was always full of bravado about what I “would have done” if given the chance, but I made these boasts from the comfort of the present - a nice place to explore “what if?” and “what may?” I don’t think I’m alone in this and I still think many still wonder what they might have done had they been in places called Selma, Montgomery, Jackson and Boston.
In Arizona, like the tattered pages of an old paperback, the wondering is long over. With over 181 bodies recovered in the deserts in 2007, fifty five pieces of anti-immigrant legislation to be submitted in 2008, and a local Sheriff who resembles Bull Connor (a southern police officer and KKK member in the 1960's) more than Wyatt Earp, Arizona is becoming to immigrants rights, what Mississippi was to the 1960s civil rights movement—a defining moment in which each of us will be called to either embrace inhumanity or redeem the soul of America.
While I still wonder what I might do, others are acting. From day laborers in Phoenix, Arizona, who face down the Sherriff and his posse because they know that work is not a crime, to community members in Flagstaff, Arizona who were detained last weekend for “disturbing the peace” because they dared to honor the very meaning of the 4th of July by joining the annual 4th of July parade.
Kaitlyn Fahrenbruch a spokesperson with The Coalition to Repeal took part in the 4th of July Parade with seven others to deliver a declaration of their own (click to watch video). “Our goal is the repeal all anti-immigrant laws; federal, state and local,” says Fahrenbruch “We were marching in the defense of freedom for all people to live, love, and work anywhere they please” she said. Is the message extreme? Maybe it seems extreme to me, but then I remember English King George didn’t take it very well when he was told a similar message about us celebrating American Independence each year on the 4th of July.
Beyond the debate on the economic pros and cons of immigration, I think The Coalition to Repeal has realized something that I had forgotten. That hundreds of people dying in the desert each year is extreme, children coming home to empty kitchens where parents have disappeared is extreme, beings jailed for seeking work is extreme. Asking that each individual in our society be treated with basic human decency is not—it is as American as apple pie. It’s what we have been seeking since 1776.
What would I have done had I lived in the 1960s? I guess I don’t have to wonder anymore. Arizona, here I come!
Isolation Bad, Globalization Good
By Sarah Viets
7-7-2008
I don't think isolationism should influence American foreign policy and here's why:
The rise of isolationist foreign policies is in response to globalization. And Why?
When our American economy competes globally, so does our individual income. In result, how much we make per hour or each year competes with the standard amount of money people make in various countries.
So, if we can agree our cost of living is higher than developing countries, than we can also agree the amount of money we make is also higher.
Therefore, if we compete within global markets, our individual wages and economic standards of living will decline.
So, is this a good thing?
No and Yes
For instance, we're all aware we are the richest nation in the world. But, where’s the source of our wealth?
If we want to increase the wealth and standards of living for other countries, if we want to make sure everybody has access to basic human needs, that each mother and father has enough food to feed their family, we must realize our standards are too high and perpetuate global poverty.
And Why?
Everybody knows there are only so many pieces in a pie. If you take more than your share, somebody will always get shortchanged.
At the same time, even though you can’t compare American hard times to African, Indian, or Cambodian hardships, doesn’t mean the concerns of Americans aren’t valid.
So we can respond to foreign competition in 2 ways:
1-Cut of all ties to save our own neck. With that said, we all know problems never really go away, no matter how much we ignore them. They merely present themselves in different ways.
or
2-Engage in foreign competition. Why? Because we know companies are most interested in finding cheap prices for labor. In other words, the lowest wages. For example, why else do you think our clothes are made in China, Korea, Cambodia, Mexico, etc.
While it's easier to blame Koreans, Mexicans, or Ecuadorians, who work for old American based companies, aren't they simply doing what you do every morning? Just like you, they get up every morning, kiss their loved ones good-bye, and head out to work to feed and clothe their family.
But, if you prefer to stay in a bidding war against foreign competition, aren't you also saying you deserve a job more than somebody else? If so, you're also saying, you have more of a right to feed your family than the person standing next to you.
So, we can either pretend their desire will vanish, or we can wake up and realize globalization is here to stay.
What do they say? In order to change something, you must first acknowledge what already exists...
Marry on the Mountain: July 4th
By Nicole Hallengrogg
7-6-2008
Traveling through southwest Montana on the 4th of July, my daughters and I are always amazed by the impressive 50 foot Virgin Mary that overlooks the city of Butte Montana which is, by the way, mere miles from the continental divide. I began to think about what symbols like the Virgin Mary mean to people and the relationship between religion and country.
Marry on the Mountain
July 4th
I, Mary on the Mountain
Stone symbol of humanity’s plea
Mother of compassion
Strength
And dignity.
Oh magnificent evening!
Brother of mine
I overlook this valley,
Let the people
Here rejoice.
You stand among
The people
Giving them a voice.
Once son,
Now brother,
Now friend.
Let us
Join now here together
So You and I
Be free.
Fried Chicken, Fireworks, & the Fourth of July
By Jill
7-4-2008
I'm a bad American. There's a lot of reasons, but I'll just mention a few of the obvious ones. I don't like meat - hot dogs, baloney, cold cuts, big macs, meat loaf, cheese steak - hate 'em all. In fact, I'm a vegetarian. The sizing system at Starbucks? Still haven't figured it out (I know, pretty pathetic). I haven't owned a TV in five years - haven't seen one episode of the Sopranos or Lost...in my entire life. Birthday cake grosses me out, mostly the frosting part. I don't have a car, an ipod or a myspace page. I can't even remember the words to the Pledge of Allegiance! So, yeah, I'm a crappy American.
Here it is though, I have a confession. My favorite holiday is the fourth of July. And the reason it's my favorite is because of fried chicken. Sounds strange I know, but let me explain. My family used to have a fried chicken picnic every July 4th; always the same spot on a grassy hill overlooking the harbor near our house. But wait, it gets better.
Earlier in the day we would attend, or sometimes host our neighborhood's famous backyard pancake breakfast. The hosts made the pancakes, and everyone brought another dish, usually bacon (I swear you've never seen so many plates of bacon!). Afterwards we would go to the town fair - jump in the moonwalk until we were sick, have our faces painted, get soaked in the water balloon toss, and maybe take a whirl on the miniature ponies. Depending on the leniency of my mom that particular year my brother and I may have even split a funnel cake or a root beer float. Regardless, by late afternoon, our minds inevitably turned to fried chicken. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, coleslaw and from-the-box brownies to be exact.
The whole neighborhood would bring their picnics down to the harbor and after eating we'd all cram onto sailboats to watch the fireworks. The dinghies would buzz back and forth, frantically trying to get everyone out in time. One year, too many people jumped onto a dinghy and it capsized. Everyone was still talking about it the following year (it was a big to-do) and from then on the dinghy drivers were allowed to yell at people who got out of hand.
The best spot on a boat was the front deck where you could stretch out on your back and look straight up to the sky. It felt like those colorful flames were going to rain right down on top of you. I still remember all the names my brother and I made up for the fireworks - the weeping willows, the crackleys and whistlers - and that thrill when one of them shot up so high it seemed to disappear and then BOOM! It was suddenly a hundred shooting stars.
After the show we'd head back to shore, and with the smoldering coals of the BBQ pits we'd roast marshmallows until they were gooey and burnt. Then we'd light our sparklers and run all the way home, slaying stormtroopers with our light sabers...er, sparklers, all the way. Every year I'd get the same sad feeling as soon as I arrived at our back gate. I'd see the dark empty house, the fireflies silently flickering in the yard and I'd realize that Fourth of July was over. I'd have to wait an eternity (364 days) to do it again.
I still get that feeling now, no matter what I do or who I'm with, I get a little sad when it's all over. It's goes against all my sensibilities to love the 4th of July. Funny enough I love it not in spite of the grossly American activities (junk food, consumerism & pyrotechnics), but specifically because of all those things. I truly love it because its a sticky, excessive, loud, flag-waving, fat mess! Oh and all that freedom stuff? That's part of it too.
Our National Pastime
By Joel Ebert
This weekend the citizens of this fair land will see three large events simultaneously occur. Of course the most obvious is the opening weekend of a new Will Smith motion picture (Hancock) – an event which coincidentally coincides with the celebration of Independence Day (and not the 1996 film also starring Mr. Smith). While big Willie has shown dominance on the American holiday (in terms of the film industry) for the past six years, an even greater dominance on the holiday has been seen by an organized sport called baseball.
With its roots tracing back to the late 1800s, baseball has often been referred to as a national pastime. While baseball may not be as old as our great nation, it certainly has held its own throughout the years. Baseball on July 4 has provided us with some of the most memorable moments in major league baseball history.
In 1881, there were two complete games (9 full innings) thrown by one pitcher. In 1900, roughly 1,000 fans celebrated their Independence by firing pistols into the air at a game in Chicago. On July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig, “the luckiest man on the face of the earth” made his farewell speech. In 1980, Nolan Ryan became the 4th pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 strike-outs (today there are still only 16 pitchers who have done so). And in 1985, after a 6 hour and 10 minute game between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves (which lasted until 4 a.m.), the 1,000 fans that remained were treated to a pre-dawn fireworks display that frightened local neighbors.
This year, I am especially looking forward to the long weekend because of a historical match up between two epic rivals: the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. There seems to be a perfect brew for this to be a great series: the Cubs and the Cardinals have the two best records in the National League; an ace returning from his recent stint on the disabled list (Carlos Zambrano); and a pretty even match up (what with the Cardinals’ less than dominating home record along with the Cubs’ below par road record).
If you are unfamiliar with this rivalry, I can’t think of a better time to start watching. There are many things that Americans will do this weekend to celebrate Independence Day, but I urge you to make time to fit in an inning, a game, or the entire series. And if these teams are not for you at least check out a different form of a game of baseball (whether its professional or not). It’s as American as fireworks, barbeques and Will Smith.
