9500Liberty will present a special screening to mark the 1st anniversary of Prince William County’s Immigration Resolution.
Thursday July 10th, 7:00 PM
Casablanca Restaurant 7911 Centreville, RD, Manassas, VA
9500Liberty is cutting together an hour-long presentation featuring recent events, many of which are too politically sensitive to share on YouTube. The screening will challenge some of the misleading rhetoric that has been circulating in recent days and weeks, and will include some surprising footage that could shift Prince William County’s political landscape for the better.
We hope to see you there! Make sure to invite your friends!
“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”
Galileo
Juturna, I have lived in Manassas for 23 years and you are the FIRST who has ever mentioned Benny’s. I grew up in RI and remember that store well. I also remember thinking Ann & Hope was a HUGE department store.
I like Wal-mart because it’s cheap, and I love the United Nations feel. I don’t like what they do to PEOPLE, however, when they don’t treat them right. However, as far as enslaving people overseas and here, every corporation has been doing that….which is wrong. The whole dispute of outsourcing isn’t particular to the retail industry.
As far as 9500Liberty, they have tried to get another side of the story out since HSM took over with their cult. Nothing wrong with that. They are showing a nasty side of this debate that many people missed. Whether we like the way it is being done is personal preference. It’s like the choice we make. Which channel do we watch when we want to see news? Or do we watch many networks and make our own deductions based on what we hear and see?
Emma. I grew up around Westerly RI. Plan to retire there and shop at the Benny’s at Dunn’s Corners!!
If Wal-Mart stopped hiring people who didn’t speak fluent English (as if they could), then everyone here would have yet another tale of whoa about the poor illegals being denied their rightful (not my opinion) place in society. All the lawyers would then get on the discrimination band wagon, and the next thing you know no one at Wal-Mart will be speaking English. So maybe we shouldn’t complain too loudly…………
SA – Whoa…. no illegals speak English??!!
Okay, I went to battle with Lowe’s last year over Spanish signs in their stores. Their response to me was blah blah about embracing diversity. Then I asked them how many non-english speaking people they hired at their mid and upper management level. No response from Lowe’s. I think signs like that that enables those with limited english proficiency. It is clearly about profit.
Speaking English and encouraging that is the BEST thing for the children if they want to, as their parent hope, to have a better life than from whence they came.
It’s all in the approach SA — cram ‘justice’ down peoples throats or take a momenet think about it and educate. If they don’t want to be educated and if their purpose is not a better life, then there is a valid arguement for anger. But lets sort through it and not label or generalize. Skipping labels and generalities does curtail the nastiness as well!
Likley most of those lawyers you mention don’t have the best interests of non-English speakers at heart. Just their own reputations.
No problem. My comments were more of a response to a previous post that was complaining about the lack of customer service by those behind the counters. Point being that if the people spoke English enough to carry on a short conversation, then maybe they would and seem more customer focused instead of ignoring the customer. Further the post blamed the lack of customer appreciation on Wal-Mart instead of on the capabilities of the people they are more or less forced to hire. Hence my reference to the lawyers. Wal-Mart seems to be taking the hit for all the world’s problems, but if they destry Wal-Mart then where would all the ‘people’ shop?
I had a terrible time with a Dr’s office recently. Not smart for health care. Rethinking that practice.
You’re right. Communications is extremely important in most areas yet we don’t push for the common understood language due to PC pressures. A medicine bottle is way too small to have instructions in 12 different languages assuming that everyone in the chain understood what medicine you were to take to begin with!
Poor Richard, I’d like to see PWC’s BOCS set up an advisory committee to address immigration/neighborhood services/business community issues. I’d like to see no or limited representation from the two political parties and very limited or no representation from HSM and MWB. I’d prefer to see the clergy members who had volunteered their services, community activists/groups who have a tract record for getting things done (and no axe to grind), some businessmen/women including those from the Hispanic community. I think the affected neighborhoods should pursue forming Civic Associations or related groups to coordinate activities in their communities and to act as liasons with the BOCS and County services.
Service in general sucks – not just at WalMart but also at Macy’s. I’ll date myself and say that I can remember when department store clerks brought items to a dressing room so that the customer didn’t have to get dressed again and go find the next size. Now you’re lucky if you can find a clerk, English-speaking or not, to ring up your item.
Most patients my daughter comes into contact with in Fairfax speak so little English that it is ridiculous. Talk about a lack of assimilation. Most have been in this country for years, and yet you’d swear they just got off the plane or over the fence. (Oh, that ought to bring some comments!)
Interesting thought about prescriptions. I might ask at CVS. Speaking English in the US is positive for safety and sucess. Should be presnted that way.
SA,
I know a wife of a service member, who’s eldest sons are also now serving in Iraq, and she perfers to speak in Spanish. Is she not assimilating fast enough for your liking?
Censored bybvl, 6. July 2008, 14:24
How about going to a Shoe store where they actually would get the shoes from the stock room, measure your fit, and actually put the shoes on for you. I miss that one too. I also remember Peebles closing up at 6pm on Saturdays, and Leggett’s never being open on Sunday. I guess that dates me too. 😉
I agree on civic organizations however some places just have too many damn “Barney Fife wannabe’s” running around, and could give a rat’s ass less about really coming together as community to live with one another and be neighborly. The prefer to police the streets.
We all know that most immigrants do assimilate, but many who live in their ethnic enclaves never bother, so when outside the enclave it’s as if they’re in a different country. That is what I mean by not assimilating. They essentially remain in their former homeland surroundings, and are Americans by geographic location only for the most part. No problem, but don’t place the burden on the taxpayer to compensate for the lack of effort of those not willing to assimilate by at least learning the common language.
Alanna,
We can all point to single examples of both great and terrible behavior, but it’s the majority of like actions that are referenced in discussions. I know you would call that profiling, but how better to characterize the actions of any group? If you describe a school class as above average it doesn’t mean that there aren’t any failures or A+’s in the class, but it’s the only way to judge.
Ah, Juturna. I’m a Cranston girl. You’ve got me thinking about Del’s lemonade, clamcakes, doughboys, Garzilli’s bread, Mignanelli’s fresh pizza dough, Wright’s Farm chicken…sigh.
Alanna, no one is denying anyone’s right to choose to speak their native language. But in dealing with an English-speaking public in the U.S. and providing customer service, you need to be able to somehow communicate, even if your vocabulary in that language is lmited. Many of these workers have taken the path of least resistance by simply ignorning the customer and avoiding any meaningful interaction, which is an insult to most people when they are handing over their money. It happens a lot, and I have heard many other people complain about it, too.
Chris, I remember those hours also. I remember Sears in Landmark not opening – in honor of the Blue Laws and Sunday. Bwahaha!!!
I know what you mean by Barney Fife wannabes. Our neighborhood had a board that stole the records of the association and never gave them back. They also didn’t keep good financial records. The board that inherited that mess deserves accolades for straightening out that fiasco as much as possible. I could tell some tales about goings-on in our ‘hood.
SA, some adults are more comfortable living among their own culture. It’s not easy learning another language as an adult. I haven’t learned one since college. Have you? I learn a smattering if I’m travelling but that’s it. You have only to look at our own military members…some folks prefer to live on base and others prefer to live on the local economy.
Is it assimilation or expectation? Choosing to only speak a language other than English is fine. If there is an expectation from others then that decision is problematic.
On the otherhand I expect to understand someone reading a message from a nurse about my prescription. The burden is not on me to figure it out.
Juturna, it’s gotten so having a prescription filled is a crapshoot with poor language skills being just one more way of making an error. I settled for nearly $2000 with a local pharmacy because of a mathematical error they made in my pet’s prescription. At least in my case, my vet filed an incident report with the pharmacy after I discovered the error and had spent nearly $2000. My sister, a nurse, was given someone’s heart medicine by mistake. Luckily she noticed immediately what had happened.
Just had Del’s last week at Dusty’s. Some great clam fritters and steamers. Going back in a few weeks just in time for St Anne festivals. Different world…..
Agree. Limited english proficiency is a safety issue for all in many arenas. So is stupidity (SA I know I am generalizing) which is on the rise amongst many legal residents as well!!
Bottom line speaking english with your children will enhance their opportunities in the schools. And I thought this was what it was all about.
I rarely frequent a WalMart, but I frequent stores such as BestBuy at Pentagon City where the overwhelming majority of employees are American and often run the long gamut from totally unhelpful to surly. I can think of lots of other stores with unhelpful native English speakers as well. It’s so prevalent that it makes pleasant people a pleasant surprise, and I’ve found those types among all levels of English speakers. I think it’s also what you bring to the encounter. My experience is that things are wildly less tense in Arlington and DC. And yes, I encounter people every day (on the Metro bus, in my apartment complex, on the street, etc.) who I might have reason to think are not in the country legally. I have had chats with people in a muddle of English and other languages and they’ve been friendly. But then I am not looking daggers at them to begin with. There’s no preemptive visual or attitudinal strike. It’s not an ethnic war zone.
Speaking any language with your children–other than their native tongue- will enhance opportunities for them in many ways, but this is still a majority-English-speaking country, and we need to be able to talk to one another for many reasons. And my mail-order pharmacy has enough trouble sending us the right strength medications with everything in English. These days, you almost have to be a medical professional to be able to ensure your own safety with prescriptions.
I grew up with St. Mary’s Feast–“The Feast”–as we called it–that was in late July. My grandparents lived right next door to the festivities, and it was almost more important than Christmas to us. Have a some steamers for me, Juturna. I probably won’t get up there until Columbus Day weekend.
On to the last of the holiday weekend parties. Talk to y’all later.
Rod2155, thanks for sharing your family history and I will look for your hat on Thursday. Since you are a film buff, can you come up with some more titles for the Help Save Manassas Film Festival? “Jesus Camp” tops my list too. I would also include “The Wave” and “Birth of a Nation.” And for some reason Gospel Greg reminds me of a character from Exorcist 3. He was very scary but I wished he wasn’t in it because I liked the original actor Jason Miller, and he just morphed into this other guy with eyes like Gospel Greg.
but before I go…
Leila, most definitely service basically stinks compared to years ago, and surliness cuts across the board. But I approach people with a smile and a positive attitude, then I feel like an idiot at the end of the transaction when I am the one saying “thank you” as they are handing me my change. I’m not looking for a fight or expecting the worst. I just like a little courtesy, at minimum a “thank you” as I am handing over my cash, not to be ignored and then hear the cashier greeting the Spanish-speaker behind me after he/she behaved like a pillar of salt with me.
Estoy tan cansado de escucharles banando en lagrimas sobre el idioma espanol. Que pena que un idioma tan hermoso les da tanto miedo. Creo que si los inmigrantes contribuyan un cambio a la cultura de nuestro pais, lo mejor cambio que podrian contribuir sera convertir nuestro pais a un pais bilingue. Como podrian desear negar tanta riqueza a sus hijos…sera que algun dia en el pasado ustedes olvidaron que el corazon es mas que un musculo…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvgG59mk-hA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdOCdz08SeQ&feature=related
Previous generations of working-class immigrants (Ellis Island) were exactly the same. It was their *children* who mastered the new language quickly. And even though they all tended to be legal immigrants, they were damned by the nativists in exactly the same way.
It’s routine for me to see tiny kids “code-switching” between English and Spanish (or other languages). Their mothers speak to them in Spanish, they answer back in English or a mixture, and use English among themselves, playing. I would agree that English proficiency is very important, including for native speakers. I kind of marvel at English firsters who seem not to notice how they abuse the language.
Emma, good point. I mean the pillar of salt reference. The clerk’s job is to be friendly to all or at least not unfriendly. I hope you enjoy your party!
There is no less helpful store in Manassas than Home Depot. I have been ignored and treated rudely there so many times I have sworn never to darken its doors again. Every last rude person there has been white. (and generally male) I have noticed men customers aren’t treated quite as rudely as women. Lowes runs a close second except the women employees are generally very nice to the women customers. The old codgers there don’t even look at women unless they are with men.
Having said that. I do hate walmart. I would rather be beaten unmercifully than go there. I have been once in 2 years and that was because I was seduced by a plant sale and didn’t have to go into the actual store. No employee has been rude to me but the many of customers are just gross and allow their children to run you down. Customers there often just make messes every where they go….throwing merchandise hither, thither and yon.
English: you know, I don’t care what language people speak. I don’t mind pushing 1 for English. I don’t mind signs in languages other than English, as long as English is up there too. What I do mind is service people, whose job it is to communicate, who cannot speak functional English so they can be understood. Accented is fine. No problem. There are places in this county that I go where i am sure I sound accented.
I do not want to get a person at a front desk who cannot speak English or have someone answer the phone who cannot speak English. I don’t blame the person who cannot speak functional English. I blame the idiot employer who should know better.
Juturna and Emma, I bet you both eat clams with bellies! Nassss-ty!
“can you come up with some more titles for the Help Save Manassas Film Festival?”
========
After the kiddies go to bed, they may want to screen “American History X”
“Der ewige Jude” is a wee bit hard core and obviously hard to find in English, though I hear the National Alliance Press has English translations of all the 30’s Reich Classics and I bet there are a few who would find inspiration in it. (they forced us to watch that terrible film in a propaganda film studies class, followed by “triumph of the will” then footage of the Bukenvald liberation by the Red Army…that was one disturbing night)
Actually I have a copy of “Olympia” by Riefenstal, though it has it’s ayran moments, it’s actually a pretty good film, especially when Jesse Owens of the USA serves it to the Nazis on the track, wins gold and gets to shake der fuhrers hand. Hitler said it was like “Shaking the hand of an animal…”
Maybe they should screen that Disney Alamo movie that came out recently…
“I bet there are a few who would find inspiration in it.” a few in HSM, and only a slight few, NOBODY should EVER find inspiration in THAT film!!!
Leila, is that abuse or butcher?
I agree with all you have said. Is your job giving you a break this weekend?
Emma, I’ve encountered the same rudeness. I just try to stick to the higher ground and continue with the “thank you’s”. DH says,”Thank you too” to the surly clerks…just as a reminder.
WHWN, “For the Bible Tells Me So” is a good look at religion and homosexuality.
It’s funny how the Help Save Manassas bloggers all know that the lies they’ve been told are true. This is, of course, after they’ve had time to memorize them (without critical thought of course). I’m thinking specifically of SecondAlamo (who is really Tom Kopko former PWC Republican party chair and helped found Help Save Manassas, fingering Gospel Greg as his point man because he was good with “data”). He is always so proud to come on here and say that lies are true, but how does he really know. Does he look into the “facts” that the GregNCorey Show spews onto the internet? No. He accepts them at face value.
There’s a simple reason for this. He believes that anti-immigrant hysteria is good for his party. Let’s thing things through, partisans, because the promise has turned out not to be true. You got a Stirrup and Stewart elected. They would have won anyway. Anyone else who has run on the anti-immigrant ticket has lost, from Virginia local all the way up to the GOP primary. So why do you keep pretending lies are true? What does it gain you at this point? Cut your losses, and find another issue. My suggestion: more war in Iraq.
Rod2155, is there REALLY a Disney Alamo movie? How does it differ from our friend Tom Kopko and his Gospel Greg apologist postings here? Do I smell a new nickname? Depends on the content of Disney Alamo. Do tell Rod2155.
Censoredbybvbl, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check that out. Also, I think we should expand the agenda of the Hate Bunny Reform Party. 1) more war in Iraq. 2) pass another law defining marriage. Of course, gay marriage is already banned in Virginia, but that didn’t stop you from organizing around the the Hate Amendment, er Marriage Amendment, in 2006. It was the Virginia GOP’s full-proof plan to ensure George Allen was successful in his reelection / Presidential tune-up. Woops. Never mind.
Hapless, mindless partisans who followed Tom Kopko and Gospel Greg to anti-immigrant hysteria humiliation: forget about gay thing. Here’s a better idea: we haven’t had an anti-communist hysteria outbreak in 50 years or so. Have you heard Lou Dobb’s say “Red China” lately? I have! Time to get angry and afraid and write some emails! Tell your Board of Supervisors you want politics checks on everyone who looks Chinese!
But lay off the anti-immigrant juice. You guys are sounding desperate (and rightly so because it just isn’t working) and I’m starting to feel embarrassed for you. Rally against something new why don’t you, or better yet, rally FOR something. It couldn’t hurt.
Here’s a documentary that the Hate Bunnies will probably like since its full of their talking points:
“Border War: The Battle Over Illegal Immigration”
And here’s another one on immigration that was banned from mention at BVBL – Lois Malle’s “And the Pursuit of Happiness”
Not Lois, but Louis. Duh.
WHWN,
LOL, man you are so entertaining. You’re the reason I keep coming back. When I read your posts I sometimes get the feeling that somewhere there’s a carnival running itself! All you do is slander people. Is that what it takes for you to feel better about yourself? Kop who? Don’t know the person, but I feel I may owe him an apology on your behalf. Say, how come you know all of those movie titles so well? You must have quite of a collection. Probably viewed each one multiple times I’d say. Hmmmmmmmm……………….
SA, you’re so frequently full of assumptions. There’s a thing called Netflix out there and it has a huge supply of movies. And you can search by topic!!!! Since our county has been inundated by talk about “immigration” in the past year, I found it interesting to see what had been produced on that topic. But I also watch foreign films, indies, travelogues, comedy, action, drama… I’m afraid I’m not good about remembering titles though. It comes from having watched thousands of films in my lifetime. Then there’s this tubey thing called the internet. It has search engines that can locate the films I want it to locate.
“I’d like to see PWC’s BOCS set up an advisory committee to address immigration/neighborhood services/business community issues.”
Write and ask your Supervisor for one. I did.
BTW, everyone I have had to speak with at Wal-mart speaks English, so I’m not sure with whom some of you are speaking.
And it’s pretty tough to teach people English when the County Supervisor Chair is bragging about chasing away ESOL students. Doesn’t exactly encourage people to go to class. Perhaps you should write to Stewart next time you get someone who hasn’t learned to speak English. Never mind. He’ll just tell you they must be illegal and they need to leave.
Uh… I never saw the Disney Alamo movie mostly because of the “Disney” part. Their take on “Pearl Harbor” was bad enough to keep me from seeing their live action flicks.
They used to be good though…”Never Cry Wolf” was a Disney film!
but you can check out the trailer for yourself…
http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/the_alamo/trailer/
Hooray for wasted American Martyrdom! “Forget the Alamo!”
Rod, what was Disney’s take on Pearl Harbor that you found so bad? Were we mistreating the Japanese actions? It wasn’t PC enough? Just curious.
Censor @17:33,
Just paybacks to WHWN for his personal attack. Don’t take it too serious.
MoonH, It is “butcher” as you suggest, but I was trying to be nice. What is a clam with a belly? Forgive my shellfish ignorance. I have eaten mussels and clams twice recently despite the lack of an R in the month. Unwise?
Actually, I’m only online intermittently because today I’ve made time with the blogs, news sites, and aimless surfing to be my periodic reward.
You are absolutely right about Home Depot. I think women get similar treatment in Best Buy among the electronics for exactly the same reason.
Leila
We, New Englanders, refer to them as whole clams. MH is grossed out by them and loves to say eeuuuuwwwww….
Sadly to say, she is very limited in her clam exposure as she was raised somewhere buried in Virginia along Rt. 81 eating barbeque, which I always was a verb.
Not her fault… sigh. 🙂
My chance to tease her, she is incommunicado at the moment.
which I always THOUGHT was a verb.
Juturna,
This Virginia girl just had BBQ chicken. However, the thought of whole clams sounds great. I was blessed enough to have a babysitter that was from CT, and I was raised eating whole clams and oysters too.
MH,
Grossed out yet? 🙂
Moon-howler:
I’ve had a really weird experience at at the Lowes on Prince William Parkway. In the tools section, there worked a man about 6 foot, 50+ years old, thin, balding, with thick glasses who looked at me and treated me with an unbelievable amount of hostility without any reason whatsoever the few times I asked him for help. The depth of his hatred was scary. I have no idea what his problem was. I have thought that perhaps he was a racist but who knows. What an idiot.
I did not know it was common for women to be given a cold shoulder in the home improvement stores. It’s very bad policy for the store to tolerate this. Maybe the manager is unaware. Have you considered writing them a letter? Tell them you are going to tell all your friends to stop shopping at home depot. That should get their attention.