Maybe there is a part of me, still, that hopes Corey will also experience such an epiphany as Robb Pearson. What was clear to me, was that Robb Pearson expressed the feeling that he wasn’t he even sure how he had been caught up in this anti immigrant frenzy initially. Anti Defamation League and others, have said consistently said, that people’s concerns about immigration are being exploited by hate groups, and somehow, their message of prejudice is becoming mainstream. That is what troubles me the most about this issue, that good people are being misled, without even knowing that the words and messages they are using can easily be found on any hate group website.
(p.s. thanks casual observer for the link!)
Robb Pearson, who previously endorsed Cresitello’s call to deputize local police for federal immigration enforcement, said he underwent a personal evolution after a “rapid financial decline” and other hardships led him to relocate to Muhlenberg, Pa.
“If I had the mindset as I have now, I never would have had the rally,” Pearson said. He explained that his own challenges had given him greater empathy.
“I was caught up in the ultraconservative fervor that surrounds the illegal immigration camp,” Pearson said.
“I think we should let them stay,” Pearson added of those in the United States illegally.
Pearson’s July 28 rally near town hall drew hundreds of people, including a counter-protest in support of all immigrants.
Cresitello, who accepted an invitation from Pearson to speak, was jeered by counter-protesters and responded by deriding them as communists and Marxists.
Shortly afterward, Pearson wrote a letter to the Daily Record thanking Cresitello and vowing to press on against illegal immigration.
“I thank Mayor Donald Cresitello for his boldness in standing up against illegal immigration and in seeking to uphold the American rule of law,” Pearson wrote at the time. “I give you a promise: This is only the beginning.”
Pearson said he now believes that “prejudice or political expediency” motivates politicians — including Cresitello — to speak out against illegal immigration.
“They’re not really about solutions. They’re about building rifts. I was part of that, unwittingly or otherwise,” Pearson said.
http://dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/COMMUNITIES34/807160442&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
A good song about debate and hypocrisy 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DamvSHZKsYo
TWINDAD and Censored by, I also read the shorter Michael’s democracy rhapsodies, and I had the same thought as TWINDAD. His argument will be our argument after the election when Comprehensive Immigration Reform in enacted. The lawless ones will be the people going down with the ship (see WHWN above), who couldn’t let go of the power they enjoyed during the Anti-Immigrant Lobby’s run. So, as far as Michael is concerned, we can just wait until our immigration laws are fixed and call him one of the sane ones.
And then there’s Emma. I don’t know how quite to explain how prejudice works to someone like Emma. Can anyone help me? It’s not prejudice to mention prejudice. It’s certainly not prejudice to point out that those who suffer from homophobia are often closeted gays, or heterosexuals with gay tendencies. Someone, I think maybe WHWN made a joke that was not necessary. But as he said, it’s only funny because we’re talking about a Gospel Greg who is a self-declared homophobe.
But that think you pulled with the Pearson guy. You can’t explain how a Caucasian person could see this issue with a clear set of eyes, so you come up with an accusation that he had sex with a Hispanic and somehow got contaminated? That’s truly frightening Emma. Right out of the eugenics movement. Yucky.
Very creative, NGL, but very wrong.
And one final quote to leave you with this evening, WHWN and others:
“The name-calling technique links a person, or idea, to a negative symbol. The propagandist who uses this technique hopes that the audience will reject the person or the idea on the basis of the negative symbol, instead of looking at the available evidence.”
hispanics=illegals
illegals=criminals
criminals=hispanics
hispanics=anchor babies
anchor babies=parasites
parasites=nonhumans
Yes, Emma, I couldn’t agree with you more, name calling that links to a negative symbol will create the paradigm to reject that person based on the association with the negative symbol, not the content of the person
Emma, when will you learn to stick to your Anti-Immigrant talking points? You try to quote something you think is bright and look what happens: you get schooled again.
Emma, my God, Emma. If you didn’t anticipate the fall-on-the-floor hilarious irony of you, a Greg Letiecq apologist, quoting some pedestrian definition of propaganda on the very same thread on which you laid bare your racism for all to see … If you didn’t anticipate the ridicule you would receive for implying that it is we, and not your beloved Anti-Immigrant Lobby, who generate negativity and hate as an antidote to simple facts and best practices studies … then I must ask the question of whether it is too cruel for the sentient adults on this blog to toy with you.
Evidence. We bury you with evidence time and time again. This thread began with a news article that corroborates exactly what we’ve learned the hard way in PWC. That the Anti-Immigrant Lobby’s agenda does not benefit anyone at the local level, no one. Not even those who initially thrive on the hate and hysteria it generates. That’s evidence. Hard evidence. But your only response is to dismiss the evidence by attacking the messengers. You pick through this thread trying to find something over which to feign outrage and indignation. Then, when reminded of the evidence at the top of this thread, you attack the man who had a change of heart by accusing him of “sex with a Hispanic?!!!”
And you complain about “names?” What sort of names? You don’t like “Anti-Immigrant Lobby?” Of course you don’t. It’s accurate and it’s effective. The phrase derives from our realization that there is a lobbying firm in Washington D.C. called the Federation for American Immigration Reform (F.A.I.R.) that coordinates your talking points, your legislative initiatives, your “grassroots” tactics, and your media campaigns. F.A.I.R. was founded by white supremacists, is listed as a Hate Group, and does not disguise or apologize for its Anti-Immigrant stance. Thus, the term “Anti-Immigrant Lobby” is simply an abbreviation for a network of activists defined by these undisputed facts. Considering the damage the Anti-Immigrant Lobby has done to our county’s economy, its tax base, its public safety, its schools, its public services, its housing market, its social climate, and its reputation, “Anti-Immigrant Lobby” is on the nicer end of the scale in terms of “names” we should be calling you.
What other names don’t you like? Please do tell. Ask us about “Gospel Greg,” I would love to see the answers you’d receive.
WHWN, I hope you had a glass of wine to calm your nerves before you went to bed. My God, you were up until 2 am thinking about ME? And then you had the energy to write ALL THAT just for me? I cannot begin to tell you how flattering your obsession is, but, really, I am quite happily married.
YOU are the one making the assumptions, YOU are the one attacking and calling names, YOU are the one who refuses to see the point I was making, and YOU are the one who simply can’t let go until you have beaten this thing into the ground. You’re not burying me with evidence, or anything else, for that matter, in your desperate efforts to be “right.” I’m pretty immune to bullying.
And Elena, when did you EVER see me use words like “parasites” “nonhumans,” etc.? Is that really fair? You assume that because I occasionally post on BVBL that I agree with everything 100%. I can’t answer for everything every poster puts up there, any more than you can answer for some of the more outrageous and offensive comments that get posted here. It works both ways. But if you want to join the “Emma is a racist” chorus of lies, go right ahead.
Emma,
“rapd financial decline” my a**. Might have something to do with the Hispanic woman he knocked up.
Re-read. Comment.
What was your point, if it wasn’t the point many of us have taken your point as?
I can tell that you are very frustrated, Twinad. Try not to let it get to you. And, as I said, that comment was made in response to “I won’t take it a step further and remind everyone of all the times the GregNCorey Show have been seen leaving the McCoart Building together at 1 AM.”
But you’re not upset, Twinad, that the implication that Rod and WHWN were making is that there is something wrong with homosexuality, and that it is reasonable to use it as a weapon to try to hurt someone’s reputation. I have immediately corrected my own teenagers when I have heard them say “That’s so gay!” about something they didn’t like. Apparently, you have no such scruples. Remove the log from your own eye before you start trying to point out the speck in mine, or at least learn to appreciate irony.
Oh, of course! Anyone would think to write that post in “response” to the one that about Corey and Greg. How silly of me. What a lame excuse. I’m only frustrated that you don’t see your own ignorance. Just trying to point it out…but everyone else has done a good job of that, so I won’t bother any more. Adios, enimigo.
Well, I guess you’ll have to continue being frustrated, Twinad. Just don’t let it eat you up and blind you too much. The difference between us is that I don’t consider someone who disagrees with me to be my enemy–“enimigo”–as you so graciously put it. So go ahead and add me to your likely long list of people you have written off.
Adios right back at ‘ya.
Haha. Is that some more irony?
Greetings to everyone.
It was a colleague who informed me about this article, so I took a visit, read a number of the comments, and decided to offer my own.
The author of this article made mention that “what was clear to me, was that Robb Pearson expressed the feeling that he wasn’t even sure how he had been caught up in this anti immigrant frenzy initially.”
In many ways that’s quite true. At certain moments in our lives I think we all get caught up in something (sometimes benign, sometimes not) without realizing how we got there in the first place. But in retrospect, I can identify two factors which seminally contributed to the “seduction” which had captured me: (1) my own decision back in early 2005 to examine, experience, and participate in “politics” and (2) my close association with certain people whom I’d encountered as a result of my entry into “politics”.
So if you’ll indulge me with your kind patience, I’ll explain the details.
In the piece I wrote on July 14 on my Daily Record blogpage (Transformation: One year after the ProAmerica Rally), I wrote a brief backstory about a personal journey I began back in 1999. You can read the details on my blogpage, but suffice it to say that I began at that time a several years inquiry into all manner of religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions. The journey was sparked by the tremendous impact my brother’s death in the summer of 1999 had on me, and the crisis of faith I experience as a result. I needed to be self-informed and remove the inadvertent ignorance and unqualified certainty I possessed as a result of the strict and limiting religion I had been brought up in. I ultimately needed to discover for myself an understanding of the implications of life and our purpose in it.
By 2004 I had studied and experienced countless traditions (most of them within Christianity), and in certain cases was deeply involved in some of them for brief periods. But there was one remaining field — one remaining human belief system — I had yet to study and experience: politics. And so in early 2005 I hit the ground running.
Politics, as I stated in the piece on my Daily Record blogpage, is really not so different than a religious tradition. It has all the gods, idols, rules, songs, liturgies, holy writings, and forms of worship that can similarly be found in almost any religion. And the flavor and fervor of devotion found in politics is peculiarly identical to (and frequently compatible with) that found in religion.
And I absolutely had to experience it as part of that journey of being self-informed. And in doing so I befriended certain people who became my “teachers”, and who I allowed to influence me on my journey in politics. Two of them had become very close friends of mine and we often worked together on certain political projects. Over time, due to their influence and my deep regard for our close friendship, I adpoted their political views and would involve myself in certain activist endeavors which advocated those views. And eventually, like any neophyte (or new “convert”, if you will), my devotion became energetic, my approach overzealous, and my objectivity skewed.
By the time the summer of 2007 came around, my seduction was complete. Thanks to my “friends” I ended up becoming one of the thirteen main bloggers on the Daily Record website (before its recent changeover), with my blog discussing national politics and social issues. Mine would end up becoming the second most popluar blog on the Daily Record website, and I would use that to my advantage when I decided to plan the ProAmerica Rally on Morristown (which did not please the Daily Record, whose management made the swift decision to end my blog one week before the rally).
By the time the rally was ready to go, I was fully immersed in the ultra-conservative fervor of “anti-illegal-immigrant” sentiment. I was at the peak of my immersion in politics, no longer a bystander, but a highly visible activist who gathered over 300 people to a rally (with 150 others protesting us across the street) which did nothing less than assail the weak and defenseless.
If I may invoke a Biblical comparison, I was similar to Saul (who would later become the apostle Paul) who at the peak of his radical devotion to Judaism as a Pharisee was joyfully persecuting the non-threatening and innoffensive Christians. He would later have an epiphany and experience a complete turnaround in his life and views, similarly as I would also experience a life-changing event and a resulting turnaround in my life and views (though my experience is not fraught with any religious overtones).
(By the way, I’m not comparing myself to Paul, of whom I’m in no way a fan. I’m merely citing a readily fitting comparison to better illustrate my own experience.)
It would take the tremendously impacting events I endured between October of 2007 and March of 2008 to compel me to reevaluate my life. It was far more than “rapid financial decline” and losing almost everything. There were other life-related issues, unrelated to finances, which crashed down upon me without warning, and in ways that were undefinably painful.
I would learn that my two close “friends” were deceitful and dreadfully inauthentic, and whose only desire for my “friendship” was to manipulate me, and my talents, for their own agendas. Albeit deeply hurtful to me, it was a sobering revelation. And a healing one.
I discovered that my journey in politics had to end; that the seductive nature of politics (and patriotism) was akin to the serpent’s craftiness in the Garden of Eden, and that its poison inhibits all sense of genuine humanity while at the same time convincing us that by eating its fruit our “eyes will be opened”. There’s a saying: “If the devil can’t seduce you, he’ll distract you.” Politics is a seduction, and a distraction.
After accepting refuge with my family early this year, I reflected deeply. And when I made the decision to abandon politics and abandon all my unhealthy associations, I began to see more clearly. I began to see that the more important thing — the most paramount thing above all — is our common humanity. It was a vision I’d actually embraced shortly before my engagement in politics in 2005, but which I unwittingly relinquished during my terrible journey through the starving and distracting desert of patriotism with all its vile temptations.
But having finally — and thankfully — completed that journey through the “desert”, out of which I’ve emerged far more healthy and far more blessed than I’ve ever been in my life, I’m now prepared and devoted to vigorously advancing our common humanity, rejecting qualities which seek division and not unity, which are destructive and not creative, and which dehumanize rather than humanize.
And my ultimate goal: to seek and build the Oneness — both within ourselves, with one another, and with our world — that I believe is Creation’s plan for all of us, where compassion, mercy, and grace are our sole rule of law.
Emma, I am glad to hear your crusade for equality for gays and lesbians goes beyond your ferocious defense of Greg Letiecq. While racist rants are not the ideal rubuttal to an imagined insult to the gay community, I do give you an A for effort.
Now if you’ll just put the same energy you put into your racist rants into lobbying your Congressional representatives for Hate Crimes legislation that protects the gay community, you could actually do some good for the one minority you seem interested in defending rather than scapegoating.
Or, if you’re just looking for excuses to proove your undying allegiance to Gospel Greg, perhaps this will be an intrduction for you to an additional pursuit.
If it’s something in between, I sincerely hope that the same decency that causes you to be a good parent to your children will eventually lead you to a change of heart with regard to Hispanics. Surely, if you give them a chance you will see they are no more deserving of scapegoating or hate-mongering than gays or lesbians.
Until such time, as you continue your gay rights crusade, perhaps you could save your scolding for those who oppose gay rights, like your beloved Gospel Greg, instead of those who point out the familiar psychological profile of those who seek to “prove heterosexuality” by railing against fellow gays and lesbians.
WHWN, you really ARE obsessed. Really, there are plenty of other women (or men) out there 😉
WHWN,
Don’t bother anymore with Emma. She has had to back pedal from her comment and say she was “responding to the homosexual slams”. But if you re-read her two sentence comment, it is crystal clear that she is responding to the article because she says “financial problems, my A@@, he knocked up a Hispanic. Her racist comment was 100% directed at the article and only after she was called on it did she say, “oh, I only posted it in response to the attack on the wonderful family men, Greg and Corey!” Yeah, right! Sure it was.
Twinad, now you’re sounding desperate. Chill.
Emma does seem to delight in being the butt of our jokes. So to answer the question above, No I don’t think it cruel for the sentient adults to toy with her. My feeling is: better it be a member of the community than an outsider who came here just to poison our social environment for political purpuses. Emma, you go girl!
How do you feel about Obama vs. McCain?
The only “joke” here is how much Twinad, NGL and WHWN clearly have in common with the people they despise. There is no limit to how low you will go to get the last word, is there?
Learn from the Emperor:
“Good, I can feel your anger. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!”
It looks like you are well on your way. Have a beautiful weekend.
Did everyone miss that Mr. Pearson may have posted on our blog?
It’s hard to know for sure if you are the “real” Robb Pearson, but if it is truly you……
Welcome to Anti and thank you for sharing your courageous story.
Neat trick, Elena. That post wasn’t there earlier.
Thanks for pointing it out, Elena. I always forget that new posters get put into moderation and their posts don’t appear at the end of the thread. Had you not said something, I would never have seen it.
Mr. Pearson, if you check back in, I hope you will weigh in on some of the other threads, too!
I hear deep breathing. Emma, do you think that Anakin actually knew he had gone over to the dark side? I often wonder that about you. Argue you will not.
Robb Pearson, if that is REALLY you, I am stunned at your vanity, your utter hubris in comparing your journey with that of Saint Paul. Your last paragraph is an incredible blasphemy, to say the least. Do you now compare yourself to Jesus?
You sold out your friends and supporters at what price? 30 pieces of silver? I love the way you put “politics” in parentheses as if it is all filthy, and you have nothing but purity of purpose, don’t you? It smells a lot like vendetta. You will fit in well here.
Emma, it wasn’t there earlier because it was in moderation as a first time post. This is standard for all first time posts.
I forgot about that, MH, you’re right.
I can’t believe this is for real, though. His posting is so astoundingly arrogant. I would think someone who has had an “epiphany” would have slightly more humility.
Emma,
Arrogant? What are you talking about? I mean really, what in G-ds name are you talking about? This man shared his journey, and said he was NOT comparing himself to Paul, its called an analogy. I believe this man spoke WITH humility, but you see what you will Emma.
“And my ultimate goal: to seek and build the Oneness — both within ourselves, with one another, and with our world — that I believe is Creation’s plan for all of us, where compassion, mercy, and grace are our sole rule of law.”
Yes, how arrogant of this man to want to bring compassion and grace to the his fellow man. To refuse to be used by others, how awful of him to see through the deception of his “friends”. It took courage to express this publicly.
Robb, I want you to understand that your beautifully written testimonial was in moderation for many hours today. That is why the comments that follow don’t seem to respond. It wasn’t there before. And don’t mind Emma. She’s our pet anti-immigrant clone. We just keep her around for a good laugh. Hope to see you over on the new thread. Perhaps you could quote back your entire testimonial there, since it was quoted only in part.
WHWN, it’s good to see that you are learning the ways of St. Paul from Gospel Robb. Don’t let your saintly hatred of me eat you up too much.
Actually, there’s a fine line between love and hate, and you can’t seem to let go of me, can you?
As I’ve always said, Emma, your childish ramblings here do more to illustrate the nonsensical, deceived futility of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby than any single contributor here. I don’t hate you, I love you. Keep it up.
Awww, gee, I feel so warm and fuzzy inside, now that you’re being so nice. You must be preparing yourself for Gospel Robb’s second coming on this thread.
Emma, I’ll be honest with you. None of us know you as a person. None of us really love you, or hate you for that matter, as a person. If you were a real person to us, we would not mock you so mercilessly, please know that. You may sound like Gospel Greg, but you have not done the damage that he has done to our community, not nearly.
But because you are anonymous, and you are, well, “Emma” you are very useful to us. For this, we love/hate … not really you … but the character you’ve created. After all, who knows if the outrageous things you type here are really your beliefs, or someone else’s regurgitated here just to test them out and see how you (the real person) like the response you get. I doubt very seriously that you would say most of these things in real life without at least testing them in a virtual public square. For you I imagine this is a form of intellectual experimentation, much they way teenagers experiment with social identities. In this endeavor, we are happy to oblige you.
In addition, for my purposes, and I imagine the purposes of many who contribute to this blog, you are the most useful emblem of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby imaginable. Of our resident trolls, you are by far the easiest to debunk. We don’t have to waste any time scrolling through eighty paragraphs hoping to find a point, we don’t have to contend with any amount of expertise or research, let alone wit. “Emma” is pure adolescent angst mixed with prejudice and partisan fervor. To have “Emma” be the loudest representative of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby on this blog is the gift that keeps on giving.
Of course there are more sophisticated arguments to be made on behalf of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby, but you conveniently convey none of them. This is why we love “Emma” the character. As for the person behind the keyboard, we are indifferent until we have some way to truly know you.
WhyHereWhyNow . . .
Thank you for your kind words. I completely understand about the delay in posting my comments. Not a problem at all.
Emma . . .
In case you missed it, immediately after my mention of Paul I stated: “By the way, I’m not comparing myself to Paul, of whom I’m in no way a fan. I’m merely citing a readily fitting comparison to better illustrate my own experience.”
As for Jesus . . . hey, we all have role models whome we aspire to emulate. Jesus happens to be mine (PS, I’m not a Christian, but I’m a huge fan of Jesus of Nazareth).
To everyone . . .
Yes, I’m the real Robb Pearson. Short of giving out my email address, feel free to contact me through my blogpage at the DailyRecord.com website.
I’m hoping the “quote” tag works.
Robb,
If you don’t want to share, I understand, but I was wondering, do you belong to any formal religious group?
I found a direct link to Robb’s blog:
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=6238168de8384150af0d3e52ebe0c865&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a6238168de8384150af0d3e52ebe0c865Post%3a5ca8ff19-7fca-418d-81aa-ef452910641f&sid=sitelife.dailyrecord.com
Elena,
Thanks for asking. I wanted to ask too. Robb, If you don’t mind 🙂
Elena, about Gospel Robb’s religious upbringing:
Hope there are no Jehovah’s Witnesses here to be offended. Nope, this guy is as open-minded and tolerant as they come. Just like Saint Paul, really.
Emma,
You do bring up a good point about what offends and one that Mackie was trying to make on the thread ” The flip side of the sign” with his comments on July 18th @ 2:17.
I happen to share the concern and all thoughts (beliefs of religion, etc.) are at risk:
“House Resolution 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Act, specifically targets the use of the internet to spread ideas. In other words, thought crimes.
It passed the House of Representatives 404 to 6.
Now it sits in the senate as S1959. And when it passes the Senate, the only way to stop it would be with George Bush’s veto…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc“
More wisdom about Jehovah’s Witnesses from Gospel Robb:
Talk about painting with a broad brush. Tell us what you think about the Catholic Church now, Robb.
Emma,
What is your point? Certainly people, having been raised in a very strict religous setting, have the right to question the dogma that was instilled within them. My cousin was raised as a Hasidic Jew, and now sees religion in a much darker light than I. Who am I to judge his alternate view? You are beginning to sound like Karl Rove, looking for the “trash” to diminish people’s view point as opposed to the content of what they say. Is that it Emma, you can’t argue content so you to after him personally?
Why is Emma reading every blog post Robb ever wrote in a hopeless effort to discredit him? Why is Emma grasping at straws, desperate to some a way to counter Robb Pearson’s perspective?
First of all, consider her impossible situation, hampered by a complete lack of knowledge on the issue beyond the basic Anti-Immigrant Lobby talking points. These very talking points form the rudimentary foundations of Robb’s knowledge, which now so vastly out-paces Emma’s talking points that there is no comparison. Emma’s missing ingredient, of course, is the capacity for free thought. But that capacity, I sense, is growing in her. That is why her denial stage is so vehement. The truth is dawning on her but she doesn’t have the guts to admit she was wrong.
She finds Robb especially threatening because he demonstrates the courage she lacks.
This is precisely why I admire him. He is proving that a man with courage and intellectual integrity can not only change his mind and admit a mistake, he can help guide others to do the same.
This is a greatest challenge yet to Emma’s Anti-Immigrant Lobby talking point bubble, and a reminder of her own cowardice in the face of an expansive and rigorous debate. As a member of this blog, she is being confronted with information that pops that bubble on a daily basis, and she is finding that she lacks the very courage that has made Robb a hero in the eyes of all who posses it.
Admit you were wrong Emma. It will be a great weight off your shoulders, and the best contribution you could make to society, other than being a mom of course.
Yes, Twinad 20:42 I will support the majority voice. I will also be one of the people who want the current “illegal” immigrants deported, and will cast my vote for that, your vote if cast in opposite will nullify mine, but I can also say I will try to convince many others that “illegal” immigration hurts everyone, and helps no-one”, so that the entire voice of the majority vote is in support of my view rather than yours, that “illegal immigration hurts no-one”.
Robb 10:03
I applaud you on your journey toward a deeper understanding you began in 1999. I began mine in 1981, and am still learning. Imagine how much more you will come to understand the creator wishes for our lives in the next 20 years of study.
I am pleased with your discovery of “common humanity”. Common meaning “ALL” humanity, not just certain racial, gender, religious and ethnic group humanity, in my understanding a concept better understood by the people who wrote such laws and concepts wiser than me. I too fight against such concepts that are divisive, and not unifying, especially applied to races, genders, religions and ethnic group rhetoric.
“But having finally — and thankfully — completed that journey through the “desert”, out of which I’ve emerged far more healthy and far more blessed than I’ve ever been in my life, I’m now prepared and devoted to vigorously advancing our common humanity, rejecting qualities which seek division and not unity, which are destructive and not creative, and which dehumanize rather than humanize.
And my ultimate goal: to seek and build the Oneness — both within ourselves, with one another, and with our world — that I believe is Creation’s plan for all of us, where compassion, mercy, and grace are our sole rule of law.
I too believe that the most important “rules” are those that follow compassion, mercy and grace, and extend that concept to mean it must also be applied equally on all but not in support of destruction,division, suffering, and lawlessness as it effect all others, and the actions of all on all others.
I recently watched a film by a man in Afganistan, named “Reza”, who has found this same “common humanity” in dealing with the “lawful” Afgani’s and the “unlawful” Afganis. He has come to recognize that “common humanity” cannot be applied to all the same, but to each as he deserves, based on the impact his behavior has on all others.
His weapon is the truth, and the media outlets of truth, and pictures which tell a thousand words. He identifies those people in his land that are “good” and those people in his land that are “bad” and applies the law the same to all of them, but not the same compassion, mercy and grace to all of them as many who cause the misery his pictures depict as an effect of racial, gender, religious and ethnic wars, do not deserve an identical application of this human compassion. He has to make daily decisions regarding who is right (the religious, racial, or ethnic radicals), or the innocent victims of their law-breaking and claim that only their people, their race and their religion deserve the “bounties and justice” of God.
He is a man who has discovered that not “all” people of cruelty, lawlessness, ill-will action and of “illegal” behavior have a “common humanity”. There is no ideal middle ground that all humans use toward all others, some have more humanityt, some have less. Some are “illegal” and cause pain and suffering, some are “legal” and prevent pain and suffering, by preventing people of less “common hunamity” from harming and hurting others of “more common humanity”.
It is for this reason my personal discovery of “common humaniy” is that it is anything but “common”. It has humans you must protect from humans who would harm.
That is the way I deal with the “illegal” immigration effect, and the “legal” immigration effect. These two groups of people who make a choice on which side they stand on “common humanity” cause a greater and lessor harm on each other. My battle is against those who cause harm misery and suffering on others, based on the individual harm each does to the other, the effect on the entire community, and the individual benefit each gives to the other. In my experience, being on the “legal” side of immigration is more merciful, compassionate and graceful, than being on the “illegal” side of immigration when you look at the impact of lawlessness on the entire community of “common humanity”. I think of none in isolation of the other. I can also find scripture to support this compassionate view toward ALL mankind, to support taking care of the “greater good” as being more important than taking care of the “lessor good” I simply disagree with the assumption of those who often seek “a common humanity” that “illegal immigration harms no-one” and “deportation harms everyone”.
Reza and his pictures, shows the answer to what happens if you ignore the need to protect the innocent from the lawbreakers.
Michael,
Please clarify which Presidential candidate will you be casting your vote for that wants to deport the illegals? I just mention this to point out that neither is supporting this policy.
Robb,
Thanks again for joining our conversation, your quoting of scripture and writing style is so desperately needed.
On 19. July 2008, 23:56, Elena stated:
Hi Elena. I have no problem sharing. The answer is no, I don’t belong to any formal religious group. I occasionally fellowship with the local Unitarian-Universalists at their church near me, but I usually only do so when it involves some type of social justice or human justice endeavor. My attendance and participation is otherwise quite minimal.
For the most part, though, I am quite independent and tend to describe myself as a Jesus-loving non-Christian.