We would love to have your input for the next venue for an economic party. If you know of a restaurant that would welcome the event, please feel free to share. Everyone is welcome to particpate, especially those who feel we focus too heavily on one particular type of restaurant.
Previous Anti-Illegal Activist Joins the Conversation
From One Man’s Journey from “Rule of Law” to Golden Rule, it appears as if
Robb Pearson himself has joined our conversation. Welcome Robb.
He writes, in part the following:
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”.
Where is the humanity in chaining a woman, by both wrists, while she labored in agony?
I understand that there are legal issues with this case. I know that many some will say “She got what she deserved, after all, she was in this country illegaly, and was given prior deportation notices.” To the men who have NO clue what childbirth entails, this was cruel and unusual punishment, her 8th amendment rights were violated in my mind. No woman, in the midst of labor, is going to be a flight risk out of a hospital. Furthermore, she was kept chained AFTER she gave birth, for six hours, and was denied her G-d given right to breastfeed her newborn. I am sickend and appalled by this case.
p.s. hyperlink located on the word “case”, click on it and it leads you to the video
The Flip Side of the Sign: Thumbs Up, Down or the Finger?
What would your reaction be if this man, Davi Rodriguez drove up and down the main drag in the City of Manassas? How about past Coverstone 7-11?
Is his method better or worse than the course of action taken by Mr. Fernandez? You be the judge.
According to Channel 13 news out of Sacramento:
.
A story from CBS 13 in Sacramento, California featured one man ennobled by his passion for confronting day laborers with a trailer-mounted billboard saying “DEPORT THEM ALL.”
Davi Rodriguez drives the sign up and down the streets of Sacramento where day laborers wait for work, sometimes videotaping the reactions and uploading them to YouTube. Workers we talked to say they feel harassed, and they’re losing jobs
.
If you squint your eyes, click your heels together 3 times, you might just think you were back in Kansas.
One mans journey from “rule of law” to the golden rule
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
Crime Stats Up After Passage of Resolution (Jul-Dec ’07)
Crime Statistics in Prince William County INCREASED for the second-half of 2007 after the passage of the “Immigration Resolution”, numbers were higher for the July thru December timeframe for: burglary, auto theft, larceny, assault, robbery and homicides.
Here’s the breakdown:
Note: January-June 2007 prior to Immigration Resolution and
July-December 2007 is after the passage of the Immigration Resolution
| Jan-Jun | Jul-Dec | |
|---|---|---|
| Burglary | 469 | 527 |
| Auto Theft | 302 | 310 |
| Larceny | 2466 | 2872 |
| Assault | 1370 | 1401 |
| Felony Assault | 175 | 137 |
| Robbery | 124 | 148 |
| Rape | 15 | 13 |
| Homicide | 4 | 5 |
According to the 2007 Crime Statistic Report,
The crime rate, which is a percentage of the total number of crimes per population, in Prince William County has been consistently decreasing over the past several years. Violent crime represents a small portion of the total crime in the County, with crimes against property accounting for 92% of the total crime.
Prince William’s overall crime rate — the number of crimes per 1,000 residents — dropped from 21.6 in 2006 to 19.8 in 2007, down from 24.5 in 2004 and 22.8 in 2005.
Some year-to-date crimes against people for 2008 have also increased from last year’s numbers through the same time period.
$1760.31 – PWC Sewer Bill
The Manassas Journal Messenger reports that a local Prince William County couple have recently received a sewer bill for $1,760.31. However, the bill is not for a single month of service but rather a billing oversight error whereby the County has neglected to charge the couple for the past 4 years! Yikes!
One Year and $4 Million – Brings Us Full Circle
It’s been a year since the County first adopted the ‘Immigration Resolution’ and because of continual participation from more moderate voices, it is now, but a shadow of its original proposed self. The Resolution is, at its core, faulted because of its assertion that illegal immigration has been determined to cause ‘lawlessness and economic hardship’. This declaration has never been substantiated and continues to remain an unfounded claim upon which this resolution was founded.
If you recall, the original version suggested checking immigration status at all public facilities even schools and parks. Thankfully, staff recognized that implementation of such a far reaching and radical policy was unwise. And, with the guidance and suggestion of more reasonable perspectives, began the process of affecting changes to mitigate not only the potential of costly lawsuits but to reign in the more radical elements that initially suggested the plan.
By October, we were left with a short list of 8 identified services that could be ‘reasonably’ restricted combined with a policy that mandated officers to inquire into immigration status with anyone they came into contact with that they believed had ‘probable cause’ to be undocumented. Shortly thereafter, it was determined that 2 of the previously identified services should also not be restricted and the list shrank to 6.
In April, with the start of the planning for the ‘09 Fiscal Plan’ another opportunity presented itself for another scale back when cameras became too costly of an investment. We then lobbied and succeeded in having the Resolution modified so that Officer’s could fallback to the previous policy of ‘reasonable articulable suspicion’ combined with a mandated post-arrest procedure for status checks, Now, the “Immigration Resolution” consists of the restrictions to the 6 services, mandated status checks after arrest and the general resolution. All of this, has born a price tag of $4 million dollars, and for all practical purposes has brought us full circle, back to the place, in essence where we started.
“A Hispanic Population in Decline”
The family that planted corn in the front yard of their $500,000 home is gone from Carrie Oliver’s street. So are the neighbors who drilled holes into the trees to string up a hammock.
Oliver’s list goes on: The loud music. The beer bottles. The littered diapers. All gone. When she and her husband, Ron, went for walks in their Manassas area neighborhood, she would take a trash bag and he would carry a handgun. No more. “So much has changed,” she said in a gush of relief, standing with her husband on a warm summer evening recently outside a Costco store.
A short distance away, across the river of retail commerce that is Sudley Road, Norman Gonzalez spoke of change not as renewal, but as a kind of collapse.
Business at his restaurant, Cuna del Sol, has declined 50 percent. Worse still, his extended family’s slow, steady relocation from the Guatemalan town of Jutiapa to the bustling Prince William suburbs has imploded. “A year ago, I had the biggest family in all of Manassas, maybe 100 relatives,” he said.
Now, Gonzalez, a legal U.S. resident, has his own list: Langley Park, Chantilly, Fairfax City. That is where his brothers have scattered, and they will not visit him. “There’s too much fear here,” Gonzalez said.
Since the day one year ago when Prince William County supervisors launched their crackdown on illegal immigration, the gulf between the Olivers’ relief and Gonzalez’s dejection has narrowed little, and possibly widened.
At least there is one thing partisans on both sides agree on: Hispanic immigrants are leaving Prince William. Whether their departure has improved the county’s quality of life, or pushed its already strained economy further downward, is the new topic of contention driven largely by views of whether the presence of immigrants was a good thing in the first place.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070902173.html
9500Liberty Screening Review, A Must See!
For all the speculation about a “surprise” in the 9500Liberty preview screening scheduled for tomorrow night at Casablanca, what I found most compelling was the clarity and precision with which it explained some complicated truths I already suspected, as well as a few I didn’t suspect. There are indeed some surprises. In fact, a few of them were bigger than I was expecting, but no, none of them included Corey Stewart at 7 Eleven with Greg Letiecq. The most striking thing about the film is that, taken as a whole, it depicts the Chairman in battle mode as only his colleagues know him, and as the average citizen has never seen him before.
Some of the scenes inside the BOCS chamber have the feeling of a showdown at high noon, with John Grisham style dramatic tension, only the suspense in this case is not dramatized; it’s real! I don’t want to give anything away. I really recommend you see it for yourself. If you do, I predict you will be on the edge of your seat, squirming with suspense, EVEN if you already know how the story turned out.
By getting perspectives from Board members, the Police Chief, the County Executive and others, the film illustrates the consensus view of recent PWC history, from a fascinating perspective inside the county government. Specifically, it explains what went down behind closed doors, so to speak, during the budgeting process, the long recesses and closed sessions, and how the risk of racial profiling lawsuits, and the high costs of avoiding them, led to the scaling back of the county’s illegal immigration policy.
I felt like Corey Stewart was treated fairly. At times I actually sympathized with the impossible situation he faced as the champion of this unfortunate “experiment” (yes, the word “experiment” comes up again but I won’t spoil it by saying who said it this time).
I know I am being vague, but I am determined not to give too much away. Let me just say THE BEST THING about the film is the inside view it provides us into the Supervisors’ approach to this controversial issue. There were several times when I was shocked at how honest people were being, and how comfortable they were just telling the truth, when we’d lived with so much confusion the past 2 months about what really went on.
There will inevitably be grumbling from the extreme right saying this is not their version of reality. No surprise there. But despite all the confusion, it’s a relief to know there is a consensus about what really happened. And, if you watch this film, it’s very possible you’ll understand it in great detail. If not, you will have a hard time discussing local politics with someone who has.
Casablanca 7:00 p.m.
7911 Centreville Rd
Manassas
How DO we move forward towards postive community solutions?
It is time now, time to move towards community solutions for Prince William County. I have said this before, we will not fix the immigration reform debate from a local standpoint. There are many diverse views on illegal immigration AND immigration, but at some point, we have to come together and find what will work in our own communities, our own neighborhoods. Let’s use this thread to talk about community solutions, ones that WE can implement here, in Prince William County, solutions that will unite us as opposed to divide us. Part of the solution must involve the Latino community, so I hope that people will come up with some innovative ideas. Please, I urge everyone, leave the name calling behind and instead, focus on positive solutions. Some of the issues that need to be addressed are day laborer sites and a more dignified location for people to look for work, overcrowding issues, language barriers, community healing, immigration education, and a host of other issues that need to be addressed. I know I haven’t named them all, so please, feel free to add to the issues and solutions within the thread. I am hoping this will foster some great dialogue and bring us out of a “cyber world” and into “real life” idea implementation!
From Cindy B on a previous thread:
If you want to do more than just debate, take part in a webinar being hosted by the Center for Voter Deliberation of No Va (www.cvdnva.org) on July 9 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.
This fall the Center plans to convene one or two pilot circles, of up to twenty people each, for an afternoon on one or more Saturdays in October. The goal for the pilot circle(s) will be to attract a diverse group of Prince William County participants, i.e., to include people who have concerns about the problems of immigration from the immigrant and non-immigrant sides, and who seek a way to discuss and do something about those problems.
So either register for the webinar if you’d like to be in on the planning, or go to the website to leave an e-mail that you’d like to be in the pilot study circles in the fall. The more diverse the viewpoints, the more valuable the study circles will be.
A Special Screening of 9500 Liberty Documentary
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
July 4th, the Soul of a Nation is Born
July 4th, in my opinion, is the defining moment in American History, and is my most revered “holiday”. My first “experience” on BVBL was as “John Locke”, for he is the real father of “natural law”, which gave us this most powerful statement of freedom and democracy, “all men are created equal. ” The Declaration of Independence, although not considered a “legal” document, is the very soul and conscience of our Democracy. I am guided by those simple, yet awe inspiring words. It was a revolution not only in deed, but in thought, and I honor my forefathers for their bravery and wisdom on July 4th.
In one vibrant paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson managed to compress both a résumé of American constitutional theory that justified the struggle for independence and a précis of a revolutionary, republican theory of government. “All men are created equal”; they enjoy “unalienable Rights” (this repudiated arguments by Thomas Hobbes and William Blackstone that people surrender their natural rights when they leave the state of nature); these rights include “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (a liberal and literary improvement on John Locke’s triad of life, liberty, and property); governments exist to protect those rights; governments are created by “the consent of the governed” (the compact theory); the people retain the right “to alter or to abolish” government when it violates its ends, “and to institute new Government” to secure the people’s “Safety and Happiness” (the commonwealth theory). In their totality, these concepts provided a comprehensive statement of popular sovereignty.
full text http://www.answers.com/topic/the-declaration-of-independence
