This story, in the Chicago Tribune, eloquently touches upon the more deep seated issue that faces America. In my opinion, we, as a nation, are facing an identity crisis. Who are we as Americans? Are we a belief of values, espoused by Thomas Jefferson, and our forefathers? Are we really a nation based on the content of our character or the color of our skin? Very soon, the identity of America will look very different, within decades, “white” Americans will become the minority. What does that mean, and how will we integrate this new dynamic into our culture?
It’s a sense of unrest familiar in small towns and suburbs across America. Immigrants have flooded the country in great numbers in the past. What’s different now is where they’re settling—far from the border states and big cities that long absorbed the huddled masses.
Their integration into small-town America is marked in Manassas, as elsewhere, by a language of fear, resentment and anger. Under pressure from longtime residents, local officials have cracked down, ordering police to dramatically increase the amount of time spent checking people’s Immigration status.
Those authorities say they’re targeting illegality. Others say they’re simply going after brown people.
If we’re due a national conversation about the changing complexion of America, though, it’s not happening in the 2008 campaign.
Barack Obama and John McCain both support what they call “comprehensive” Immigration reform, but neither spends much time on this volatile topic in his presidential campaign. When they do, they don’t address the fundamental tension of America’s great Immigration debate today.
In Manassas, some old-timers watch their home changing and fight the newcomers. Others fight that backlash.
For all of them, it’s a battle for their very identity.
A new complexion
For most of our history, immigrants settled largely in the Northeast and the Midwest. In 1920, nine out of 10 immigrants lived in cities of more than 100,000. The quintessential immigrant destination was Manhattan’s Lower East Side.Now the decline of traditional manufacturing is redirecting immigrants to agricultural centers in the South, tourist centers in the West, smaller cities all over. The Census Bureau first picked up on this dispersion in the 1980s, but the proportion of immigrants in small towns really took off in the mid-1990s.
In Prince William County, where Manassas sits, whites went from 65 percent of the population in 2000 to 52 percent in 2006. Hispanics increased—from 10 percent to 20 percent, roughly—in the same period.
Maureen Wood liked the diversity at first. The students at the high school where she is a substitute teacher taught her Spanish words.
Then the school district put up mobile classrooms.
A friend’s son couldn’t get work as a landscaper when he came home from college for the summer. The company owner said he only hired native Spanish speakers, to make it easier for his crew and foreman.
The changes turned Wood and Kipp into activists. Pressure from citizens like them is having a powerful effect in Prince William County.
Last year, the county board of supervisors ordered its police force to inquire more regularly about people’s Immigration status. They later scaled back that directive, but the thunderous debate had its effect, as immigrants started running scared. Hundreds withdrew from English-as-a-second language programs in local schools.
Are they any female foreign policy experts out there interested in a temp job? 40-days as a Vice Presidential candidate, free food, free travel, and lots and lots of attention. I think a job may be opening up soon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv6CRObROV0
Yes, but the idea that Obama is any better is an illusion. When he says he will leave Iraq, he is lying to you. When he said ‘that there’s a difference between someone who votes to drive the bus into the ditch (referring to Hillary’s vote for war in Iraq) and someone who votes to drive the bus out of the ditch’ (referring to his vote to continue funding the war in Iraq) he was lying through his teeth to the whole nation. There is no difference. Congress controls the money specifically so that they can stop the president. Checks and balances. Obama had a chance there to educate the american people about how our political system really works, and he chose to deliberately deceive the American people.
The ruling class of our country love both McCain and Obama. No matter which is elected, nothing of substance will change. McCain appeals to those segments who like the status quo. Obama appeals to those segments who want change. Both of them do their job very well. It is all an illusion to deceive us into thinking about ourselves as either democrat or republican. Do you think the ruling elite think of themselves in this way? To them we are the enemy. They want us to stay divided and squabbling amongst ourselves. They want us to emotionally invest in personalities like McCain and Obama so we can squabble with each other with these personalities serving as our proxies.
Mackie,
Gimme a break. Obama is the best candidate we’ve had in a generation.
Manassas Ice? Is that related to Miami Vice? Minivan patrol on a roll.
Look out Illegals! Thelma and Louise are off their leashes.
Red Badge to Utterly Awesome…come in. Do you read me? Go ahead Red Badge. Well, you get the drift.
Stay tuned. More to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr_FRomek8U
I’m glad someone paid a little attention, and I think they tried to write something reasonably fair, but my God that story was poorly written. It reads like a 5th-grade report.
Reading the article in full, one thing that strikes me is that there is no context for where Manassas or PWC is. Ie. there is no mention of both places being in an affluent metropolitan region with relatively low unemployment and with, until recently, a boom in housing construction, and still many more jobs in the service sector than other areas have.
Manassas is portrayed as though larger economic forces in this area had not acted as a draw. There is no economic context, as though people just showed up. Immigrants in this area, legal and illegal, are everywhere in this region’s workforce. But the article gives no indication of the wider setting. There is also no indication of the problems in this affluent region of getting people to where the jobs are.
This link, http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=040050002380002294
provides a very good description of the actions that Prince William County has taken against these poor undocumented workers who are trying to make a better life for their families.
You might want to do as I have, and send this link to all your friends and family throughout Virginia and across the nation so they might see just how mean the people of PWC really are.
If you don’t alert them to what’s happening here, they might listen to others and be tempted to take similar action. Of course, in your E-Mail, it would be wise to explain that Manassas and PWC are within an affluent metropolitan region with relatively low unemployment, as mentioned in Leila’s post. That might help things across the state and nation, for that matter.
Fort Knocks, I’ll let John Stewart answer you on this one:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=186052&title=clusterf#@k-to-the-poor-house
You have to see this. Freedom Memory!!!
Seriously, though, in the case of both the Iraq War, and Bush/McCain Financial Crisis, we must as a nation deal with the reality of the present situation, instead of merely dwelling on the fateful bad policy decisions that led to them (however frustrating).
With Iraq, we can’t just leave suddenly without living up to our responsibility to rebuild all the infrastructures we destroyed and give these people at least some hope of surviving as a nation. We also have strategic interests in having a stable ally in Iraq. We can’t pull a McCain and make things worse by over-reacting in a panic long after it is too late to avoid “driving the bus into the ditch.”
be careful Diversity Gal and Robb, you will end up in Michael’s jail if you continue speaking about diversity….:)
PWC is a done deal. The citizens’ outcry was heard and action was taken. As long as things continue to improve, we’re happy. Muck things up and have PWC tail-spin again and watch a tidal wave of angry and frustrated citizens storm the gates.
The PWC BOCS know this, so while some may be placating you, they’re not going to cut their own throats.
Let’s be real here. 99.9% of PWC citizens probably don’t even know of either blogs. When Allana/Elena/Eric/kgotthardt chastise the BOCS for it’s intolerence, rant and rave and those actions become publicized, most citizens see you as loons wanting to drag us back to where we were a couple of years ago. Your average joe resident can see past the rhetoric and ignore it as the lunacy it is. However, if things somehow start getting worse again (like in Loudon), I’d have to imagine you guys are going to feel the brunt of the frustration and anger along with any BOCS that may have been swayed by you. Mark my words.
Your fight is in Loudon now. They are at a crux and on the verge of imploding. Go there and spout your rhetoric. Call them intolerent and racist. See what welcome you get there by its’ citizens.
Maureen and Allison, go climb a tree somewhere else where there aren’t any foul people speaking Spanish. Go somewhere where development hasn’t run amok. You’ll be happier and so will we.
Mando, we’re fine with the current resolution. We are not fine with racism that continues. Deal with it. The sooner these people shut up about tacos and Mexicans, the sooner we will shut up. Not likely to happen unfortunately because the small number of psychotic “OMG! It’s an invasion!” people can’t deal with Spanish speakers even if they are bilingual.
–Are they any female foreign policy experts out there interested in a temp job? 40-days as a Vice Presidential candidate, free food, free travel, and lots and lots of attention. I think a job may be opening up soon:–
LOL! Yeah and they all come from secluded litte Alaska where a minivan makes you qualified to run a country.
LOL! Maureen is a substitute teacher. So was John Steinbach. A little irony here, eh? Too bad, Marueen, you have to deal with different opinions and different cultures. You’re in the wrong industry.
After 8 years of George W. Bush…
WHY CAN’T AMERICA RECOGNIZE AN IDIOT WHEN WE SEE ONE????
We should be able to immediately recognize it, not even take a month.
It has been PAINFUL these weeks of watching America SLOWLY realize that Sarah Palin is dumber and less qualified, more stubborn and more ideologically blinded than George W. Bush, more easily misled by her handlers, more easily taken advantage of by evil war profiteers and corporate aristocrats.
Thank God our learning curve is now a matter of 8 weeks instead of 8 years. Can you imagine what a Sarah Palin Presidency would have meant for national and world security?
In case you missed it: Letterman vs. McCain on “Cowardly Lyin’ Gate”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E
Interesting that Letterman doesn’t get to the real problem with McCain’s lie till the end. McCain told him he was racing to the airport to save the country in an economic crisis (forget the suspending the campaign b.s.).
That’s a lie, man-to-man if not face-to-face, that’s a lie to escape the discomfort of telling the truth. The truth was he needed to do something to overshadow Palin’s disastrous interview aired the night before, and distract the nation from the fact that he has no idea what to do in an economic crisis, and DIDN’T EVEN READ THE THREE PAGE PROPOSAL FROM THE FED. CHAIRMAN before he started trying to politic it. McCain didn’t even “race” down to Washington after the Katie Couric interview, he did even more campaigning on more news networks then got a good night’s sleep, in NEW YORK, and then gave another political speech the next morning before meandering to the Capitol just in time to implode the negotiations to fix the SAME problem he used as his Cowardly Lyin’ excuse not to go on Letterman!
LADY, get the HELL over two trees being cut down! Don’t you know what the did to the Battlefield and not one f-ing word from you. IMHO, you are about as dumb as a tree. GOD HELP those poor students. BTW, what qualifications do you have to be a sub?
Robb Pearson, 25. September 2008, 18:36
Censored bybvbl, you stated:
Maureen, how are you and Allison going to determine immigration status? Why mention immigration at all because you have no way of knowing anyone’s status.
Unless Chief Deane and his police department, per the enforcement of the “Rule of Law Resolution”, has identified all of the day laborers as illegal aliens, then no one can definitively state with any certainty what their residency status is.
So the answer is simple: folks like Allison and Maureen flatly assume the day laborers are “illegal aliens” because, quite simply, the majority of them to all outward appearance are Hispanic/Latino and speak Spanish.
If it were a dozen white men at the day labor site, would anyone question their residency status? No. Of course not.
It is no longer possible for motivated activists to hide behind the unconvincing facade of “it’s about illegal immigration” (or as Maureen put it, it’s about “being” illegal).
This is not about immigration, illegal or otherwise. This is, and has always been, about racial intolerance.
————————————————————————————————-
So, Robb, when was the last time you saw a bunch of ‘white’ guys hanging around the 7-11, Home Depot waiting to be picked up as a day laborer? The TRUTH of the matter is they are most likely here in the USA illegally. Because, if they were legal, there are much easier avenues to secure a job. And, how much withholding taxes are withheld from these day laborers???
kgotthardt, 26. September 2008, 9:11
Maureen and Allison, go climb a tree somewhere else where there aren’t any foul people speaking Spanish. Go somewhere where development hasn’t run amok. You’ll be happier and so will we.
—————————————————————
There’s no need to leave. It’s their CHOICE to stay and DEFEND their homes!!! Maybe, you could move to Montogomery County or Fairfax County where the people are not in the least bit racist and are extremely educated and enlightened as yourself. It’s extremely telling when you do your hateful name calling. Becasue, in the words of Margaret Thatcher:
I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.
So, in the words of Pam Anderson to Sarah Palin: Suck it!!!
“Mando, we’re fine with the current resolution. We are not fine with racism that continues. Deal with it. The sooner these people shut up about tacos and Mexicans, the sooner we will shut up. Not likely to happen unfortunately because the small number of psychotic “OMG! It’s an invasion!” people can’t deal with Spanish speakers even if they are bilingual.”
As long as things continue to improve, I’m fine with the rhetoric and claptrap. Shout ’till your heart’s content if that’s what floats your boat.
TBD, they can “defend” all they want but when they do it and cause racial tensions, they are not doing GOOD. Wounding? Give me a break. These people need a damn reality check. Don’t come into this place and treat people like shit and not expect a “wounding” response. I’ve gotten enough of them and you only hear me complain when people start telling others to get guns to threaten me. Sorry, Maureen and friends. “Suck it.”
I’m here because this place is diverse and it’s our home. This isn’t some Gentlemen’s Farm Stirrup and his white-supremacists want. Hello? Washington Metro? Ever hear of the nation’s capital called Washington D.C.? You know, the “Mecca” of diversity”? Or does the word “Mecca” make you nervous, too, like it does your friend Duecaster?
Sorry. I’m not leaving and I’m not putting up with bigotry, especially when it infiltrates MY government. So if they can’t deal with it, then they should leave.
Political argument? This isn’t about politics, dear. This is about wasting our tax dollars by listening to irrational racists. We have a collective, rational solution to these problems. They don’t. It’s really that simple.
Thank you, Mando, and I expect you to do the same 🙂
But really, the worst thing is people who are racist and then say, “Oh but I’m not racist!”
I’m not okay with our BOCS being a bunch of damn hypocrites. If you want to be one (and I’m not saying you are) then fine. But get the hell out of my government. That includes Maureen, Ms. I’m Going to Run for Office on the Hatred Ticket.
Kblowhardt: If it’s not politics, then what does the government have to do with it?
–LADY, get the HELL over two trees being cut down! Don’t you know what the did to the Battlefield and not one f-ing word from you.–
Did you ask the “Friends of the Battlefield” about this? (Warning: some of them aren’t very friendly.)
TBD: It’s about our tax money and our communities. The problem with the BOCS is they think “it’s all about them.” Well big clue: it’s about US, not THEM. We pay their salaries. They can take their dirty politics and “suck it.”
And when Allison Kipp gets up in front of the tv audience and quivers before an image of “Satan”, tell me who looks like the loon? Maureen isn’t even a resident of PWC. She’s a perennial -losing – candidate for Manassas City Council. Even the residents of Manassas know to avoid putting her in a position of responsibility.
And I’d venture to say that the average person in PWC is unaffected by immigration status. The BOCS realized that and neutered the resolution before it costs us more in defending the fiscally indefensible. You may be surprised by the citizens who turn out if the BOCS continues to waste millions on this resolution as schools, libraries, Senior services, parks,etc. take a hit in next year’s tight budget cycle.
I think many county residents would say to the HSM whiners – move or get out there and make the effort to improve your neighborhoods. Don’t expect our tax dollars to pay for a witch hunt if you’re not out there actively working within your neighborhoods to improve them. Older neighborhoods fall into decline. It takes activism to keep them healthy….properly utilized activism which addresses the zoning, police, NS issues, not immigration.
Yeah, Censored! You tell em!!!
(Next time, I’d like to see a cartoon of Maureen as Satan’s Bride and see what she does at a BOCS meeting. Hours of entertainment….)
(Make Allison a little servant-demon….)
Of course, now the dark screen will come out with their own cartoons, but I wish I had artistic talent. I’d have a ball with this!
And, I too am one of the US of which you speak!! As is anybody else you disagree with. We, the legal citizenry pay their salaries and all have an equal say. So, maybe you could climb down from that high steed you’ve been riding and ask your neighbors forgiveness for all the spewed venom.
LOL! Yeah, okay, TBD. I BEG your forgiveness for speaking out. I don’t ask you to do the same, though, because you are allowed to speak at BOCS meetings as well. But….if you want bigotry in our government and you want to waste our tax dollars, then expect to get an earful.
BTW, I don’t have a horse. That’s John Stirrup.
“I think many county residents would say to the HSM whiners – move or get out there and make the effort to improve your neighborhoods. Don’t expect our tax dollars to pay for a witch hunt if you’re not out there actively working within your neighborhoods to improve them. Older neighborhoods fall into decline. It takes activism to keep them healthy….properly utilized activism which addresses the zoning, police, NS issues, not immigration.”
Good one. I refer you to the meeting in Loudon last night. The time for twiddling thumbs and useless rhetoric is done in PWC. You have strawmen to burn in Loudon now. Their battle has just begun. You may have audience there.
Mando, so all the residents of LoCo are supposed to be on the hook for the bill to clean up Sterling Park? That’s another older, decaying neighborhood. Let the residents there contact zoning, NS, police (when appropriate) if they have problems. Gangs? Tell me specifically how the Immigration Resolution in PWC has solved the gang problem. I think the gang task force is going to make the difference with that issue.
My sister, BIL, and nephews live in LoCo and they have an Hispanic surname (grandfather was from Spain,grandmother from Germany). Are they going to be harassed because some Sterling Park residents are bigots who won’t use the existing services to solve their problems?
What I don’t understand is why you don’t widely disseminate the documentation of actions that PWC has taken. Wouldn’t that be helpful in promoting your cause?
Freedom,
Who do you want this information disseminated to and why? Do you think that 9500 Liberty needs to document in timeline format? That might not be a bad idea.
I honestly do not see what this quarrel is still about. Mr. D is serving on the task force. Done deal. Even people who agree with him in principle think that his rhetoric is over the top. Obviously enough supervisors thought otherwise and voted him in.
The Resolution has been neutered. Nothing else to happen there.
Greg will continue allow sexual harrassment of activists from this blog on his blog. Greg will continue to harrass county employees. Greg will have to face his Maker on that one. Not how I want to live my life.
Is that what this is all about? I can’t even figure it out any more. It seems to be men, and their women, playing gottcha to me.
Censored bybvbl, 26. September 2008, 11:21
Mando, so all the residents of LoCo are supposed to be on the hook for the bill to clean up Sterling Park? That’s another older, decaying neighborhood. Let the residents there contact zoning, NS, police (when appropriate) if they have problems. Gangs? Tell me specifically how the Immigration Resolution in PWC has solved the gang problem. I think the gang task force is going to make the difference with that issue.
My sister, BIL, and nephews live in LoCo and they have an Hispanic surname (grandfather was from Spain,grandmother from Germany). Are they going to be harassed because some Sterling Park residents are bigots who won’t use the existing services to solve their problems?
———————————————————————–
If Sterling Park is part of Loudon County, then the answer is YES!!! All for one, and one for all! That doe not include illegal aliens!!! They have no voice, including yours. The court system has a term for those that are not compliant with the law: Dirty Hands!!
Censored Bybvbl, thank you for disarming the fringe extremist anti-immigrant loony rhetoric on this blog time and time again.
You are like a surgeon with a precision blade, slicing their memorized indoctrination to pieces and displaying their falsities and contradictions for all who care to see them.
Sorry anti-immigrant bloggers. You lose this round.
That’s is what I’m talking about Censored!
MoonHowler asked, “Who do you want this information disseminated to and why?”
I am suggesting that everyone forward details of the resolution, found on the PWC website, to all of their friends and relatives.
Why? When people all across the country see that information and recognize how hurtful it is to those poor people who have immigrated to this country and are just trying to make a better life for themselves, they will surely protest any similar efforts by their local jurisdictions.
Doesn’t that make sense?
Freedom, not really. Sarcasm doesn’t become this conversation. I thought you were actually contributing something.
You do realize that no one denies there were some serious problems in some neighborhoods with immigrants. It was HOW to deal with those problems that we seem to be having such a problem with.
I am still waiting for someone to tell me what the Anti-immigration Resolution really got us? How did it improve things? No one will spell it out. Are some of you being deluded?
Sarcasm? I don’t understand….I have tried to educate people by disseminating EXACTLY what the PWC BOCS says that they’ve done, by disseminating their own words. That will surely dissuade duplication and waste of money by other localities.
Duecaster might be in, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept a word he says since most of what he says is filled with bigotry and lies. And I still think he should cough up his military record. But alas….I’m not a reporter. And I’m not a BOCS member who could and SHOULD challenge Duecaster to prove who he says he is.
KG, I imagine the first few meetings of the task force on which Duecaster sits will be attended by some observant citizens. lol
TDB, so my relatives, all perfectly legal, should expect to be harassed by bigots who won’t solve their own problems? See, this is the problem with some of you nutjobs – you expect to vilify everyone who disagrees with you and then expect them to ante up their tax dollars to help you. Sorry, you can shove your “all for one, and one for all” mentality. I’d rather support my US citizen relatives who are college educated, gainfully employed, law-abiding, community-building residents of LoCo than a bunch of whiners in Sterling who won’t work within the current system to solve their problems. I wouldn’t, were I a LoCo resident, want to bail out the whiney bigots with my money.
My you’re very presumptuous censored. I guess the poor white trash in Sterling are too stupid and uneducated to have thought of trying zoning, police, etc. to fix their problems in your warped world.
You’re a peice of work.
Here’s some 2007 info on Sterling Park and Loudoun County. It’s deja vu all over again!!! LOL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/13/AR2007081301166.html
No bail outs for bigots! Work within the system and keep your mitts out of other people’s wallets. Exhaust the legitimate methods for addressing the issues before wasting our tax dollars.
So, everyone in Sterling park is a bigot?!?!? You’re the flaming bigot, missy!!!
Censored: That WashPost article you cite above speaks only of Hispanics, Spanish music, Spanish language, Pepe’s Tacos…hmmm
TDB, I asked:
To which you replied:
Aside from your reading comprehension about the citizenship of my relatives, I find it objectionable that you imply they should be harassed because of their surname. OR, are you admitting that there are bigots in Sterling Park and LoCo?
Mando, save your outrage. I didn’t hear any of it when TDB said my BIL and nephews should be harassed by the bigots. Let’s face it. You can’t determine immigration status by appearance so a lot of people are determining it by bigotry. LoCo is similar to PWC in that the poorer neighborhoods are seeing the demographic change the most, some people are upset about it, and they’re looking for a way to change it – by using other people’s tax dollars to try to drive immigrants out of their neighborhoods. So exactly what did the resolution do that wasn’t actually solved by other county services that were already available?
Of course it doesn’t. It also talks about conservative white residents who are resistant to change.