Texas Civil Rights Review

Category: Uncategorized

  • Welcome to Texas All you Presidential Candidates

    By Greg Moses

    And while we’ve got your attention, please see if you can help with any of the suffering that federal actions are causing here.

    In the matters of the Ibrahim family, Rrustem Neza, Ramsey Muniz, and the Suleiman Twins we could use less crackdown and more humanity from the federal face of power. In these four cases, immediate federal relief is possible and therefore necessary.

    What sort of nation provides prisons as solutions to immigration? The T. Don Hutto prison for mothers and children is a mean-spirited sign of the times. We think you should all go there, and we think you should all issue statements that the facility is offensive to your conscience. Agencies created in Washington have not only conjured the prison, but have refused to let UN inspectors onto the premises.

    The Rolling Plains prison of Haskell and the human warehouses of Raymondville are two other examples of the prison state you are funding here. Go smell what you are doing.

    While many of you have been working in Washington, we’ve been worn thin by your contradictory border policies which legalize all manner of movement for commodities and profits while criminalizing migrant workers whose lives have been uprooted. And today, as you speedily enable even faster velocities of trade across the border, your federal agents intensify their maddening contradictions by taking land to build a more people-impervious wall between families and neighbors.

    We can see why it makes sense from a party planning standpoint that Texas issues were scheduled to be addressed at a time in the primary cycle when the races might be winding down. But history is exhibiting its creative talent for truth, and therefore, in order to become President you must first wade right into the policy mess of Texas and tell us how you are going to bring some clarity of mind, some justice, some leadership.

    Before primary election day, here is what you can do: stop the wall, shut down Hutto, and stop hurting the Ibrahim family, Rrustem Neza, the Suleiman twins, and Ramsey Muniz. With these accomplishments on the record, we could be assured that you are competing for something more important than a popularity contest in Texas; you could actually change history.

    Good luck to you all. May justice be the cause of your success.

    Note: Previously posted in the announcements section of the Texas Civil Rights Review.

  • USA Moves to Quit Efforts to Drug Neza for Deportation

    Emial from John Wheat Gibson:

    “Today the US attorney filed a motion to abate or dismiss the suit in Abilene to drug Rrustem Neza. He said he filed it because of Congressman Louie Gohmert’s private bill.”

    Note: for more information on the case of Rrustem Neza and the efforts of Rep. Gohmert, please see the Texas Civil Rights Review Index of Documents, “Saving Rrustem Neza.”

  • Appeal to Sen. Clinton from Irma Muniz: Free Ramsey

    Irma Muniz shares the following model letter in hopes that you will add your name to the last line and upload it to the website of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.–gm

    February 13, 2008

    The Honorable Hillary Clinton
    United States Senator
    476 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, DC 20510

    Dear Senator Clinton:

    We seek your assistance in the case of Ramiro “Ramsey” Muñiz of Corpus Christi, Texas. Mr. Muñiz is remembered for his leadership role during the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s and 70s. He ran for governor of Texas twice, and made great contributions to the Mexican American, Hispanic, the Latino populations who had no representation in the political arena. To learn more about him please go to our website at http://www.freeramsey.com, or search for Ramsey Muñiz videos at http://www.youtube.com.

    Resolutions in support of Ramsey Muñiz have been passed by the League of United Latin American Citizens and the American GI Forum as this issue is of critical importance to the Mexican American, Hispanic, and Latino communities. The LULAC resolution may be accessed by going to the National LULAC resolutions website.

    The issue of Ramsey Muñiz is humanitarian, and it merits the involvement of all senators, congressmen, organizations, attorneys, and American citizens. For this reason we seek assistance from Democrats and Republicans alike, as we urgently seek assistance to free an innocent man who made great contributions to humanity and has suffered unjustly for many years of his life.

    We have struggled for years to have Mr. Muñiz transferred to Texas so that he can have the opportunity to prove his innocence. We will pursue a Commutation of Sentence and we would greatly appreciate your sharing information about this case with others.

    Please know that Mexican Americans, Hispanics, and Latinos throughout the Southwest will not abandon the issue of Ramsey Muñiz until he obtains his freedom. We ask for your assistance, and we thank you in advance for your support.

    Sincerely,

  • Good News for Rrustem Neza?

    Feb. 28 email from John Wheat Gibson, attorney for Rrustem Neza:

    Kevin Czechowitz just telephoned to say that Rrustem Neza will be released from detention on payment of a $25,000 bond. The family is at this moment trying to raise the money. I believe this is the result of the diligence of Dr. Pettifer, Ms. Vickers, Congressman Gohmert, Genc Krasniqi, Greg Moses, and everyone else who has shown concern for Rrustem and his family. I will keep you posted on developments.

  • Welcome to Texas, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

    A Texas Civil Rights Review Editorial

    Terms like ignorance, indignation, hatred, divisiveness, and racism surely apply to the typhoon that swirls around the sound bites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. You can tell by how nobody pays any attention to Rev. Wright’s insistence that he be judged by theological standards.

    For his own part, the right Reverend couldn’t have been more clear about it. When he was invited onto Fox News March 1, he begged for a conversation that would be literate in the works of black liberation theology. But this is the conversation that was denied to him. Instead, the Fox News interrogator smirked about Wright’s “black church” and asked a hateful question about why there can be no “white churches”.

    Perhaps Fox News should break the ice and name itself White News, if that would satisfy their juvenile sense of fair and balanced branding.

    Rev. Wright is a preacher, a pastor, and a theologian of accomplishment and distinction who has now been relegated to a whipping boy of ugly white backlash. It is quite hateful and divisive what has been done to the man, and a bolder crop of presidential candidates might be calling on so many grown men to apologize for their disrespectful treatment of the Reverend.

    Returning to the juvenile question of why there is such a thing as Black Entertainment Television, but not White Entertainment Television as such, or a proud black church but not a proud white church as such, one only has to know the basic facts of American history. Pretending that one does not know these basic facts while at the same time drawing a salary as a professional journalist is stark evidence of racist malice aforethought.

    In ten days, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is scheduled to be honored in Texas; therefore, Texas has the opportunity to honor him properly as a distinguished theologian and pastor.

    Here’s all the Governor has to say as he hands Rev. Wright the first James Farmer, Sr. award for unflinching courage to speak truth to power:

    Rev. Jeremiah Wright, I am not a theologian, I am a Governor. You and I have chosen lines of work which have long traditions of close relations. There has hardly been a time when your profession and mine have not rubbed close together. Thank goodness the ancient Hebrew people had the strength of character to treasure the words of their prophets, even when the words must have been scathing to hear. We are here to say that today, we commit to the courage it takes to hear a prophet, and to the justice required to honor the prophet’s voice as an indispensable public good. This is a free state in a free country, and we have the audacity to hope that you to will enjoy your stay.

    Note: we have found one item on the internet that pays Rev. Wright the respect that he requested from Fox News: to be treated as a man of the cloth. Please see “Race and Religion in Context” by Daniel Pulliam at getreligion.org.

    See also Mary Mitchell, ” Wright caught in undeserved political glare: Whites don’t get it, blacks do — and it’s time to move on” (March 20, 2008) Chicago Sun-Times.

    Oops! Posse gets wrong man. See Fox News’ effort to curb ‘excesses’ of the great media riot of ’08.