Category: Uncategorized

By Greg Moses

CounterPunch / Dissident Voice / The Western Confucian

Of course it had to be Palm Sunday. With the road from Bethany to Jerusalem closely guarded, Pharisees and Sadducees were dressed up in their finery, pontificating from Media Temples no pauper could get near. And having no Jesus to disturb them, of course, they had to go and pick on Jeremiah instead.

Why does Jeremiah have to go around talking like that, they asked? And what sorts of characters would dare to be moved by his words? Outside the gates at Bethany a mute refugee from Benjamin was pointing to a book that the guards had been trained not to read.

“Sound the alarm in Judah, broadcast the news in Jerusalem” said the book. “Shout out – a bullhorn bellow! Not a minute to lose! Don’t sit on your hands!”

Coming back from commercial break, the keepers of state doctrine examined up to three or four words a time, shaking their heads. They had no time to read the whole book, especially not on Palm Sunday.

“Jerusalem! Scrub the evil from your lives so you’ll be fit for salvation,” said Jeremiah.

“He’s calling us evil!” shot back the Pharisees. “How hateful is that!”

“Listen to this, you scatterbrains, airheads,” called a voice from within the studio. “With eyes that see, but don’t really look, and ears that hear, but don’t really listen. Why don’t you honor me? Why aren’t you in awe before me?”

“Who’s talking?” queried the moderator. He turned to the flag, standing in the corner of the room. “Is that the flag talking? But we do honor you! How dare you say we don’t.”

It looked like an interesting debate was shaping up, but it was time to sell a retirement plan, so the flag, or whoever it was, never got a chance to reply.

Back at Bethany Gate, the mute refugee was pointing to something, but it was never located at You Tube, therefore, this is the part that nobody heard:

“My people are infiltrated by wicked men, unscrupulous men on the hunt. They set traps for the unsuspecting. Their victims are innocent men and women. Their houses are stuffed with ill-gotten gain, like a hunter’s bag full of birds. Pretentious and powerful and rich, hugely obese, oily with rolls of fat. Worse, they have no conscience. . . .

“Unspeakable! Sickening! What’s happening in this country?”

By noontime the buffets had been well stocked and everyone broke for lunch. A luxury automobile sped past the mute refugee. As dust fell down on his pages, heavy, dark windows blocked his curiosity about what might be going on inside.

(Translations by Eugene H. Peterson.)

Prior to a Tuesday evening decision that backed away from requiring city contractors to prove they were hiring documented workers, the city of Georgetown received a letter from LULAC and a lawsuit from the Texas Indigenous Council.

• Read about the lawsuit at the website of the Texas Civil Rights Project
• See KEYE’s report on the council meeting
• And read the letter from LULAC below

League of United Latin American Citizens

District 7

January 22, 2008

Georgetown City Council

Dear Council Members:

I serve as the Co-District Director for LULAC District 7, which includes Williamson county. Our District has very active Councils in Williamson county and we are therefore interested in issues affecting the area. It is my understanding that the Georgetown City Council, in response to a request from Councilman Brainard and upon the recommendation of the City Attorney, tonight will consider passing an item which will require that city contracts and bids contain a clause regarding the legal status of employees in companies that do business with the city. Such clause would include language stating that the bidder/respondent is in compliance with the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C.A. § 1324a] relating to the hiring of unauthorized aliens.” City contractors that were found to be in violation of the clause could be deemed in breach of contract with the City.

While I understand the concerns that some Council persons and community members may have in regards to the hiring of undocumented workers, it is not the responsibility of the City to enforce federal immigration laws. I respectfully discourage the Council from passing any item which would institute the above referenced language or similar language. As you are aware, enforcement of federal immigration laws is not the responsibility of municipal governments. Such has been challenged in cities throughout the country, including Texas, and such laws have been struck down. While it may seem “politically expedient” to pass this item, it is not a wise decision. How will the City enforce such a clause? Will the City hire monitors to do such? Has an analysis has been done on the costs of enforcing such? The City should study this issue and court rulings at length before going forward on this issue.

I also ask each of you to examine your actions. Do you do business with companies that hire undocumented workers? It is a reality in the U.S., especially in Texas, that employers hire undocumented workers due to the failure of Congress to address the issue. You must also know, if you have studied the research of U.S. Census Director – Dr. Steve Murdoch, that it is actually a sign of a healthy economy to have a large population of undocumented workers residing and working in a community. Undocumented workers contribute to the success of the local economy. Unfortunately, some individuals choose to ignore these facts and vilify undocumented workers, while they and their family and friends hire them and or do business with companies that employ undocumented workers. The reality is that it would be almost impossible to find a businesses in Texas, and yes in Georgetown too, that does not hire undocumented individuals.

Before you seriously consider passing the above referenced item, please do more research and more inner searching on this issue. I am available to meet and discuss such at your convenience. . . . I appreciate you taking the time to ready my letter and to give deliberation to the contents.

Sincerely,

Rita D. Gonzales-Garza
Co-District Director
LULAC District 7

By Ralph Isenberg

This image was also taken during the super rally (Dallas, April 9, 2006). The image is supposed to be out of focus. Just like our current situation. To so many, the dream of being an American is clear. The land of “red, white and blue” is within reach but blurred by a policy gone wrong.

By Greg Moses

We were sad to see that Brenda Denson Prince is not among the candidates for the Precinct 3 Commissioner’s race in Kaufman County (Terrell, Texas).

The Republican who election officials claim defeated Prince in the 2004 general election has drawn an opponent. And there are three Democrats in the primary.

Terrell Tribune reporter Marcus Funk reports that during the first two days of voting, “Three-hundred and fifty-seven Democratic votes were cast at the Precinct 3 subcourthouse, or 73 percent, compared to 132 Republican votes.”

Fifty of those voters were personally driven to the voting booth by our hero, Brenda Denson Prince.

“On Tuesday, the first day, I drove 26 voters. On the second day, 24. Then on Thursday and Friday I drove 23 or 24,” said Denson Prince, speaking to us by telephone from her Terrell, Texas home.

“This morning (Saturday) I took eight more people to the polls before I had to go to a Democrat meeting,” she explained.

Her 2004 disappointments discouraged her from running again. On election night she left the vote-counting center thinking she had clearly won. By the time she got home, however, a mysterious “computer glitch” was being cited as the reason for a changed outcome.

Denson Prince attempted to have the results reviewed by court order, but she recalls that the judge refused to rule in her case, “because of a pending case in Brazos County.”

“I decided not to run again, knowing the system hasn’t changed,” she explained. But she cannot sit idly aside, either.

“This stuff is in my blood,” says Denson Prince. “I love it.” Occasionally she will tell herself to sit things out, but it never takes her very long to talk herself back into action.

Which candidate is she helping? “Joe Parnell is the most qualified candidate that we have,” says Brenda Denson Prince. And when it comes to the truth of Kaufman County we are predisposed to take her word for it.

By Ralph Isenberg

During the Super Rally in Dallas of 2006 I was walking with my camera looking for a shot that would capture the spirit of the day. I looked down and saw a shinning American Flag. But the image was anything less than shinny. Instead the image magically revealed the state of affairs we find ourselves in.

Rather than a true reflection of our flag, the image revealed a yellow line that stated “Do Not Cross.” Yet, the entire flag is over the yellow line in acknowledgment that everything that is American came from over the border. The “red, white and blue” of our flag gave way to a flag that was red, black and blue as if there were death and pain in our current situation. One only has to think of the blood of those killed coming to American and the bruising that comes with not only coming to America but trying to stay here. Finally, the starkness of the pavement points out that us as a nation have nothing as long as there is a yellow line in place.

The words of Benjamin Franklin along with this image say it best; “Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”