A New Low: Shooting Immigrants from Helicopters?

As a Kansan, yesterday I was saddened to hear a representative from my home state sink to a new low. The Lawrence Journal World reported that Kansas State Representative Virgil Peck (R) said, "It might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled—with hunters shooting from helicopters."

Unfortunately, this is not the first time a legislator in our nation has compared undocumented immigrants to animals or much worse. But advocating for shooting humans from helicopters is far beyond unacceptable. Ironically, Representative Peck’s comment comes just days after the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) launched its Pledge for Respect campaign. It appears the campaign couldn’t have come at a more timely moment.

Just last Thursday, hundreds of Latino leaders from NCLR’s Affiliate Network met with their members of Congress in Washington, DC and asked them to sign a pledge to respect the Latino community, commit to encouraging civil discourse in the political process, and publicly oppose irresponsible rhetoric that dehumanizes and scapegoats Latinos. 

Apparently we need to circulate the pledge in my home state of Kansas as well. To add insult to injury, when Peck was asked about his comment, he did not apologize. Instead he said, “I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person.” So not only does he see no problem with insulting immigrants and Latinos, now he’s adding Kansans to the mix.
 
He was then quoted as saying “I think it’s over” and that he did not expect any more controversy over his comment. Well, I beg to differ. 

Join me in telling Representative Peck that it’s far from over! 

He doesn’t seem to think that he has done anything wrong and he needs to understand that this type of rhetoric has no place in our public discourse. That’s why we are also asking Speaker Mike O’Neal of the Kansas House of Representatives to call for an apology and an end to this intolerance in the Kansas legislature. 

We understand that our country is tired of federal inaction on immigration reform, but dehumanizing and scapegoating immigrants is not a solution. We look to our elected officials as leaders in our nation and we demand that they start acting like it.

Kansans, and all Americans, deserve better.

Sincerely,

Janet Murguía
President and CEO

Hate speech in the media A threat to the internal security of the U.S.

By: Aurora Grajeda

Published in the Printed Edition of September 4-17, 2008 of the bilingual newspaper El Tecolote - (Versión en Español)

As hate speech spirals, a local group of community activists are organizing a demonstration in San Francisco against shock jock Michael Savage. The group, Hispanic / Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition SF, plans to rally in front of the building which houses radio station KNEW-AM where Savage transmits his nationally-syndicated program.

On his program, people hear Savage call for troops on the street "to protect us from the scourge of illegal immigrants who are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America while the liberal psychos are telling us they come here to work." Or that autism is a "fraud, a racket, that in 99 percent of cases is a brat who hasn’t been told to cut their act out" and to stop being ‘morons‘, a way where minority children get welfare and extra help in school, and who also tells fasting immigrant students "to starve to death, then we won’t have a problem."

These kind of statements act as fuel for people who are already angry, resentful and violent. Take, for instance, Jim David Adkisson, who entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun, killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. In his car, police found a four-page letter in which he expressed his hatred of the "liberal movement’, and wrote he targeted the church "because of its liberal teachings" and his belief that "all liberals should be killed" because they were "ruining the country."

Inside Adkisson’s home, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage; "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity; and the book, "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly. These three continuously demonize liberals, immigrants and others.

On Glenn Beck’s nationally syndicated radio show, The Glenn Beck Program, he read an "ad" produced and posted by subscribers to his website, for a refinery that turns Mexicans into fuel (Mexinol).

Neil Boortz suggests giving nuclear waste to illegal Mexican immigrants to take back to Mexico and tell them "it’ll warm tortillas", plus they will be easy to spot because of the "glow" if they try to return.

Savage warns politicians about illegal immigrant "vermin."

Shock jocks insist their rants are not hurting anyone and that they are not inciting hate attacks. Meanwhile disenfranchised groups continue to be targeted. Take, for instance, the savage beating of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala by a group of four young white males in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania on July 12.

An eyewitness to the beating who happens to be a retired police officer, heard the youths telling Ramirez’s friends to "get out of Shenandoah or the same thing would happen" to them.
"We saw a bunch of kids walking away and screaming things like "‘Go back to Mexico.’ We called the police," said Arielle Garcia, 17, a friend of Ramirez who was at the scene; Luis Eduardo died about 30 hours later.

Legislation and programs designed to provide basic human rights and services regardless of legal status are being curtailed or dismantled, while punitive anti-immigrant legislation is being enacted in localities in all the states and a number of hate groups and the violence leveled against minorities is on the rise. Human rights organizations are under attack, demonized for allegedly helping ‘criminals’

All of the above, plus immensely more, is made possible by the poisoning of the minds of millions of Americans, who are bombarded daily with outrageously false and inflammatory claims, designed to prejudice public opinion against groups and entire communities without allowing the opportunity to present opposing views and facts, which would refute the propaganda full of lies, misinformation and disinformation.

Aurora Grajeda is a community activist, member of the ‘Hispanic / Latino Anti-Defamation Coalition SF" currently organizing a demonstration in front the broadcasting booth of KNEW on Sept. 23, 4 to 6 pm, at 340 Townsend ST in San Francisco, whence Michael Savage transmits his program, to focus on the consequences of Hate Speech. and to demand that a more balanced view on the issues is presented in the Media so a much needed comprehensive debate in the public opinion arena takes place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

By Reverend Martin Niemüller. For his opposition to the Nazis, Niemüller was arrested in 1937, convicted of treason, and spent eight years in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps.

Anti-Hate Speech Demonstration Flyer "Hispanic Dignity Train" SJ to SF
Demonstracion contra El Lenguage de Odio Volante "Tren de La Dignidad Hispana" SJ to SF
Anti-Hate Speech Demonstration Flyer, San Francisco

Hate speech in the media A threat to the internal security of the U.S. (Post with Audio Clips of HateMongers)