Simi Blinks First; Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement

It’s not quite over, least of all for Liliana, the immigrant sheltered in a Simi Valley church, but the Ventura County Star reported today that the city’s bill of $39, 307 to the United Church of Christ has been put “on hold.”

 

 

Make no mistake about it, the Simi Valley city council and the mayor blinked first.

 

 

Faced with the threat of legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union, the city made its first intelligent decision in this entire affair—it backed down. The church did not.

 

 

City Manager Mike Sedell is quoted in the Star’s report as saying, “The city’s biggest concern is public safety, cost comes later.”

 

 

Contrast this with what he told the Los Angeles Times last week: “We warned [church officials] that if they flaunted it in the public, then these [protests] will occur and there will be consequences.”

 

 

This lofty attitude came with a price: on shaky legal ground, the city is trying to repair its damaged reputation.

 

 

“The city will continue to pursue resolution of this issue, and the mayor will recommend to the City Council that further action against UCC to enforce the letter sent to UCC asking for reimbursement of costs be placed on hold pending further discussion,” read a joint statement issued by Mayor Paul Miller, the Rev. June Goudey, and others.

 

 

What will happen to Liliana remains to be seen, but odds are she’ll be deported.

 

 

It occurs to me that there are similarities between those who heckled the Little Rock Nine 50 years ago and those who picketed the churched harboring Liliana last week.

 

 

The protesters of both eras were intolerant, trying vainly to preserve a way of life that had already disappeared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, 50 years after the forced integration of Little Rock Central High School, former president Bill Clinton held the doors open for those who bravely risked violence to claim the education that was justly theirs.

 

 

 

Politicians fall all over themselves to give lip service in commemoration of the event. In addition to Clinton, the governor of Arkansas and the mayor of Little Rock attended a ceremony honoring the Little Rock Nine. President Bush issued a statement: “We resolve to continue their work to make America a more perfect Union,” said the president.

 

 

The day will come, probably sooner than we think, when politicians will fall all over themselves to praise the contributions of Latinos to American culture. They will say that they always supported a humane immigration policy.

 

 

When that day comes, we will remember those like Mayor Miller and Congressman Elton Gallegly barred the gates.

 

 

The United States should adopt more humanitarian immigration legislation, that which allows economic migrants, like Liliana, to stay in the country as guest workers. Groups like Save Our State would deride this as amnesty, but they forget our long tradition of offering shelter to those like Liliana who come here seeking a better life.

 

 

I’ll take Rev. Goudy’s version of America over Mayor Miller’s any day.

 

 

The Ups and Downs of Barack Obama

Senator Barack Obama fired up a crowd of an estimated 6,000 people in Santa Barbara today.

 

This evening, Santa Barbara television station KSBY ran an article and posted this video about the presidential candidate’s visit. Pitifully, the Santa Barbara News-Press, pariah of South Coast newspapers, had nothing on its front page about the visit tonight. Neither did the Ventura County Star.

 

The following quotes are from the KSBY article and video:

 

“I really think he has the power to change the country through inspiring millions of people like myself,” said supporter George Corbin.

 

Another supporter, James Johnson, said, “I think it’s really about changing the system, and the fact that he really understands that inspires me a lot.”

 

Obama’s comments seemed to strengthen these views: “If you’re looking for a president of the United States of America, then don’t just bet on this campaign, believe in yourself.”

 

I trust we’ll get better reporting of the event tomorrow morning.

 

Tonight, Obama attends a fundraiser at Oprah Winfrey’s home in nearby Montecito.

 

Today, the Los Angeles Times ran the puzzlingly poorly edited article, “Obama: A Fresh Face or an Old-school Tactician?” It does not paint a flattering portrait of Obama in the rough-and-tumble Chicago political scene.

 

He was ambitious, says the article, citing a staffer, Cynthia K. Miller, as saying Obama had told her he planned to be president. This was in 1995.

 

Among other things, the article implies that Obama had directed state money to a nonprofit run by Yesse Yehudah as a payment-in-kind for a series of donations to his failed campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives.

 

The article describes how Obama helped black-owned investment firms get money from the state pensions funds and then received large campaign donations from them, particularly from Ariel Capital.

 

Another odd incident occurred when Obama bought a $1.65 million house in Chicago. The seller of the house also wanted to sell a small parcel of land along with the house. Antoin Rezko is an early financial supporter of Obama who was recently under federal indictment. His wife bought the land and later sold it back to Obama, who has now transferred it to his lawyer. Obama admitted his involvement in this affair was“boneheaded.”

 

So, our hero does not have completely clean hands. This is disheartening. But does Hillary? Does John Edwards? Does any politician? Should we plug our noses and hope for the best?

 

Certainly, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards would all be preferable to any Republican currently on offer. At least our candidates would not trample on the Constitution as the present president has done. And luckily, the GOP probably does not have the courage to choose Rudolph Giuliani as its candidate, he’s too liberal on social issues, after all, and secretly tolerates gays. Therefore the Republicans’ candidate will lose the election handily.

But I am tired of the same old politician, the type that does not understand that political office is a sacred public trust, that no portion of this can be bought and sold. I had hoped Obama was not one of these. Is all of this blown out of proportion? I certainly hope so.