It’s almost comical to watch the local Tucson news coverage of the Minuteman Project. I keep asking myself, “Are these people serious?” Sadly, the answer is yes.
It took this armed militia less than a week to be the target of an investigation by authorities. From an ABC news report:
Border Patrol agents called in deputies from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday afternoon to report that an immigrant was detained by three men who identified themselves as project volunteers.
Carol Capas, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman, said the 26-year-old Mexican man told agents he was physically restrained and forced to hold a shirt while his picture was taken and he was videotaped.
The shirt read: “Bryan Barton caught an illegal alien and all I got was this T-shirt.”
What raises my blood pressure to a boiling point even more is that many of these wackos will claim to be Christian. Last time I remembered, the Bible taught that every person is created in the image of God and deserves dignity.
I lay the blame directly at the feet of President Bush for our political and religious climate. He has co-opted the Christian message in a way that motivates right wing activists to sell-out the poor of our country in the name of patriotism, pseudo-morality and freedom. It’s hypocrisy at the highest level.
It will only a matter of time before there is an “international incident” referenced at the end of the article above. I pray that it doesn’t happen, but I remain skeptical as long as these Minute (read Militia) Men feel empowered. It’s time to raise a stink in the local papers about their extremism. Here are the Letter to the Editor emails for the Tucson papers, I hope you’ll join me in pointing out this group’s wacko behavior:
Update [2005-4-7 15:50:27 by Man Eegee]: Local newspapers are now reporting that they “didn’t hold an illegal immigrant against his will.” Right…mmhhmmmm, nothing to see here.
I also found this little tidbit interesting from another story:
We have no time or patience for anyone attempting to turn this situation into a three-ring circus,” he (Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever) said.
The Cochise County Attorney’s Office is also investigating the complaint.
Barton, who is running for Congress in San Diego on the Republican ticket, said he’s not worried about charges being filed and that he never held the man against his will.
Keep us posted. And I’ll write a letter later. Glad you included an action item.
I also liked this part in the ABCnews report:
Duh… Aren’t they there to help the Border Patrol agents? Mucho ayuda el que no estorba.
he decided to get married in Hawaii last year, so we did the incredibly loooong flight with our little one. Ugh.
The wedding itself was GREAT. Just…the day after we spent at a restaurant. And when I say we “spent the day at the restaurant” I MEAN it. We SPENT THE DAY THERE. It was awful – my mom just decided to take up residence in their waiting area because it was originally a very nice living room of an old house and she felt comfy there.
Don’t ask.
Anywho…the experience of being there for hours and getting looks from the staff kinda reminded me of what they must have thought about the first white missionaries, who showed up and then just kinda stayed around until they co-opted the place and made a bunch of money. They have a wonderful word of welcome in Hawaii – Mahalo – which they use to make people feel included and special…and there’s no Hawaiian equivalent to the opposite of Mahalo (or at least none that I ever heard when I was there).
But if there was they probably would have used it.
Which made Hubby and me think of a song that would have helped them get rid of folks like us…and those pesky white missionaries…
“Mahalo, Mahalo, Why Don’t you go?
Mahalo, Mahalo, why don’t you go?
We’d love for you to stay
But then we couldn’t say
Mahalo, Mahalo, Mahalo”
Seems this’d also be an appropriate song to use on our cute little vigilantes, doing more harm than good.
Yes, do keep us posted and I will try to get an email off tomorrow.
I blame bush also for the whole atmosphere in the country causing a lot of this craziness. And also am hoping that something terrible isn’t going to happen. This is just an unholy mess waiting to happen.
To my way of thinking if these gung-ho jackasses really wanted to do something constructive they would start protesting the businesses that continue to hire illegals coming here so they can pay slave wages. That’s the problem in my mind. That’s not as glamorous though as playing macho cowboy with their guns and all that cool shit.
Barton is running for office in San Diego? I live there and have never heard of him before. I will do some research and see what I can do to keep him out of office here.
Living in MASS, a few towns over from the Minuteman statue, I take offense to the use of this name. Well, I know that they are clueless on history, but comparing a fight against an aggressor to a fight against a weaker element is just so retarded. This state should sue them and give them something real fun to occupy their time.