Eight days after submitting my Letter to the Editor regarding the proposed boycott of Mexican restaurants (and essentially all immigrants) the News-Leader printed my letter rebuffing the ignorant idea. So I was very interested when I found out Tony Messenger was coming to the Springfield blogger’s meeting.
When Ron Davis got done talking with Tony, I introduced myself. I was a bit miffed that it took so long for a daily to run a positive immigration letter, as the whole last two weeks were filled with nasty immigrant-hating diatribes. Too few on the other side were speaking up.
We spoke for a time about the processing of Letters to the Editor and his thoughts on how to fix that process. A good thing, because I would probably ever write in again as eight days late makes a letter referencing Cinco de Mayo not so timely.
I think the News-Leader’s Editorial page will be better off with Tony at the helm.
(Note: My letter was over the 200 word limit, so I had to revise it. As promised, here is my submission which ran in the Sunday, May 14 edition of the News-Leader:)
When Ron Davis got done talking with Tony, I introduced myself. I was a bit miffed that it took so long for a daily to run a positive immigration letter, as the whole last two weeks were filled with nasty immigrant-hating diatribes. Too few on the other side were speaking up.
We spoke for a time about the processing of Letters to the Editor and his thoughts on how to fix that process. A good thing, because I would probably ever write in again as eight days late makes a letter referencing Cinco de Mayo not so timely.
I think the News-Leader’s Editorial page will be better off with Tony at the helm.
(Note: My letter was over the 200 word limit, so I had to revise it. As promised, here is my submission which ran in the Sunday, May 14 edition of the News-Leader:)
The boycott of all Mexican restaurants, suggested by Jim Reeves, in last week’s News-Leader, is a bi-product of what ails our culture. Fear leads to hatred and discrimination, leading to open disdain for all Hispanics. The hatred boils down to this: “I don’t want them, to get ahead of us,” something I’ve heard all my life growing up here.
The facts that illegal immigrants consist of persons from many nationalities, and not all Mexicans are illegal, are simply a minor nuisance to those who hate. It’s hard to discriminate against a group of people if you don’t demonize the entire culture.
There has been a surprisingly small public rebuttal to this open bigotry. So on Cindo de Mayo, I had lunch and dinner at Mexican restaurants as a private protest. Reeves’ suggested Cinco de Screw-O was seen for what it is: fear-driven, hate-filled bigotry.
A silent protest against discrimination never works. If Hispanics, Asians and other minority populations are ever going to feel safe in Springfield, then the educated, the open-minded and the Christian must take their place in public life and decry this hatred of people.
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1 comment:
That is very sweet of you to say. I really enjoyed meeting you. It was a pleasure. I look forward to hearing about your travels and experiences.
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