I have been asked why I committed civil disobedience recently.
Being a UU calls me to many things, but most of all to respect the inherent worth and dignity of all people. I believe that it matters deeply how we treat one another – how we honor our community; whether it’s our faith community, our local community, or our human community. SB 1070 violates the very ideas, ideals, and principles I hold dear.
By the sheer fortune of the location of my birth, I immigrated to this country easily, had permanent resident status for most of my life, and was able to get my citizenship within a year and a half of applying. Many others wait 20 years or more. Why?
Our immigration policy is dysfunctional and has led to a situation where AZ and other states feel the need to pass immoral legislation to “manage” the challenges that come with a large undocumented population. SB1070, however, will lead to more fear, undue suspicion, increased polarization, and escalating conflict within our communities – it already has – and it isn’t even in effect yet...
Reza Lavasani Dana, an Iranian tourist from Sweden who went jogging near Escondido last weekend, has been found dead.
What did Resa Lavasani Dana die from? It appears he died from the heat (and the fact that no one stopped to help him as he was crawling along the roadside). He seems to have crawled into the ravine looking for relief from the heat.
It's odd that he was found at the bottom of a ravine; he had been seen hobbling along the road. How and why did he (or his body) leave the road? Why didn't anyone stop to help? Were they afraid he was illegal, and therefore they didn't want to get involved?
The body of a man believed to be that of a Swedish tourist who went jogging Thursday in a rural area north of Escondido was found by Sheriff’s Department detectives Monday morning.
The body was located at 8:30 a.m. in a ravine off a driveway on Mountain Meadow Road. Two sheriff’s officials said there is no reason to suspect foul play at this time, but until the body can be examined the cause of death can’t be known for sure.
The general description and clothing of the man who was found match that of Reza Lavasani Dana, 33, who was last seen Thursday afternoon in the area. High temperatures that day reached the mid-90s in the area.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said witnesses came forward over the weekend saying they had seen a jogger hobbling along the road, as if his leg or ankle had been injured, but thought no more about it until seeing news reports over the weekend about the search for Lavasani Dana.
Detectives Monday morning went to the area and found the body in heavy brush at the bottom of the ravine...
WHERE'S YOUR SUGGESTION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM, MR. BILBRAY?
I'm afraid you're encouragement of anger at immigrants may send the wrong message to those who feel the urge to commit hate crimes. Police need to investigate events like this one, not immigrants just looking for work.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said Friday that he and a group of lawmakers plan to file a court brief in opposition to the Obama administration's legal challenge of Arizona's controversial new immigration law...
"It comes as no surprise," said Pedro Rios, San Diego director of the human rights group American Friends Service Committee. "Brian Bilbray has always pushed for anti-immigrant legislation at the local, state and federal level."
...Arizona overstepped its authority by passing the immigration law, said David Blair-Loy, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
"Whether you think the federal government is doing its job or not is beside the point," Blair-Loy said. "The state of Arizona trespassed into the legal prerogative of the federal government. ... Arizona doesn't get to play in the immigration sandbox."
[Maura Larkins note: An acquaintance of mine remembers Brian Bilbray visiting city hall in Imperial Beach in the seventies wearing a motorcycle jacket with a swastika on the back.]
Bilbray was born in Coronado, California, growing up in Imperial Beach, California. He worked as a tax consultant before entering politics. He and his wife, the former Karen Walker, have five children. He is a cousin of former Nevada Democratic Representative James Bilbray.
Bilbray became interested in politics during an attempt by Mayor Bert Stites to carry out an extensive program of eminent domain. He ran successfully for the Imperial Beach city council as a populist, serving during 1976–1987, and was mayor during 1978–1985. Bilbray's tenure as Mayor was marked by his attempt to build a yacht marina in the Tijuana Estuary and build a 1.5 mile breakwater off of the beach of Imperial Beach. [1] Both projects were stopped by the opposition of local environmentalists and surfers. The Tijuana River Estuary is now a National Estuarine Research Reserve and California State Park. The breakwater project was halted with the help of the then fledgling Surfrider Foundation...
NORTH COUNTY --- A neighbor of Republican 50th District Rep. Brian Bilbray said Thursday that he was subpoenaed to testify before a San Diego County grand jury in August and spent about an hour and a half answering questions about whether Bilbray lived in his Carlsbad neighborhood...
SAN DIEGANS GOING TO ARIZONA TO PROTEST ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAW
San Diegans, led by Mar Cardenas, are asking everyone who opposes SB1070 to come to Arizona on July 28-30th for Days of Non-compliance. They will be meeting at the Unitarian Church in Hillcrest.
We are all Arizona! Don't let this happen here or anywhere else! We must do this as a community and as a nation.
The passage of SB 1070 by Governor Brewer sparked national outrage catalyzing a movement for immigrant rights and lending a sense of urgency to stop the hate and terrorizing of immigrants and people of color in Arizona and across the nation.
Yesterday I was surprised to learn, at an introductory discussion at the South Bay Unitarian Church in Chula Vista, that Catholics believe in three gods. This was told to me by a "recovering Catholic" who says she is a pagan.
I'm afraid the "three gods" idea is a misinterpretation of Catholic belief. A woman sitting next to me at the discussion leaned toward me and asked, "Who are the three gods?" She herself had been raised Catholic, but without the benefit of Catholic religious instruction, so she was sincerely confused and curious.
I offered to this woman the explanation that my Irish parents gave regarding Catholic belief about the Trinity: just as each leaf of the shamrock has three sections, so God has three persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. (Protestants also believe in the Trinity, so why did the leader of the discussion limit her remarks to Catholics? Perhaps she has issues?)
I told the woman that Catholics do not believe in three gods, and she got so mad at me that she withdrew her offer of membership. She was shaking with anger, and said I'd have to talk to the minister. She said the nuns in Evanston, Illinois taught her when she was a child that there are three gods. I think she may be either misremembering or misreporting that story.
Another woman at the meeting said "I'm sorry" when I mentioned that I had been raised Catholic. I said I still considered myself a Catholic, just not a very good one, and I understood that Unitarians weren't required to reject their original religions. Clearly the women running the show at South Bay UU disagree with that notion--at least if the original religion is Catholic.
Ironically, these same women are planning a trip to Arizona on July 28-29, 2010 with the specific purpose of committing civil disobedience.
Apparently the hope is that Arizonans will back down if the Unitarians are unpleasant enough. It seems to me that there is a bit of a contradiction here. These women don't want anyone in their church that disagrees with them about the number of gods worshipped by Catholics, and yet they think that somehow the people of Arizona will listen respectfully to folks who disagree with them about the number of immigrants that should live in Arizona.
It's a lost cause. Registering a protest only gathers sympathy when people accept that the protester is in the right. Polls show this not to be the case in the current situation. The public supports the Arizona law, and, in fact, support is increasing. Obviously the Arizona law is unconstitutional, but the majority of the population seems to see the law itself as a protest against the federal government's failure to deal with the problem of illegal immigration. The immigrants themselves would like to be legal; the law, however, makes that logistically close to impossible.
Most people on this planet--including many of the supporters of the Arizona law-- are just like the Unitarian women I talked to on Sunday: they have little use for others' opinions. My guess is that the Zonies will be just as headstrong as the Unitarians. The protests won't turn any hearts or minds. The protests might actually be counterproductive. They might have the same effect as similar protests that occurred the night before the vote on California's Proposition 187: the protests seemed to have triggered a landslide in favor of the proposition.
I agree that the law is bad, but the Unitarians need to think a bit more clearly about how one goes about changing the world. The attitude of the South Bay UU women seems to be that they can simply demand compliance from just about anyone. I would recommend that they think this through. How can you change the world when you're so obviously working from the same rule book as your opponents? I suggest open, free-flowing discussion that includes lots of different opinions.
Some possibilities:
1. Work to obtain better drug treatments for Americans so we won't be funding the narco-traffickers who are destroying the economy of Mexico, sending refugees north.
2. Better media coverage and social integration of immigrants in the US, so Arizonans and others won't be so afraid of them.
3. Pressure on Mexico to share the wealth among its citizens. Mexico has the richest man in the world (Carlos Slim). Simply by reducing his profits by a reasonable amount he could stop the transfer of funds from poor Mexicans to himself. Mexico could become just as comfortable a place to live as the US if the laws were more egalitarian.
A difference in approach is needed, not just constant posturing to prove who is stronger.
