Much as students from Gallaudet are about to learn of the consequences of speech, so too is Marc Fisher, Post Columnist. While Turkey has banned insulting turkishness, and France is trying to ban denying an Armenian genocide at the hands of Turkey, we have our own crisis of viewpoint here in DC. Check out this recent Marc Fisher column on Culpeper, VA, and about several of the residents who are struggling with the large influx of hispanic immigrants:
Jenkins realizes that the moneyed arrivals from the north are not going anywhere. But maybe, he says, just maybe, something can be done about those from the south. “It’s a much easier issue, because it’s black and white,” he says. “I don’t get it when people say immigration is a gray issue. You’re either legal, or you’re not. We need to help them be legal. I’m not for anything harsh. If they’re willing to come forward and go through a process, we have an obligation to assist them in every way. But I’m about rules.”
This article absolutely infuriated restauranteur Michael Landrum, owner of Ray’s the Steaks and Ray’s the Classics, who wrote in to Fisher…
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
There are some views, beliefs, arguments and ideas so repugnant, despicable and abhorrent (if history has taught us anything) that they have no place in civil discourse–no matter how attractively they are presented–for their goals are the dehumanization of others…. [T]o present them publicly–especially under the guise of journalistic responsibility–without unequivocal condemnation gives tacit approval to, and makes one complicit in, their propogation….
Why not mention in your piece that all of these arguments were exactly those made by the early National Socialists and that the orgnization and tactics of the Minute Men mirror exactly those of the Brown Shirts? That would indeed reflect the reality that truly exists as you so nobly state is your purpose….
Landrum also asked Fisher never to come to his restaurants, ever. It strikes me that the situation in which our area may find itself is one in which no one will like or enjoy the outcome. Herndon’s training its small-town cops to enforce immigration laws, and I suspect they will not be the only DC area community to do so. Are we going to find ourselves in a witch hunt for illegal immigrants? A sort of “legal holocaust” as Landrum wants you to believe this might be?
It’s clear to me that people actually do believe in a frozen 1950s image of America, much like Mr. Jenkins of Culpeper, but as time advances, and as history records our acts, I’m sure that deporting illegal immigrants will be recorded as a mistake. The time has come for another amnesty. Let those who have come here illegally but have committed no crime other than that, be allowed to remain here, pay their taxes responsibly (even back taxes) and move forward.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
