In Brownwood and Brown County Too ?

Posted on Thu, May. 18, 2006

Choice of speaker may be unwise
BUD KENNEDY
In My Opinion

Star-Telegram-Bud Kennedy

A Wise County Republican women's club had a special guest speaker the other day.
He was not a loyal Republican. In fact, he supports candidates running against Republicans.
He had just led a protest at President Bush's ranch.
So why in the world did the Wise Republican Women want to meet a Minuteman?
In the latest confusion over whether racism is a Republican value, the good women of Wise hosted a Boyd private investigator who patrols the Mexico border, ostensibly to protect Texas from an invasion of construction workers, restaurant cooks and hotel housekeepers.
He even opposes welcoming legal workers.
"We don't need no guest worker program," Texas Minutemen leader Shannon McGauley said, according to the Wise County Messenger.
One audience member chimed in.
"If they pass the guest workers' program, your grandchildren will be speaking Spanish," said a Newark man identified by the newspaper as Joe Greene. "I guarantee it."
Glad somebody finally got to the point.
For those who fear guest workers, the debate isn't really about lawlessness.
Dangit, if we don't shut down the border, then Texas might get more Hispanic.
Does anyone else think that sounds racist?
Does anyone else think that sounds un-Republican -- and un-American?
Marisa "Mary" Olivares Rummell of the Houston suburb of Spring is an officer in the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and a former officer of both Texas and national Republican women's clubs.
Her parents came from Queretaro and Guadalajara, Mexico.
Her father and his two brothers proudly fought for America in World War II. One uncle fought on the beaches at Normandy.
She opposes bilingual school classes. She supports making new citizens learn English.
But when someone simply fears Hispanic culture or that future Texans might speak Spanish -- "That just sounds racist to me," she said by phone Monday.
Not only that, she said, it's bad for Republicans.
"This is the kind of fear-mongering that I don't like," she said.
"Nothing will make socialism grow faster than fear-mongering and antagonistic rhetoric from our side," she said. "Do they" -- fellow Republicans -- "not see how that looks from the other side?
"The Hispanic population is young and growing. We have a chance to win new voters."
According to various polls, Bush won more than 40 percent of Hispanic votes in 2004.
In a recent poll of likely voters this fall, Hispanic voters in Texas strongly preferred Republican Gov. Rick Perry for re-election. Independent Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn was running second.
Yet some Republican clubs seem bent on insulting legal Hispanic voters who might otherwise share concerns about lawless immigration.
Last month, a college Republican club at the University of Texas at Arlington hosted a debate on whether "Hispanicization" -- legal or illegal -- is bad. In the audience were Hispanic students from a demographic group that is growing three times faster than any other nationwide.
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly wants to welcome those votes.
Maybe the Wise Republican Women should find speakers there instead of among the Minutemen.
I've written about the Minutemen's inherent bigotry in this space before. Co-founder Jim Gilchrist, a third-party political candidate, spells it out on the Web site at www.minutemanproject.com.
The Minutemen want to prevent the "social mayhem" that will result from a future "tangle of rancorous, unassimilated, squabbling cultures" -- in other words, anyone who doesn't match the Minutemen's culture.
The Texas Minutemen's Web blog even includes comments from a Web bulletin board devoted to "White Pride" and white nationalism.
Wise Republican Women President Bettye Parker said she didn't think having a Minuteman guest seemed racist.
The program was "very informative," she said.
It certainly was.

Bud Kennedy's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. (817) 390-7538 bud@budkennedy.com
source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists/bud_kennedy/14608826.htm