I have enjoyed the remarkable privilege of living in our beautiful seaside community for close to 25 years. I’ve been active in causes that have promised to “Protect our Quality of Life.” I have also volunteered to help local day laborers, the poorest members of our community, to escape the dignities of poverty and improve their quality of life as well.
But some not only want to remove the poor among us, they want to hurt them. On Friday, Los Angeles day laborer groups organized a religious service and press conference to show solidarity and to condemn the beating and stabbing of two day workers in Farmingville, Long Island, New York who were promised work, but instead were [allegedly] taken to an abandoned factory basement, beaten with shovels, stabbed, and left to die. Last week, a 19-year-old white youth was identified as one of the attackers. He reportedly said that he and a friend, who is still at large, drove 50 miles from Queens to pretend to hire the workers but with the intention of killing them.
I know you’re thinking that I thought when I first heard about this outrages hate, that Farmingville is a long way from Malibu. But I read on to discover that Farmingville had a visitor recently who spoke at their local Veterans Center — his focus was how to rid the country of immigrants. This speaker was Glen Spencer who leads the Voices of Citizens Together, has a radio show and a Web site and is based in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He addressed the Farmingville group, “Long Island Quality of Life.” He stated that the rising number of Mexican immigrants is part of a plan to “reconquer” the Southwest United States and further stated that those taking part in the plan include the Mexican Government, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Ford Foundation, corporations such as Citibank and Pacific Bell, and various immigrant civil rights groups.’ ” (Newsday, The Long Island Newspaper, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2000.)
And what are other radio talk show hosts saying? Bob Grant, a talk show host in the New York area recently said on the air, the immigrants are “stench, legal or illegal … that should be removed from the air we breathe.” (Newsday, the Long Island Newspaper, Sept. 19, 2000.)
The leader of the group who invited Spencer to speak to their “Long Island Quality of Life” meeting is a New York City public school teacher. Obviously, hate mongering and immigrant bashing is prevalent from coast to coast — and broadcast by voices in our own backyard, on the radio, on the Internet, and in the public schools.
I thought before I was invited to participate in the local service that an incident like the one in Farmingville could never happen here, that such hate and anger flourishes only in the backwaters of society. But then, I’m sure that the parents in Columbine thought that as well.
I don’t profess to have any answer to the existence of hate mongering and the atmosphere of vigilantism that it creates. However, I was moved to share this information, because I believe we need to be aware that hate crimes and intolerance toward the poor of any class or race is wrong. Did God say that the protection and pursuit of an improved “Quality of Life” belongs only to those who are white and American-born. I don’t think so.
Mona Loo