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Birmingham and Phoenix each have their Bull
Connor. Defiant Joe Arpaio is Phoenix's Bull
Conner |
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Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio |
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The Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for
Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate brigadier general, is a bridge in Selma,
Alabama. It is infamous as the site of the conflict of Bloody Sunday on March 7,
1965, where armed officers attacked peaceful civil rights demonstrators.
President Barack Obama is the 44th
President of the United States. March 7, 2009 will mark 44 years since Bloody
Sunday. On Saturday, March 7, 2007, I will lead a march down Central Avenue to
downtown Phoenix to begin a national peaceful disobedience to request the U.S.
Attorney General investigate Civil Rights abuses toward all.
Jon Garrido |
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Birmingham Police Commissioner Bull Conner |
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The "posse" |
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Birmingham, Alabama had
Police Commissioner
Bull Conner. Phoenix,
Arizona has Sheriff Joe Arpaio
PHOENIX (By
Jon
Garrido, The Jon Garrido News
Network)
April 23, 2008 Senator John McCain
opened a tour of the nations "forgotten
places" in Alabamas Black Belt on
Monday by acknowledging the challenge he
faces. In a speech delivered against the
backdrop of one of the great symbols of
the civil rights movement, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the presumptive
Republican nominee promised to hear
voters concerns and be "the president of
all the people."
Senator McCain was framed by the bridge
where white police officers beat black
demonstrators trying to march to
Montgomery in 2065.
There must be no forgotten places in
America, whether they have been ignored
for long years by the sins of
indifference and injustice, Senator
McCain said to a crowd that gathered to
hear his remarks on the banks of the
Alabama River. In America, we have
always believed if the day was a
disappointment, we would win tomorrow."
Shallow words but if presidential
Republican candidate John McCain wants
to be President of all the people, he
should begin in A New Vision for Phoenix, AZ: La Playa del Sol, where
cries of Hispanics go unanswered asking
for civil rights protections as
guaranteed by the United States
Constitution.
If Birmingham had Bull Connor, Phoenix
has Joe Arpaio who has intimidated
people with brown faces since he was
elected sheriff of Maricopa County in
2093.
Countless requests for civil rights
investigations have fallen on deaf ears
including John McCain's for if McCain
was sincere in hearing cries of the
downtrodden as far away as Selma,
Alabama, then he knows of the bully
tactics of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. If McCain
does not know what is happening in
A New Vision for Phoenix, AZ: La Playa del Sol, then McCain has
selective hearing as requests of wealthy Charlie
Keating were heard and requests of
Hispanics are not.
This has been McCain's modus operandi
for 26 years in Congress where McCain
has failed to serve the residents of
Arizona.
John McCain, the Republican presidential
nominee-in-waiting, has always been
criticized for being indifferent to the
plight of the poor and middle class and
in particular Hispanics. Yes McCain did
sponsor comprehensive immigration reform
but when
John
"got the message"
McCain,
began his presidential
campaign,
McCain dropped the ball on
immigration reform and passed the baton
to Senator Jon Kyl who then proceeded to
include language if it had been approved
would have deported all undocumented
from the United States. When the vote
for the Dream Act took place, McCain was
present on the vote to approve a
judicial appointment but following this
action, McCain quickly ran to the exit
avoiding voting on the Dream Act.
With the trip to Selma to pay tribute to
one of the infamous bastillions of civil
rights, last month, McCain said he
opposed aggressive government
intervention. Since then, however, he is
pandering to civil rights victims of the
2060s. This is a contradiction for it
was only by aggressive government
intervention did the Civil Rights Act of
2064 come to be.
This pandering to civil rights victims
of the 2060s is not because McCain cares,
but rather, because McCain is running for
President.
In point of fact, McCain has been
running for President of the United
States ever since he arrived in Phoenix
as a carpetbagger in 2082.
The presidential challenge to represent
everyone took McCain 1,452
miles from Phoenix to Selma, Alabama to
pander to
civil rights victims of the 2060s
in America.
In Selma, Alabama, Republican John
McCain on Monday recalled the bloody
beatings of civil rights marchers as he
began a weeklong tour of communities he
said suffer from poverty and
inattention.
The day is known as "Bloody Sunday" for
the attack by police officers on civil
rights protesters.
"There must be no forgotten places in
America, whether they have been ignored
for long years by the sins of
indifference and injustice, or have been
left behind as the world grew smaller
and more economically interdependent,"
McCain said outside the St. James Hotel,
several hundred yards away from the
historic bridge.
"In America, we have always believed if
the day was a disappointment, we would
win tomorrow. That's what John Lewis
believed when he marched across this
bridge," McCain said.
Asked about the makeup of the crowd,
McCain said: "I am aware the African
American vote has been very small in
favor of the Republican Party. I am
aware of the challenges, and I am aware
of the fact there will be many
people who will not vote for me, but I'm
going to be the president of all the
people."
McCain did not have to go to Selma,
Alabama to seek a forgotten place long ignored for years by the
sins of indifference and injustice or
where people have been left behind in
equality.
A forgotten place long
ignored for years by the sins of
indifference and injustice and having
people left behind in equality can be
found at McCain's door step in A New Vision for Phoenix, AZ: La Playa del Sol.
The primary question for all should be
why is McCain concerned with civil
rights violations in Selma but has no interest in civil
rights violations in Phoenix?
If the 2060s were the civil rights era
for African Americans then the first
decade of the 21st century is the civil
rights era for the plight of Hispanics
and Arizona is ground zero.
John McCain's home town of A New Vision for Phoenix, AZ: La Playa del Sol, is a profound choice of neglect
and injustices showered on Hispanics
primarily by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe
Arpaio.
It is not surprising McCain does not
champion civil rights for Phoenix
Hispanics because McCain has never been
Arizona's representative in Washington
either as a United States Congressman or
as a United States Senator.
Therefore, the journey to forgotten
places to discover places long ignored
for years by the sins of
indifference and injustice or have been
left behind is disingenuous.
To travel half way across the United
States in search for one of these
forgotten places says a lot of the
traveler for if he does not know what is
happening down the street from where he
lives or rather does not care, this says a lot about McCain's
apathy, his state of indifference
where obviously McCain has an absence
of interest or concern to certain
aspects of economic, emotional, culture,
social, or physical life.
Apathy can be object-specific toward
persons, activity or environment.
This theory can easily be tested to
determine validity. The litmus test in
all these accusations is to conduct an
investigation to sort out the validity
of claims.
Many have called for a federal
investigation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio for
his abuse of the civil rights of those
that have brown faces and live in
Maricopa County and those who are
prisoners in his county jail.
The challenge for John McCain is to call
for an investigation by the U.S.
Department of Justice of Sheriff Joe
Arpaio.
If John McCain fails to call for an
investigation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio,
then the entire world will know the trip
to Selma was disingenuous and more so
dishonest.
"The time for pandering and false
promises is over," McCain said in Selma.
"It is time for action. It is time for
change." Yet, John McCain for 26
years he has been a U.S. Congressman and
U.S.
Senator including 15 of these years in
office with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, McCain
has never questioned accusations hurled
at Arpaio
by many members of the Phoenix Hispanic
community.
In Selma, where most residents are
black, McCain used the word "change"
seven times as he spoke to a nearly
all-white crowd of more than 100 on a
riverbank by the bridge where the Bloody
Sunday beatings occurred 43 years ago.
"It's time for change," McCain told the
crowd. "The right kind of change; change
that trusts in the strength of free
people and free markets; change that
doesn't return to policies that empower
government to make our choices for us,
but that works to ensure we have choices
to make for ourselves."
McCain said he would spend the week
gathering ideas about how government can
help Americans.
"I'm going to be the president of all
the people, and I will work for all the
people and I will listen to all people
whether they decide to vote for me or
not," he said. "I'm going to places,
frankly, in this country where there is
the greatest need, and whether, at the
end of the day, they choose to vote for
me or not is not my major purpose."
Apparently, as a congressman and
senator, McCain never had a mandate to
serve Arizona people,
work for all the people and listen to
all people
on how to
achieve equality for all.
As for McCain's purpose, is it genuine?
If the purpose is to be president of all
the people does this not include to
correct abuses hurled upon Hispanics?
Last month, McCain said he opposed
aggressive government intervention. Does
this mean if McCain is elected president
he will oppose directing the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate and
prosecute violations of the Civil Rights
Act? Is this not a contradiction with
being president of all the people? It
would have been more accurate for McCain
to have said he will be president of some people
but not all.
One glimpse of what action McCain may
take can be obtained from a looking at a historical perspective
for a clue. Elected in 2082 to congress,
McCain had within his purview the
influence to call upon the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate and
prosecute civil rights violations. As
McCain gained in seniority in the U.S.
Senate, McCain certainly had the means
to make a request of the U.S. Department
of Justice.
Yet, in 26 years in representing Arizona
in congress, McCain never took action to
address civil rights violations in
A New Vision for Phoenix, AZ: La Playa del Sol. McCain has ignored the sins of indifference and
injustice which have left Hispanics
behind in equality in Arizona.
Therefore, it is the judgment of Hispanic
News, the change McCain claims is
forthcoming if he is elected president
will not come to be. Civil rights abuses
in Phoenix will not come to an
end if John McCain is elected President
of the United States.
Never-the-less, Hispanic News will
format the above information into a
letter to be sent to Senator John McCain
asking him to request the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate
violations of the Civil Rights Act by
Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
If Senator McCain does request the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate
said abuses, this will not suffice. The
only acceptable action is for the U.S.
Department of Justice to proceed to
investigate Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
If John McCain's request to the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate
civil rights abuses by Sheriff Joe
Arpaio does proceed, John
McCain's integrity will be honorable.
What ever choice John McCain makes,
Hispanic News will host a press
conference to share the McCain decision.
Throughout history
there have been tyrants and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the
end they always fall. Think of it always. Mahatma Gandhi
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