Dust is a commenter and apparently a new reader somehow connected to the mess in Bowling Green, KY who can’t refrain from name-calling of someone she/he disagrees with (not us, but another commenter), so I won’t be posting her (I’m assuming this is a woman) comment of yesterday. However, she says something to the effect that ”all of a sudden we want an investigation of how refugees are cared for” and that’s how I know she is new to RRW.
Thanks Dust for reminding me that since our readership is going through the roof, we should from time to time clarify for new readers our guiding principles here at RRW.
I don’t want to write a book because I have a dozen more interesting pieces of news to write about today and this is voluntary work—call it a charitable contribution from Judy and Ann (me) every day—so I don’t have much time. These are my reasons (in no particular order) for writing this blog, Judy might have some additions or subtractions, but she is away.
You will see that most of our posts focus on these themes:
*First, Dust, we have been calling for an investigation of the refugee resettlement program from the very beginning, ever since we saw refugees placed in slum buildings where we live more than 3 years ago. Because there is a ‘presumption of good intentions’ almost no one reports problems with the program—certainly not the mainstream media.
* As a conservative I don’t believe the government should be taking money from citizens and giving it with virtually no oversight to non-profit groups and churches. Funding your charitable causes is not a function of government. Real charity, Dust, is for you to put your time and money into caring for people—immigrants, refugees or other impoverished people—not badgering others to do so or taking (stealing!) their money to redistribute it to others.
* Refugee families should be individually sponsored by churches or other groups in a truly charitable endeavor, and we should not take more families than we can take care of. There are millions of refugees in the world and we will be only able to take so many, so we should be doing it right.
Let me remind you of what that Iraqi refugee boy said in Arizona last year, here.
It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.
* There needs to be a national debate about how many refugees and other immigrants we take and from what cultures they come. Frankly, we have made a grievous error in taking the Muslim refugees, Somalis in particular, who have no intention of becoming Americans. They are here to change America. Unfortunately, political correctness and a worshipful attitude toward multiculturalism have blinded us. The explosion on this front is yet to come and it will be like the Major Hasan slaughter at Ft. Hood and there will be much fingerpointing and gnashing of teeth about who is to blame primarily at the US State Department.
It is my view, that the ‘diversity is strength’ line is way overused, and mostly hogwash.
* Again, and we have said this on many occasions, we should have a debate about who comes to America and how many, but once they are here (and until there is some sensible reform of the program), these agencies contracted to resettle the refugees better darn well do their jobs. Dust, we have written over 2500 posts since July 2007 and hundreds of them involve refugee resettlement agencies who have left refugees in the lurch, Bowling Green is just one more in a long line.
* The refugee resettlement program has become a bureaucracy where agencies, both government and non-profit, need to protect jobs, buy buildings, expand “services,” and like any other government-funded industry they have in my opinion forgotten their original mission.
* In that national debate about how many refugees we take, there needs to be a realistic discussion about the impact of the increased number of people on our natural resources (air, water, energy), how many schools, houses, cars etc. will be needed and what impact will that have on open space and quality of life.
* It is wrong to bring refugees to the US and have some insider deals with large industries, like the meatpackers, for cheap labor especially when apparently the refugees are not told the full story abroad. If the volags (short for voluntary agencies that are really taxpayer funded resettlement agencies, so the word ‘voluntary’ is a misnomer) are making deals with industry, then let’s get it out in the open instead of hiding behind that presumption of good intentions. Also, Dust, do you think it’s fair for unemployed Americans to have to compete with people who have government-funded employment agencies scouting jobs for them as the refugees do?
* And, it makes no sense to bring in tens of thousands of refugees and place them on welfare and other public assistance either, unless of course you are a proponent of the Cloward-Piven/Alinsky strategy of bringing about crisis to crash our form of government. As a matter of fact, I have joked previously that if the refugees came to the US and all registered as Republicans, this program would end overnight!
* This is getting too long, but I must make this point. The program must be reformed, it is crumbling in the on-going recession, there will be more Bowling Greens. One major reform I want to see is that local communities that will be receiving refugees be completely and thoroughly informed of the good and bad aspects of the program. They should have the whole truth laid out. If the program is good the public will accept it, but if the volags and the federal government can’t sell it (with all the facts on the table!) to the community then the community shouldn’t have to accept any refugees. We help bring facts to citizens of those communities.
* We also educate with articles from around the world on refugees, so readers know what is happening elsewhere.
Sorry, this got much longer than I intended, but one final thing. Judy and I don’t care what you call us! Some of you reading this have for way too long intimidated and silenced people you disagree with by calling them racists, xenophobes, hatemongers and on and on and on. It doesn’t work here, in fact, when you start with that sort of attack and don’t address the issues we raise, it validates our work.
In fact, Dust, it might be better that you spend your time helping reform the program and caring for individual refugees, rather than attacking the messengers. But, if it makes you feel better, attack us, afterall, that is a large part of what this program is all about—feeling good about oneself.
Addendum from Judy: I can’t add much to Ann’s good post, but I want to say that some of what we do is connecting the dots. Ann, especially, does a lot of investigative reporting where she shows how the meatpacking firms are involved in refugee resettlement, or various people in the refugee resettlement “game” are doing very well out of it. There is real news in the refugee resettlement area that very few if any mainstream journalists are touching. I expect that at some point the refugee issue will blow up big, and perhaps reporters will then turn to our archives to find out some background.
We also connect the refugee issue with larger ideological, political and international issues, such as Saul Alinsky’s tactics or the incredible double standard and political motives regarding the Palestinian refugees.
Comment worth noting: ‘Mad in Maine’ wants to know what she can do
Posted by acorcoran on October 8, 2009
In response to my post this morning about another immigrant food stamp scam, this one in Utica, NY, here. Frustrated ‘Mad in Maine,’ a lady we met a few days ago (here), is asking what she can do.
Back again and getting Madder in Maine.
We’ll pay for public defenders and use tax dollars to keep them in jail/prison. Our tax dollars are probably the money they’re going to use to bail out as well. I say send them home. If they can’t follow the rules here, they shouldn’t be here. I have to follow the rules.
This is another thing that’s really grating my cheese today. I have to budget $100 for our weekly shopping trip that will include groceries for the next week (and hopefully a few things I can put in the freezer for upcoming meals), toiletries, paper products (toilet paper, as I refuse to use leaves even in Maine) and cleaning and maintenance products. I’ve heard of some refugees (of all nationalities) using food stamps to buy grocery items that they then turn over to the resturants and shops their families/friends/neighbors own, to ultimately sell back to us!!
Mortgage payment due, car insurance due, electric bill due…I still haven’t turned the furnace on though.
And I’m about to lose another part on my old car…hopefully it will hold out until next payday.
I guess I have a really big question: Is there anything I can do to help put a stop to all of this?
Mad in Maine
First, I don’t think any one person can stop all this, look at ACORN for example, people have been investigating the fraud there for years and finally it took one daring effort by a couple of brave young people to finally push the whole issue into the mainstream. Few of us are going to become James O’keefes or Hannah Giles, but we can do our little bit within the framework of our lives. My first admonition to ‘Mad’ and everyone else, is to find your role and focus like a laser on it. I don’t know you, ‘Mad in Maine’, or what sort of person you are or how much time you have so these suggestions are for you and all of our other angry and frustrated readers to think about.
1) Write a blog. Don’t just run your mouth with your opinions, but pick a topic and become an expert on the topic (you can still throw out your opinions!). Research and provide a service to your readers. Eventually, if you are patient, what you do will have an impact. You could for instance write a blog about welfare/food stamp/home health care fraud in Maine, or the whole US. Or, write a blog about immigration issues in Maine. There is enough material out there for that for sure! And, there are very few real investigative reporters anymore, so this is a sorely needed job.
Don’t be deterred by computer technology. Blogs like this one are really simple and free. Oh, and one more thing. To fit blogging into your life, you can write posts as often as your schedule allows.
2) Get involved in local and state politics. Goodness knows you have a couple of US Senators in Maine who need their backbones stiffened from time to time. I don’t know what city you live in, or are near, but you could get involved there too.
3) Write letters to the editor. I was at a meeting this past weekend and a few people told me they set google alerts for some topic (like illegal immigration) and then when they see an article, even in another state, they write a letter to the editor in response.
4) Join a group that is fighting for the same things you are, and become involved enough to run a local chapter. Maybe a local Tea Party, Beck’s 9/12 Project, Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA and so forth.
5) I know some people who have built e-mail lists and they send out articles daily to their lists on given topics.
6) Here is a suggestion for the ’skulker’ personality. Pick a subject that you are personally passionate about. I’m thinking more about local type issues. Dig into documents, use the Freedom of Information Act or your states open government laws, attend meetings of groups you oppose or are promoting what you object to, and basically gather information to make a case someday to expose the whole corrupt business–whatever it is.
7) If you are someone most comfortable in a circle of local people, get together with others who have the same concerns and jointly make a plan for what you can do.
Those are just a few ideas. But, I need to emphasize again, don’t get frustrated if you can’t work at this every minute of the day. Don’t be a gadfly either. Pick your project, focus and know that you are doing your little piece to save America. I hope that helps!
Posted in Comments worth noting, Crimes, blogging, creating a movement | 1 Comment »