Posted on 09/15/2007 8:32:45 PM PDT by peggybac
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Two civil rights organizations have threatened to pull their national conventions from Kansas City because a woman who is a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was appointed to the city's parks board.
But now, stepping into that convention breach is the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps itself, which has announced plans to hold a convention in Kansas City in December.
The National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have said they are considering canceling conventions in Kansas City because of Frances Semler's appointment in June to the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Board.
Semler, 73, is a member of the local chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an Arizona-based group that patrols the Mexico border looking for illegal immigrants.
"I heard a lot of suggestions about if La Raza and NAACP were going to cancel, then the Minuteman should have their convention here," Kansas Minuteman director Ed Hayes said Friday. "Since everybody is pulling out, we're going to come in."
The NAACP's weeklong national event in 2010 is expected to bring in 10,000 visitors and $9 million, while La Raza's four-day convention in 2009 could mean about $5.5 million and 4,000 visitors for the area.
The Minuteman convention, tentatively scheduled for the first week in December, would likely bring in considerably fewer people and dollars. Hayes said Friday that the convention was still being organized and it was unclear whether it would be national or local. He also did not have a location or an estimate of how much money the convention would mean for the city.
The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has about 9,500 members in 80 nationwide chapters, Hayes said. Last year, a Kansas City meeting of chapters from the region was attended by 150 members.
Mayor Mark Funkhouser said in an e-mail Friday that he doesn't "get to decide who comes to Kansas City."
But, he said, "I would like to state I have long been a defender of civil rights and diversity."
Funkhouser has stood by Semler, 73, saying the "same five-member board that includes Ms. Semler also includes two African-Americans and a Hispanic board president."
He also has said he would not ask Semler to resign because "if I'm going to champion diversity, I've got to defend diversity of opinion and political thinking along with ethnicity. I won't abandon that principle because the city might lose a convention."
Funkhouser said he spoke Friday with Janet Murguia, president of NCLR, and "encouraged her to bring her organization to Kansas City."
"I am certain there are ways we can work together to advance the agenda of civil rights," Funkhouser said in a news release. "I want to be an ally to the group."
He also offered to meet with Murguia or "to travel anywhere in the country to meet with her board of directors, to clarify his position regarding immigration."
Murguia said Wednesday her group maintained its position to pull its national conference from Kansas City at a cost to La Raza of about $70,000. She did not respond to calls seeking comment Friday.
"We see the Minutemen as an extremist group that espouses hate and vigilanteism and some violence," Murguia said Wednesday. "A member of such a group, no matter how upstanding in other ways, should have no place representing Kansas City."
Hayes, a retired captain from the Johnson County, Kan., Sheriff's Department, said the meeting could help dispel what he considered misperceptions about the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
"Some of the things that have been said are just lunacy," Hayes said. "We are American patriots. You would never meet a finer bunch of people.... We are for the rule of law and securing our nation. What's wrong with that?"
Amen!
Fine.
Works for me.
we'll boycott them from having any conservative conventions,
we'll take our ball and go home -
just like the dems
I wish.
dems/ brats having the ususal hissy fit
stomping their feet,
face red
Conservatives stuck being the rational adults...
All towns should appoint someone from the Minutemen to a town position. That will limit where La Raza will hold conventions.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Also if Funkhouser did ask her to resign he would lose a lot of the support that got him elected.
Actually Semler obviously did not read about the many controversies surrounding the minutemen. Anyone in politics should consider these things before they get involved in an organization. I doubt if this old lady had any clue at all.
I hope other pro American orgs. step up and fill the spots these anti American groups are vacating !!!
This coming from the president of an explicitly racist organization ("La Raza/The Race"). LOL
$$$$, Baby, $$$$$
...so a group for blacks and a group for hispanics is screaming “racism”? what’s wrong wtih this picture?
The love of $$$ is the root of all evil.
Wow, Murguia told four lies in one short sentence!
Mark
Why would Kansas want to host these two groups, La Raza and NAAACP anyway? I would think it would give the city a black eye. It’s like hosting the Ku Klux Klan.
There, I had to fix that.
It should be but the press would never expose La Raza for what it really is. In their world, only whites can be racists, bigots, separatists and supremecists.
The Parks and Recreation Board members are not paid. It is not a political position. In fact, you just need to fill out an application form and the Mayor reviews the applicants.
Additionally, Semler had a visit to her home from 9 members representing various Hispanic and African-American groups. They called her home (without identifying themselves) and asked if she was Francis Semler then hung up. Later the gang showed up at her home. She did not answer the door because she didn’t know who these people were. BTW, they also parked their cars around the corner.
They were delivering a letter asking that she resign. So instead of mailing the letter they decided to intimidate and harass her. Nice behavior.
Funny that none of that has gotten in the news.
And there is this below. It looks like they overplayed their hand.
NAACP urges Semler to quit; Funkhouser stands firm
"...Funkhouser, who said he has not yet heard directly from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was unwavering in his support of Semler. He wants the NAACP convention, he said, but not at the cost of Semler’s resignation.
“I am not going to knuckle under,” Funkhouser said. “I don’t think my constituents would want that.”
Also Wednesday, Semler called police after a group saying it represented churches, labor and Hispanic groups knocked on her door and left a letter asking her to resign. Police said they would step up patrols of her neighborhood...."
I’ll find the article and the gang’s video in few minutes.
OK
The article was already posted above your post.
Where is the video?
If these protesters and activists were not lazy they could find volumes of derogatory material on the Simcox run Minutemen, some of the worst from ex-Minutemen. They use the same old tactics and don't learn.
A bad thing is that Simcox will use this to further publicize himself and MCDC to the detriment of Semler, Funkhouser and Kansas City.
Locally there are two blogs that are following this issue closely. Both are on the side of LaRaza.
www.tonyskansascity.com
http://kcblueblog.blogspot.com/
kcblueblog has some video of Minutemen behaving badly.
I watched. It was pretty mild compared with what the other side has done on occasion.
When Semler's appointment first drew attention, Mayor Mark Funkhouser turned down her offer to resign. He then said he would continue to support her, even if it meant losing the two conventions and any other events.
It’s about time. Thanks!
The Minutemen are going to become HUGE.
Where do I sign up?
Short answer:
(assuming you are in Florida)
send an email to Jeffrey Fabi at:
or snailmail at:
|
Slightly longer answer:
Here's the National homepage
Welcome to Jim Gilchrist's Minuteman Project
Here's the Florida homepage:
You're quite welcome :-)
Thanks for the info, I will sign up and hope a million more as well.
You're quite welcome :-)
I hope so too....wouldn't it be nice if cities like Kansas City don't have to worry about losing the money that NAACP or La Raza conventions would bring, when a Minutemen convention would outshine them both in terms of dollars brought in as well as in the quality of the people?
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