Posted on 12/05/2007 9:36:17 AM PST by Domandred
BSU College Republicans present racially-charged lecture.
He came. He spoke. He nearly started a riot.
Approximately 200 hundred people filled the Lookout Room at the Boise State Student Union Building Tuesday evening to hear Minute Men Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox speak.
Simcox was invited by the Boise State College Republicans to speak about his organization and its view on securing our borders. More than half of the audience wore red shirts symbolizing their protest to Simcox' message.
"We want to let him know that his hate speech is not welcome," Lucia Venegas said. Venegas, a Boise State graduate student in counseling said she feels his presence made some students feel unwelcome at BSU.
The animosity began before the speech even started. Faculty, students and community members gathered in the Cultural Center beforehand, where Student Union Director Jack Rahmann spoke to the protestors about rules concerning conduct at events held in the SUB.
Despite disagreements interpreting these rules, the protestors quietly made their way to the Lookout Room. The protestors purposefully filled every other seat to accentuate their presence.
Simcox began by thanking the College Republicans for inviting him to tackle this controversial issue.
"There seems to be growing friction and ethnic strife," Simcox said.
He claims this is the result of government inaction. Simcox expressed that both Northern and Southern borders have security problems and that this is the fault of the U.S. government.
"We challenge federal authorities to do their job," Simcox said. "We are leading a reform movement."
The Minute Men were founded in October 2002 to address the issue of illegal entry to the United States. There are 117 chapters across the nation and 10,000 volunteers.
Simcox emphasized that some groups of the Minute Men split from the original organization; he apologized for their extreme rhetoric and stressed this is not what he represents.
"I admire the messages on your shirts," Simcox said to the protestors. "No human is illegal, no oppression should be tolerated in our country."
The shirts worn by the protestors were purchased by the Associated Students of BSU for the event "No Oppression Tolerated," held last spring. Many of the protestors added additional messages to their shirts such as, "BSU is too great for hate," and "Take your hate and get off our campus."
"This issue is out of control," Simcox said of illegal immigration.
He claimed the solution was simple: to secure our borders.
The protestors remained relatively calm throughout the majority of Simcox' speech. However his closing statement sparked outrage among the protestors while his supporters gave him a standing ovation.
"We have room for one flag in this nation: the American flag. We have room for one language: the English language," Simcox concluded.
The floor was then opened for a question-and-answer session that turned into a heated debate between the protestors and Simcox' supporters. It came to a chaotic close when the majority of the protestors stood up and left chanting, "Si se puede!" [Yes it can be done!]."
Fernando Mejia, a Boise State student, said the protestors wanted to portray the message that immigration is an American experience.
"[Simcox] wants to unify people but he's actually dividing them," Mejia said. "I think he is clearly misinformed."
Outgoing College Republican President Jonathan Sawmiller said the student club brought Simcox to Boise State because he has first-hand knowledge of what the situation at the borders is like. He added that he thought the protestors were disrespectful and had an immature attitude toward the speech.
"We should be able to come together in an academic environment and discuss this," Sawmiller said.
The incoming College Republican President Trevor Grigg was in agreement with Sawmiller.
"I honestly felt the hate in the room and that's not what we want to do," Grigg said.
He said he was disappointed with how both sides handled the situation.
"The College Republicans are not a hate group," Grigg said.
He said he wants to fix the bad reputation the group has and build positive relationships with other groups on campus.
You didn’t get the memo? Borders are inherently fascist/racist/insert/favorite/word
That was the clarion call for anarchistic aliens to help overthrow the United States government's sovereignty of its Southwestern states. Chris Simcox is a bad accountant and politician but, having observed him over many years, I can not believe he's doing what he does out of personal gratification or seeking fame. Like it or not he DID get the ball rolling while most Americans were willing to to trust our government to protect them. Simcox, living on the border and witnessing the sieve of border security, drafted himself to do something about it.
Yet I've met and spoke with Mr. Gilchrist, who is also a fine patriot. He gravitates toward a political strategy of bending representatives to upholding their duty.
I believe both guys are working necessary points toward a middle: if elected leaders refuse to uphold the law the citizenry lose respect for the system and devolve to anarchy and thuggery. If the the citizens allow minority interests to overcome majority interests (on a base of non-deserved guilt disguised as truth) our republic will drown in the deadly sea of political correctness.
Simcox is a bad manager but his message is true. Gilchrist is an outstanding fellow but he's a tad soft on harsh measures. Neither are "racists" or motivated by hate. They parted ways by a movement growing faster than either one were able to handle - the movement of Americans waking up to the fact that Mexico is importing all of it's poor and uneducated to us while our government pretends to be oblivious to this phenomenon.
“He said he wants to fix the bad reputation the group has and build positive relationships with other groups on campus.”
WTF is he talking about?
Few months back the College Republicans had a rally opposing illegal immigration. Led to a lot of controversy.
This is the last article on it that I posted here at FR.
Kustra Threatens College Republicans
That was back in March
Thanks for the link. I remember it now.
So he characterizes as the Col Rep having a bad rep? What a typical Open Borders POS.
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