Posted on 01/11/2003 12:55:10 PM PST by hoosierskypilot
LEWISTON, Maine (Reuters) -- A white supremacist group whose leader is accused of trying to have a federal judge murdered said on Thursday it will proceed with plans to protest an "invasion" of this New England college community by Somali immigrants.
A spokesman for the World Church of the Creator said the group, which preaches hatred of Jews and blacks on its Web site, would stage a two-hour rally on Saturday in Lewiston, where it says the local white population is fed up with the influx of immigrants from the war-torn East African nation.
The spokesman, the Rev. John King of Newport News, Virginia, said the Lewiston protest would go ahead despite the arrest on Wednesday in Chicago of the Rev. Matt Hale on charges he tried to solicit the murder of U.S. District Court Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.
Hale, 31, was arrested as he arrived at Chicago's federal courthouse to face a possible contempt charge for refusing to obey Lefkow's November ruling in a trademark case.
Hale told Reuters before his arrest that the Somalis were "invading" Lewiston, and that the residents of Maine's second-biggest city had welcomed his church's planned rally with open arms.
"The people of Lewiston want us there," said Hale, who claims he receives as many as five positive e-mails a day from local residents. "We've never received the groundswell of support we've gotten from the people of Lewiston."
But Phil Nadeau, Lewiston's assistant city administrator, said he doubted Hale's claims.
"He could say that aliens from Mars want him here, but can he prove it?" Nadeau said. "My impression is there's a significant number of people in this community who don't support him and a handful who do."
He noted that while only 40 or 50 people were expected to turn up for the white supremacists' rally, hundreds -- maybe thousands -- may attend a planned counter-demonstration the same day that will focus on diversity and attempt to show that Lewiston is embracing its newest residents.
For years, the former mill town was simply known as the place where Muhammad Ali flattened Sonny Liston in 1965.
But its booming Somali immigrant community has thrust Lewiston into the spotlight. More than 1,100 Somalis, seeking affordable housing, have moved to the city of 36,000 people in the past year.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Nope. But I know about immigration. And am somewhat familiar with the problem in Lewiston.
I wouldn't ally myself with the WCC. But Lewiston cannot handle the flood of Somalis. That's my point.
I know nothing about WCC, but I do know how frustrating/maddening it is to see one's community absolutely destroyed by third-world refugees.
I know how maddening it is to beg an impotent president to act.
And, no, I do not endorse supremacists.
But it is getting awfully frustrating waiting for our elected officials to simply do that which the law already demands.
It's not the Mayor of Lewiston, who complained about the Somali immigrants. He hightailed it for Florida a couple days ago. And the people of Lewiston don't want all these outsiders (on both sides) coming in & mucking this up even more. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/011/metro/Maine_city_braces_for_neo_Nazis_counterprotest+.shtml
Those are fine words!
But what is a racist?
Is a racist a person who believes that all people are not equal either physically or intellectually.....but that everyone must have the same opportunity to use whatever capability he or she has?
Is rejecting two better qualified white students at the U Michigan simply and solely because the University needed to fill their quota for Black students "moral"? Seems to me the white kids got screwed.
I cannot stand that whining, insipid, arrogant, complacent, tranquilized mentality.
Good question.
If a racist is someone who believes slaves deserve reparations, but not their descendants, I guess I qualify.
If a racist is someone who believes everybody should have the same opportunity, based upon hard work and innate intelligence, not gender or race, then I guess I qualify.
If a racist is someone who believes affirmative action has been overdone, I guess I qualify.
I don't dislike anybody. Period. I worship with blacks and hispanics, and have them into my home. But I fellowship them because they have proven themselves.
That's a far cry from endorsing criminals and third world ratholes just because they are minorities.
I have read about the Somali immigrants. They seem like a literate, mostly educated, family oriented bunch. They also do not want to assimilate or have any connection with the American way of life. With all the government-owned land in this country, there should be a place for these people to establish a community. Instead the government forces intergration between two groups of people who don't want to be integrated.
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