Observers in town were given fair warning by local cultural elites that they would press the town council to pass a resolution declaring the second Monday in October to be Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Brunswick. And so lookouts were posted to watch for smoke signals above the McLellan on Monday, September 18th indicating the outcome of the proposal to do so.
As we might expect, our town councilors signaled their virtue by approving the resolution proposed by the gaggle of community organizers who carried this forward. Surprisingly, however, the vote was not unanimous. The BDN opened their article with this:
BRUNSWICK, Maine — Adding to a roster of Maine communities passing similar resolutions this year, the Brunswick Town Council on Monday voted to adopt a resolution recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, while continuing to acknowledge the federal Columbus Day holiday.
The council officially voted 8-1, with Councilor Dan Harris opposed, to adopt “a resolution to acknowledge Maine’s Indigenous Cultures,” and to recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Harris, a prime mover behind the creation of our town’s Human Rights Task Force, inexplicably voted against the proposal. We can only wonder what hidden anti-nativist bias hides deep within his otherwise multi-cultural, social justice driven soul.
The most troubling aspect of the council’s action, however, is the lack of respect they showed towards the indigenous peoples relative to the Cubans who prospered here before unknown invaders massacred them and drove them away.
http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2017-03-24/Ticket/Cuba_Week_in_Brunswick_March_26_April_2.html
The Cuban peoples, or Cubanistas as some call them, are honored with a full week of celebration every year in Brunswick. Restaurants feature Cuban dishes in tribute to these pioneers, and there is even a monumental art piece in the downtown area – the “Dance of Two Cultures” mural on the side of the former Treworgy furniture store.
We don’t know how this shameful imbalance in reverence towards those who courageously occupied these lands before the modern era was allowed to pass without objection from our betters who pride themselves in their multicultural bona fides and unquestioned impartiality. We trust that appropriate correctives will soon be prescribed for all who perpetrated this injustice.
As if this major breakthrough in community standards wasn’t enough, we now learn that some of the very same cultural beautifiers of our once fair town have another proposal to put forth if we are to achieve the greatness they have in mind for us.
This report appears in today’s Ostrich:
Advocates want Brunswick to welcome immigrants
No push yet for sanctuary status in the community
BY NATHAN STROUT
Times Record Staff
BRUNSWICK
An advocate group wants the town of Brunswick to adopt a resolution welcoming immigrants but stopping short of declaring the community a sanctuary city.
Sanctuary Brunswick organizer Rosalie Paul called the resolution “a step beyond just a feeling of goodwill” at a meeting with advocates and town officials on Wednesday.
“It’s important for our immigrant communities to feel welcome not just in Lewiston, but anywhere in Maine,” said Bright Lukusa of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine.
The proposed resolution states that Brunswick “welcomes immigrants and all new residents and visitors to our community, and supports their paths toward citizenship, recognizing the extraordinary efforts and resilience of the individuals who move to our community under the most difficult of circumstances, and who face barriers including unfamiliar language, culture and divisive political rhetoric.”
The loaded words in the report are “no push yet for sanctuary status….” Which is another way of saying the water drop treatment is just beginning. Turns out Selma Sternlieb had authored an op-ed in The Ostrich on behalf of Peace Works Brunswick that ran on September 20th. It included this passage:
With the belief that we must not stand by and allow brutal immigration policies to go forward while our brothers and sisters are suffering, a group of us, calling ourselves Sanctuary Brunswick, is planning a Community Conversation on Wednesday, September 27th at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church to address this question: What would it mean for Brunswick to become a welcoming community offering sanctuary to immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees?
And then this further detail:
The panel will consist of representatives of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the town council and town manager’s office, the Brunswick police department, the Lewiston High School International Club, United Somali Women of Maine, and the religious community.
In fact, eye-witness accounts report that councilors Sarah Brayman and Kathy Wilson, Town Manager John Eldridge, and Police Cmdr. Mark Waltz were in attendance from Brunswick Town government.
We note that neither today’s article nor last week’s op-ed suggest that those promoting the approach are volunteering their own funds, vacant bedrooms, personal food supplies, or other signs of welcome to those they propose to help. As the old saying goes, it’s pretty clear that what they really want is to be generous with the shirts off others’ backs. In other words, they wish to impose their voluntary kindness as an obligation upon town residents.
It’s clear they will soon push for sanctuary city status, regardless of Cmdr Waltz’ view that doing so would be problematic. This is tantamount to proposing that laws that have been on the books for decades not be enforced because they don’t like them and consider them to be unfair.
So much for being “a nation of laws,” and “equal protection under the law.” It used to be that if you didn’t like a law, you were supposed to work with the lawmakers to have it changed. But that can be a big pain in the butt, so why not just have officials vote to ignore the law so you can feel better?
We won’t even discuss the Maine Open Meetings Law, which on the face of things, appears to have been violated here. At least four town officials attended the “panel meeting” which clearly discussed town policy. Three officials makes it a meeting requiring official public notice by the town, and we didn’t find the session on the town calendar, or any other indication that the town was fulfilling its obligations for public notification.
Hey; as long as we’re in the mood to comply onty with those laws that we like, what’s the big deal?
We’ll close with a proposal of our own. In keeping with the times, we propose that the town council, town manager, and anyone else in attendance at council meetings “take a knee” for recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings.
This would be a way for all attending to “show solidarity” with those who have no appreciation for the country in which they live, or those who dedicate their lives to protecting it from all enemies foreign and domestic. Surely everyone at the meetings is oppressed in some way or another, just like the students at Bowdoin.
Come to think of it, have they taken down all the US Flags on campus yet? And is each day begun with the student body taking a collective knee on the quad?
Let’s hope so; Brunswick could use the good publicity.
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