UPDATE: you can view the text of the resolution here
Like many elected officials throughout the country, I was shocked and appalled by the recent immigration legislation passed in Arizona legalizing racial profiling and eroding civil rights. Immigration is a federal issue that needs to be tackled by Congress - not by local governments and the states. We need a uniformed policy tackling an array of issues arising out of the problem on the Mexican-American border, not piecemeal attempts by the states to regulate a federal issue.
In Haledon we have a strong Latino population that has been making strong contributions to our community. Councilman Reynaldo Martinez - the first Dominican American elected to the Haledon Council - is one example. In his 4 years on the Council he has been a strong voice in balancing our budget, improving our quality of life, and bringing more people into the democratic process. We need to encourage more participation by the Latino American community - not dissuade it like the Arizona law will surely do.
That is why I am proud to announce the resolution passed last night by the Haledon Council denouncing Arizona's actions. I see first hand everyday the impact the Latino population has in Haledon: a commitment to family values, a hard work ethic, and an investment in making our borough a better place to live. As Dr. Martin Luther King stated in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We need to make our voices heard against this injustice.
By empowering local law enforcement officials to demand a citizen produce documentation of citizenship, we are fueling an already explosive issue. It is obvious we officials will be targeting in Arizona, and I agree with Assemblywoman Nellie Pou in her assessment of this law: it is Un-American. It chips at our civil rights and instills a fear into immigrants legally in our country of being harassed and detained by law enforcement.
So please, sign our petition against this Arizona legislation. We need to let local and state officials all over the nation know that we will not stand idly by and let the civil rights of any ethic group be eroded.
Whenever I get my fill of whining about Government, I simply strap on my bitchboots, grab my videocamera and head to Trenton. Sometimes there's a juicy issue cooking that I want to follow. Like today.
The rhetoric heated up at the Assembly budget hearing yesterday and no doubt it will continue ot get hotter as we head to the June 30 deadline for the state to pass its budget. Assemblywoman Nellie Pou wants people to look past the words of the Governor:
"Gov. Christie wants to tax hospitals, working poor families, businesses and senior citizens while eliminating property tax relief for the middle-class and seniors and slashing school aid, all while digging in his heels to protect the wealthy," said Assemblywoman Nellie Pou. "Just because the governor says this budget is built on shared sacrifices doesn't make it so."
But Christie and people who support him will continue to say that raising taxes is not an option. And for some reason, they're able to get away with it, not matter how many headlines come out talking about tax increases as a consequence of the actions.
Let's hear it for Elease Evans, Nellie Pou, Joan Quigley, Pamela Lampitt, Gordon Johnson, and Sandra Cunningham. As reported earlier by both Scott Weingart, who's doing a fantastic job liveblogging the convention for us here at Blue Jersey, and Matt Friedman at PolitickerNJ.com, five members of our legislature stood up to be counted as strong supporters of marriage equality this morning during a presentation by Garden State Equality to our delegation in Denver. We've just added Elease Evans to the list, based on reports from the delegation.
Though there are still doubters, all indications are now that New Jersey will be the third state after Massachusetts and California to guarantee the right to marry for same-sex couples. This kind of momentum, indicated by this morning's surprising development, is incredibly hard to overcome. While civil unions have been a progressive step forward for the cause, New Jersey residents seem to agree that basic civil rights should no longer be denied to a significant portion of our population.
This has been a great week for New Jersey's Democrats. Despite some weird media fixation on whether or not Senator Menendez would be given a speaking role at the Pepsi Center (and everyone knows he'd have delivered the keynote if it were up to me -- and perhaps should have, all things considered), we've seen our share of groundbreaking scenes at this year's convention. Our state's delegation played a big role yesterday, from the morning move to pledge all of our 127 delegates to Barack Obama, to being the last state to have our delegates counted in the roll call before Hillary Clinton's historic motion to nominate Obama by acclamation. It's fitting that six new backers for the marriage equality bill would announce their support at a convention where so much history is being written.
