Moving Beyond Rhetoric
As you know, there was a tragic event in Tucson, Arizona last Saturday. An assassination attempt gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, left six dead and 12 others injured. While the motives of the accused gunman are unknown, in light of the tragedy many are exploring the explosive rhetoric that has become common in Arizona and in fact across the political landscape. Much of that rhetoric has been focused on immigration—be it in support of or opposition to. In light of recent events, our public media colleagues at Southern California Public Radio have taken a look a how some are considering the tone of discussion, including some thoughts from Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform:
“One of the things that we always try to do is distinguish between immigration policy and immigrants, ” says Mehlman. “Immigration policy should be debated openly. Immigrants are human beings who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.”
So Mehlman says his group always works to keep the tone of its message respectful.
“With or without any tragedy such as the one that occurred on Saturday, this is something that we have consistently tried to do because it is important just to have a civil debate in this country.”
But the debate hasn’t always been civil, and Mehlman blames that on a few people on the fringes.
“This is true not just of immigration, but of any other debate of any other important public policy. You know, those people shouldn’t be part of the discourse,” he says.
But, Mehlman says discourse should continue – and he hopes people won’t use Saturday’s shooting as an excuse to shut it down.
Homeland believes that community discussion and dialogue is the only way we as a society will be able to deal with many-layered issues like immigration. There is an old adage quoted in 2008 by President Obama that “we can disagree without being disagreeable.” So let us know: have we given you a place where you feel you can be informed about immigration and contribute your thoughts without the polarizing rhetoric found many other places?
Category: Immigration 101
