Tweet
It was a complete surprise to see that 0% HRC-rated Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) actually voted to repeal DADT yesterday, and I just wanted to concur with this statement from Faith in America:
Sens. Hagan, Burr thanked for courageous votesFaith in America in a statement Saturday thanked North Carolina’s U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr for their vote to repeal the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy.
“Today’s vote in the U.S. Senate is a monumental achievement in the annals of the LGBT civil rights movements,” stated Faith in America Founder Mitchell Gold, immediately following Saturday’s 65-31 vote. “Our gay service men and women can live their lives with the same human dignity as others. An incredible burden of inequality has been lifted from these men and women.
“Most importantly, today’s vote sends a message to our gay youth that one of the largest institutions in our society considers them fully deserving of human dignity and equality. That is a powerful message, and one that all youth and their families need to hear.”
“We extend our sincere appreciation to Sens. Hagan and Burr for being courageous voices of equality for the state of North Carolina.”
And after that sincere pat on the back, I sadly must also note that both of my senators failed me miserably by voting against the DREAM Act. It is a cruel blow to the many young undocumented residents in North Carolina who want nothing more than to be educated and contribute to our society and be placed on a path to citizenship. They should not be punished for their parents decision to come to this country illegally.
Over three million students graduate from U.S. high schools every year. Most get the opportunity to test their dreams and live their American story. However, a group of approximately 65,000 youth do not get this opportunity; they are smeared with an inherited title, an illegal immigrant. These youth have lived in the United States for most of their lives and want nothing more than to be recognized for what they are, Americans.The DREAM Act is a bipartisan legislation — pioneered by Sen. Orin Hatch [R-UT] and Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL] — that can solve this hemorrhaging injustice in our society. Under the rigorous provisions of the DREAM Act, qualifying undocumented youth would be eligible for a 6 year long conditional path to citizenship that requires completion of a college degree or two years of military service.
While I am not shocked that Senator Burr voted against DREAM, it is appalling that Senator Hagan did so. I realize that dealing with immigration reform is politically difficult no matter what side of the aisle our elected officials are on.
Yesterday’s vote shows that neither of my senators is ready to muster up the courage to vote for one of the elements of reform that has the least political cost — supporting innocent children caught in the crossfire of the immigration battle.
I hope both the Democrats and Republicans can finally begin to focus on the stark reality that the failure on DREAM is a line in the sand on reform that has to be crossed in order to take any part of reform seriously. These are people, not statistics.
* Contrary to the thinking of some conservative yahoos, we cannot ship all undocumented people back to their country of origin.* Undocumented workers are contributing to our economy in essential ways, as well as draining from our economy because we force them to live in the shadows and seek, for instance, health care by emergency room services.
* Undocumented residents are more often the victims of crime because thieves know they don’t want to deal with law enforcement. We are all less safe if crime is under-reported.
* The employers who hire them and we the consumers who buy the under-priced goods and services produced by their labor are freeloading on the backs of these undocumented workers.
Everyone has their heads in the sand, so I understand the reluctance of my senators in a state that relies on undocumented workers and has a large conservative base that wants to see this as a black/white issue. There is so much more complexity to this issue that requires courage and resolve. I saw that courage in yesterday’s DADT vote. I want to believe that they can dig deeper and lead, not cower in political fear, in order to take on immigration reform honestly.
6 Comments
shocking wasn’t itBurr voting on DADT, it was a true shock just like this post Since The Dream had a Rally is Raleigh that was a joint Dream Act and DADT and not one LGBT member attended and not one of the local national blogs or state lgbt paper wrote about it.. So it was only the dreamers and a few supporter for both cause who were str8.
Everyone in the LGBT community let them down too.. If was solely a DADT Rally maybe the community would have come out.
Its seem for local events in the Raleigh/Durham Area to make the list, it must be tie too and plan but a out of state group.
What was especially rude and discouragingwas the mention of the death of a Border Patrol officer (Brian Terry) during the debate.
How one can seriously blame the millions of young people who would have been positively affected and affirmed by DREAM for this and other criminal acts goes beyond normal comprehension- yet Senator Jeff Sessions “went there”, as well as give us the mental image of him in the shower:
“Odious” is about the most polite word I can come up with, for this particularly nasty weasel…
Talk about being hypocritical…..All the US citizen employers who use undocumented labor are the one committing the crimes! as the laws in most states actually say. But they are of the untarnishable BUSINESS OWNERS class!My mom grew up during the depression and alway spoke disparagingly of the Okies, and then Wetbacks who she thought of as bums looking for handouts. Without the United Farm Workers they still would be. Now we have the same thing with the undocumented house help. e.g. think Meg Whitman.. CEO of eBay who fired her housekeeper of NINE YEARS, when she ran for Governor. Even told her never to say she even knew her!I have a brother-in-law still on Green Card. Nephew who was a 'anchor baby' in a way. My SIL was very ill at 6 1/2 months pregnant. Just made it across border to El Centro… They 'took the baby' in the ER because she was in severe eclamptic congestive heart failure. It wasn't till next day or day after in ICU when nurse came in to ask her to sign papers to transfer the baby to an NICU in San Diego that she even knew the baby was alive! No one had told her! He weighed 1.5 pounds. But since she had been ill a few days..that stimulates the infants lung to devlop. ..he never had any breathing problems at all. Just had to gain weight to come home!Just went to his HS graduation last year! Fine young man. So in our family we love our 'anchor babies'. (His mom was born in SF.. but looking almost full Mexican, dark etc and her husband being dark, she is now subjected to discrimination! often.I certainly am one dedicated to working for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. These workers are just USED by fine upstanding GOP farmers and busnessmen. This enables them to pay them less wages and avoid all payroll taxes!!! So it will be a hard nut to crack. They need to organize as the Farmworkers did!
Pam, did you need the smelling saltsafter finding out about Burr’s vote?
I mean…all the other Senators for DADT repeal were targeted and even Ensign has indicated before that he was for DADT repealed but has flip flopped repeatedly.
Was there any indication at all the Burr would vote for this and has his office issued any statement explaining his vote?
I bet all the Republicans who defied their party to vote for repeal have stories to tell.This is from a column by Lynn Sweet in today’s Chicago Sun-Times about Sen. Kirk of Illinois:
Yeah, Burr’s vote was a bit of a surpise, but not credit-worthyBurr voted against repeal as a part of the defense bill, and he voted against repeal on the vote that mattered to filibuster it at the 60 vote threshold. He may have changed his vote when it didn’t matter any more, hardly an act of courage. He still spoke about how we shouldn’t be repealing dadt now even with his vote. And he is still pro-marriage discrimination amendment, and anti-lgbt in most ways imaginable.
Recalling from the last debate:
I leave you with a segment from the most recent Marshall – Burr debate after Burr had said “If somebody chooses that lifestyle“:
“Moderator: A rebuttal.
Marshall: I would respond to that by saying there is ample evidence that it is biological and Senator Burr obviously believes it’s by choice. That is wrong-headed and discriminatory. We shouldn’t be judging people by the color of their hair, the color of their eyes, the color of their skin, or other factors that they have no control over. That’s wrong in America, and what you’re talking about is governmental discrimination for something that’s outside of somebody’s control
Burr: Secretary Marshall, I’m not sure that I referred to anybody’s skin color, or to their hair color. This is a very specific group of individuals, and I made it very clear what my position was. But don’t bring race into this.
Marshall: It is because of who they are by factors that they have no control over. Gender is another one of those. This country has been replete with discrimination based upon things that folks have no control over, and its time in 2010, this century, that we end that.”