Fear of the Dark Side

By Fidel "Butch" Montoya

A week after the horrendous shootings in Newtown, Conn., Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper along with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called on citizens to pause at the exact time the shooting occurred and to remember the innocent victims of the mass shootings. 

As we stood in silence in front of the City Hall tower, as the first of 26 chimes began to toll, each toll seem to flash into my mind the mental images of the shootings in Newtown.  

I understood the purpose of pausing in silence, trying to understand and comprehend the reasons for the shock we still felt, and trying to find some way to erase the visuals of children crying as they ran from the school, first responders running into the school to stop what some teachers called a “wild animal loose in the building.”  

The most difficult scenes were the parents waiting near the fire house praying and hoping their children would be seen running from carnage in the school, for many parents, their children never came.

This week, we have heard a New Haven lawyer plans to fill a $100 million dollar suit against the school district, claiming it could have done more to protect the children from arguably the deadest school shooting in our history.  

Attorney Irving Pinsksy claimed in the lawsuit, a 6 year old client was traumatized by what she heard on the intercom which was accidently switched on. The “conversations, shooting, & screaming” of the horrific shooting which left some children shot multiple times as they tried to hide from the deranged shooter.  Pinsksy said the school district had failed to keep the children safe.

But as I stood silently in the cold morning waiting for the bells to toll 26 times in memory of these precious children, I thought what are we going to do?  Down the street from the State Capitol, gun dealers were already out of stock of the AR-15, or the bullet clips that hold 30 or more bullets.

As we memorialized the victims, as we heard the bells from churches, government towers, schools, others were standing in line to buy their automatic weapons and other weapon options.  

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation which handles background checks in Colorado has not been able to keep up.  According to the Associated Press, while the data for December is not available yet, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says they had completed 2% more background checks by the end of November. 

The Associated Press reports that many of the gun runners who ran to their favorite gun store claimed the comments by President Barrack Obama and other politicians calling for more gun control, created the run to purchase automatic weapons before the government placed a ban on these weapons.

America stands at a Y in the road, to move forward with gun reform, or to pontificate, preach, march, or write op-eds to set the stage for a grass roots movement to get rid of automatic weapons in our country.  Now we hear because of the panic sales of automatic weapons, some of these sales should be grandfathered in to prevent or slow down the sale of automatic weapons, while our politicians gather enough courage to put pen to law and send these laws on for the signature of President Obama.

We hear phrases like “gun control,” “gun reform,” “automatic weapons ban,” “automatic weapons ban on gun options like clips which can hold 100 bullets.”  Whatever phrase we use, we cannot back away from the public commitments to do something.  

On Fox News Sunday, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein says America needs to bite the bullet and move forward on gun control.  "When you have someone walking in and slaying, in the most brutal way, 6-year-olds, something is really wrong,"

I believe we all believe “something is really wrong.”  But it is not just the automatic weapons and clips that “hunter’s purchase to go hunting or target practice.”  I don’t want to get dead locked on why we may think these weapons are needed to hunt or to shoot at practice targets.  I would like for all of us to admit together that something is really wrong with these weapons being so readily available to almost anyone, including the mentally ill.

If we can come together as Americans and realize we must not allow the shootings of Newtown to fade in our memory like Columbine High School may have for so many, just maybe we can start a long term effort to do what is necessary to stop the sale of these weapons.  

Not to demean the parents and other victims of these gut wrenching shootings, but many Americans who cried out “something is really wrong” after the Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, the Aurora Movie Theater, and the other shootings in the recent past, have allowed their voices to go silent.

But as I stood waiting for those 26 tolls of the bell, I thought of other victims in our gun crazy society who have been killed by illegal guns.  Gangsters who drive by with automatic weapons, killing rival gang members.  Unfortunately, injuring other innocent victims, and killing young children or teenagers who had nothing to do with rival gang politics.

These shootings sometimes don’t even make the news on the television newscast, or if reported in the newspaper, you probably have to search very carefully to find any details or information about another family affected by gun violence.

Yes, if we were to count the number of people shot in our neighborhoods in our cities every week, we would be shocked by the large number of victims, and shooters who seem to simply slip into the night.  Yes, we march in the streets, we write our op-eds in the local newspapers, we write to our Senators and Representatives who politely send us a form letter thanking us for writing, and if we are lucky, maybe they will show up for the rally or march.

But what is really happening to those letters?  Does it come down to Senator John Doe receiving 150 letters opposed to gun control, and only 100 wanting more to be done.  Who then pushes the green button on the Senator’s desk when it comes time to vote against gun control?  The big campaign supporter who promises to continue to support the Senator, and by the way, Senator, what was the name of your favorite charity?  Meanwhile, we go around proud of ourselves because we wrote our letter to our Senator, then wonder what else we can do.

What is it that we have to do to realize “something is really wrong?”  Gun reform is not just about the big news stories that capture our attention for a week.  When automatic weapons are being used by criminals or gangs on the streets in our cities that outgun the police, I don’t hear any United States Senator calling for gun control.

When a gang member does a drive by shooting and kills the innocent victims who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe we will hear from an elected official.  Sometimes the news media may even do a story that causes us to pause, about the victims, the shooter, family and friends left behind. But then quickly we go on with our lives.

I think it is time we realize that “something is really wrong,” is right now.  It is not just the big gut wrenching national stories like Newtown, Aurora Theater, or in whatever state or city.  When an automatic weapon is used to rob a bank, used by gang-bangers, or used to kill innocent people in our cities or neighborhoods, we better stop and do something because something is really wrong.

Years ago, as a photojournalist I covered a funeral for an alleged gang member.  I spoke to family members before the service and assured them I would not interfere as I covered the memorial service.  I kept my distance and honored their privacy, but to this day, I can hear the young man’s mother cry out for her son.  “Oh, Joe.”  “Oh, my Joe.”  She called out to her Hito Joe, shot and killed in a gun battle.  This happened more than 37 years ago.

The haunting call still rings in my heart and the memories in my mind still very much alive of this mom as she was being pushed in her wheelchair into the chapel.  The cry now more muffled, but more eerie sounding as the doors closed and for the last time, I heard her cry out, “Oh, my Joe.”

Will we wait again until the cries, screams, and the noise generated by the guns used by the next insane killer slowly drift away in our memories until the next shooting that shakes us out of our daily routine, and almost in unison, we cry out, “something is really wrong.”

If something is really wrong, what are we going to do about it? 

Evil Visited Us Today

By Fidel "Butch" Montoya

The news from Newtown, Connecticut last week, that shook the nation out of complacency and left us shocked beyond disbelief that a mad man had carried out another horrific nightmare where 20 elementary students were shot, along with 7 adults.  The gruesome shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., were too awful for many of us to comprehend the early news reports coming out of a picturesque small town nestled in an area of rolling hills and peaceful solitude. 

As more and more dreadful details came out of Newtown, the sickening realities of the shootings were too difficult to accept.  Many of us immediately thought of our own children or grandchildren and could not face the pain inflicted upon parents waiting to see if their children ran out of the school.   In the back of our minds, we were questioning how could such a horrifying incident happen in an elementary school, where we expect our children to be safe? 

As Governor Dan Malloy who tried to make sense out of the ghastly circumstances that left some parents unable to believe their small children had been slaughtered in their classroom, solemnly said, “Evil visited us today.” 

Yes, evil personified by a young man whose own mother worried of leaving her son alone. She was too terrified as if she sensed the evil in her son and was afraid he would not be able to control the demonic presence controlling her son.                                   

Adam Lanza, the deranged and allegedly mentally ill young man of 20 years old, finally lost control of his demons and the evil that drove him to kill.  One law enforcement officer claimed he had the weapons and enough ammo to continue his deadly shooting trek in the hallways of a school where students were told a wild animal was loose in the school. 

How does one lose one’s sense of reality and without remorse, kill small children who had barely begun to explore a new world with friends, of numbers, colors, words, and teachers who would help them understand this exciting journey into their futures.   

This is the difficult dilemma we now face again as a nation that worships its right to bear arms, especially automatic weapons.  A nation so bent on fear and uncertainty, some are forced to purchase automatic weapons for protection and a sense of well being.  We have read the news reports that often claim some of these weapons outgun weapons used by police officers on the street.

The cry to do something rumbled slowly at first across our country and then the rumblings became stronger and stronger as people begin to realize we could not continue down the same path of buying and owning automatic weapons.  Just maybe Americans may begin to understand we must develop a unified front to get these automatic weapons off the streets, and to prevent the sales of these weapons that were built to kill other human beings. 

President Barrack Obama who came to Newtown to express his sympathy on behalf of a stunned nation, the strain and tension he felt could be seen on his face and in his words.  “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We can’t accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?”

Even as the President called for an end to these tragedies saying we can’t 

tolerate this anymore, and that we must change.   In Colorado, gun buyers literally waited in line in gun shops to purchase their weapons of choice setting record gun sales the very next day after the shootings.  

The number of gun buyers overwhelmed the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and created a backlog of background checks on individuals wanting to purchase these weapons of mass destruction.  Many potential gun buyers waited in line because they feared the government may soon ban automatic weapons. 

Somehow the show of force from the President who said he was going to push for change to end these tragedies, to our Senators and Representatives in Washington, D.C. who now find public opinion forcing them to consider if our country is ready to change when it comes to banning automatic weapons and changing our laws.  Banning automatic weapons and clips of ammo that can pack over 100 bullets are just two of many changes members of Congress are talking about changing.

In 1999 in Littleton, Colorado at Columbine High School where two students loaded with automatic weapons, home built bombs scattered throughout the school, and a battle plan to kill other students, marched systemically down the halls catching other students and teachers who were caught off guard by bursts of gun shots in the hallway, lunchroom, and ultimately in the school library were most the student victims were shot.

Demands for tighter control on automatic weapons were similar to what we hear today, doing something to prevent these weapons from being purchased and used to kill innocent people.  Politicians made their speeches, newspaper editorials called for new laws, but in a dramatic show of force, the NRA at it national convention in Denver shortly after the Columbine High School shootings, marched in the streets in defiance of those politicians who dared to control their right to purchase automatic weapons.

Along with other incidents where high automatic weapons were used to kill students in other schools and colleges, the horrific shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in July left us stunned and mortified by the cold blooded determination to kill unsuspecting movie goers, who may have thought at first, it was part of the movie or some grand scheme to promote the movie.

Again, a young graduate student whose mental health had been questioned by doctors who had completed evaluations on him, with one who  even wanted to have him hospitalized or taken off the streets because of the fear that this young man, could do the unthinkable.  But no one took the initiative to follow the red flags, and we saw the results of when a person in need of mental health assistance ends up killing innocent movie goers and causing so much human destruction that night.  Hoping to kill police officers who no doubt he figured would go to his apartment to search for evidence; he set up booby traps so police officers might have become victims as well.

The real question for all of us to answer is will a ban on automatic weapons, and more stricter laws to prevent more of these horrendous crimes , really stop the violence?  As much as our country needs to see a change, how do we stop the fear we have to protect ourselves and family, and to defend ourselves while enjoying a movie out, a special dinner, or some other form of entertainment?  Will more laws fix the shooting epidemic we are facing?

Evil has visited our country again and what President Obama has called, “indescribable violence” has left its scar on our hearts again.  How do we legislate against evil?  How do we pass new laws that we know cannot control human behavior?  How do we make sure our weapons are secure at home so our children don’t have access to them?

I pray it would be so simple to just wave our magic wand and do away with evil and all of these gruesome killings.  How do we enact an automatic weapons ban, knowing like other criminals, if there is a will, there is a way to get their hands on these weapons of what President Obama called “unconscionable evil?” 

Until we change or allow God to transform us, and renewing of our minds, another law on the books will not put an end to these sad and horrible scenes of death.

Who Are the Latino/a Voters?

By Fidel "Butch" Montoya

I wonder whether or not the Republican Party – and today’s GOP Leadership really understand the dilemma they are facing about the future and existence of their political party.  

The name calling, the real ugly and hateful name calling, the efforts to create a nasty and fearful environment that undocumented immigrants would want to “self deport,” rather face the increased pressure and wrath of ICE.  

Some Republicans simply do not understand that they have not only poisoned the policy alternatives of moderate Republicans, but also any possibility of sitting down and working together to craft the necessary legislation to finally passing in the Congress, comprehensive immigration reform.    

The extremists of the GOP have alienated a group of Latino voters who have shown in the past when given a moderate candidate such as President George Bush as an alternative, about 41% of the Latino vote went to Bush instead of voting for Senator John Kerry.

In the short period of about 4 years, the extreme conservative base pushed the GOP to the extreme right, leaving Latinos without any choice but to vote for President Barrack Obama, giving him about 71% of the Latino vote.   

As with most Americans, on November 7, you could hear a collective sigh of relief across our nation after enduring one of the most expensive and nastiest presidential campaigns in our country’s history.  The lies and counter charges left many of us wondering, “Who is telling the truth?”  

The two candidates seeking the most important powerful job in the world, spent over $6 billion dollars collectively, and unfortunately, we learned lying or purposely misstating the opposition's position is no longer morally wrong. 

The political strategists and political pundits who are trying to analyze why certain voters voted for one candidate, why other voters were not as engaged or as politically challenged or excited about the campaign to bring in the vote as they were in 2008.  

Much has been made of the fact that 71% of the Latino vote went to President Obama.  It is easy to explain the reasons why Latinos voted for President Obama, after enduring ugly acts of racism and hateful words of bigotry of the past only become more agitated, destructive, and real in every segment of our society today.  

The members the Republican Right-wing for the last ten or more years have literally bashed the Latino voter as “members of the government entitlement give away club.”  Other GOP politicians have bashed Latino voters as the cause of many of the socio-economic problems we face in our country.  

An esteemed panel of experts were invited by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars this past Monday in Washington, D.C. to try to figure out the significance of the Latino vote and the consequences in future elections.

Many political pundits have pointed out that the “Latino voter bloc” or "the demographic changes in the Latino community" has steadily increased in numbers and are now have the political clout for helping the President win vitally important states that ultimately gave the President the necessary Electoral College votes to win re-election.  

Yet, political strategists point out only about half of the eligible Latinos bothered to register or to vote on Election Day or by early voting.  There is no question the Latino vote in future elections may be the determining factor in winning elections simply by getting the Latino voter to get to the polls to vote.

Some enlighten and intelligent political experts are beginning to understand the significance of the future Latino vote.  

One national Republican pollster who acknowledged to other leaders in the Republican Party, they all must be willing to compromise and accept the new demographic reality. 

“The Republican Party is in danger of becoming the ‘Win In Off Years Only Party’ unless we make a full-throated improvement with Hispanic voters,” wrote GOP pollster Glen Bolger in a memo to Republicans. “And, we have to admit it is us, not them.”

It would be encouraging if more Republicans accepted Bolger’s assessment, “And, we have to admit it is us, not them.”  

However, some of the right-wing extremists in our country refuse to admit or even understand that the changing demographics are going to change America for the better.  

In an article, “America Nears El Tipping Pointo,” Ann Coulter once again races to the head of the class to proclaim to the Republican leadership that beware of the growing Latino presence, or what I call, growing power in American politics and policy.

Ironically, just as aside, we should demand that Ann Coulter at least know some basic Spanish words so she doesn't sound as ignorant as the title to her article - "El Tipping Pointo?"

Coulter goes on to quote other writers and researchers about the state of Hispanics in our country. I suppose it is easier to criticize Hispanics without leaving her finger prints at the crime scene.  

Coulter writes, blaming Senator Ted Kennedy for our nation's future plight.  "The youth vote is a snapshot of elections to come if nothing is done to reverse the deluge of unskilled immigrants pouring into the country as a result of Ted Kennedy's 1965 immigration act. Eighty-five percent of legal immigrants since 1968 have come from the Third World. A majority of them are in need of government assistance." 

When claiming that Hispanic babies are illegitimate, she uses research from Heather MacDonald.  "More than half of all babies born to Hispanic women today are illegitimate. As Heather MacDonald has shown, the birthrate of Hispanic women is twice that of the rest of the population, and their unwed birthrate is one and a half times that of blacks."

Coulter claims because of the number of illegitimate babies..."That's a lot of government dependents coming down the pike. No amount of "reaching out" to the Hispanic community, effective "messaging" or Reagan's "optimism" is going to turn Mexico's underclass into Republicans."

Without saying it herself, that Hispanics are immoral, lazy, hate going to church or another way of saying they are moving away from family values, Christian beliefs and values.  

"Charles Murray recently pointed out that -- contrary to stereotype -- Hispanics are less likely to be married, less likely to go to church, more supportive of gay marriage and less likely to call themselves "conservative" than other Americans." 

Nate Cohn writes in the current New Republic that in the past certain bell weather counties were more white than they are today, because Hispanics, Blacks, and Asian are changing the voting patterns.

Guess what, Coulter can now make her point that there already too many "of them moving into our safe suburban communities".  "These were the counties chosen by Cohn, not me, to show that Republicans are losing "the white vote." Except they're not so white, anymore. With blacks, Asians and Hispanics voting 93 percent, 73 percent and 71 percent for Obama, Republicans have to do more than just win the white vote. They have to run the table." 

Finally, quoting Michael Barone, whom she calls an election maven, Barone's prediction was that these Third World immigrants would go the way of other immigrants, like the Italian immigrants, and become Republicans.

Once again, Coulter can use Barone to say, "They're hardworking! They have family values! Maybe at first, but not after coming here, having illegitimate children and going on welfare." 

Coulter writes all on her own, words we can attribute to her. It is a nice way of saying that the demographic changes and trends in voting are not good for white people in the future.  She says, "Romney got a larger percentage of the white vote than Reagan did in 1980. That's just not enough anymore."

Coulter as usual, takes the low road, using political hate speech to discourage any steps by Republican leaders to get down and dirty trying to recruit more Hispanic Republicans.  It is a shame that Coulter actually believes that Hispanics will "lower the greatness of America."  

Yet, it was the grand ole conservative icon President Ronald Reagan who said it first.  "Latinos are Republicans, they just don't know it."  

In spite of this hate and fear spewed by Coulter to encourage and enlist other Republicans to build a new wall, a wall to keep Latinos out of the GOP, one has to wonder with such hate continuing to come from the Right, who would want to be a Republican anyway? 

The mystery remains, who are the Latinos and what do they want? 

For a an excellent attempt to answer that question and bring more clarity for the political strategists in the GOP, Dr. Miguel De La Torre writes an article, “Political strategists need to understand there is no single Hispanic vote.”  

It probably would not hurt if some of the Democrat leadership who in the past have taken the Latino vote for granted, realize the demographic changes in the growing Latino community will affect the Democrats as well.

The coming seismic political changes will make both political parties accountable and finally, will have to listen to our policy changes in the Party Platforms and in Chambers of Congress...and White House.

Pastor Fidel “Butch” Montoya

H. S. Power & Light Ministries – Latino Faith Initiative

Monday, December 10, 2012 Commentaries

Binders of Hispanics

Political strategists need to understand there is no single Hispanic vote.

By Miguel De La Torre

In meetings at GOP headquarters across the country, one can almost hear the party bosses ordering the delivery of binders of Hispanics.

This is not all bad. The Latina/o community, and by extension the United States, does well when Hispanics are found in both the Democratic and Republican Party -- as well as the Libertarian and Socialist Party.

The thoughts, ideas and voices of the large and fastest-growing group in the U.S. need to be at all tables, participating in and influencing the entire conversation. The last thing the Latino/a community wants is to be co-opted by any political party as a special-interest group used to deliver votes.

That said, I am a bit concerned with some of the attempts to woo us. It is great for our self-esteem to suddenly become the center of attention for both political parties. Nevertheless, the courting process needs to be conducted in a respectful and dignified manner.

To that end, here is some unsolicited advice.

1.) We are a people, not an interest group.

The reason many women were turned off by the GOP this past election season was because Republicans identified their concerns for them instead letting them speak for themselves. (The virtues of rape were not high on their list, and they cared about more than just jobs). So on Nov. 6, women spoke very loudly.

It is paternalistic to tell people – whether they be women in 2012 or Hispanics in 2016 -- what their issues are and therefore how they should vote. Don’t treat us as consumers to whom you can sell a used car.

A more successful path is to ask us. What are our issues and concerns? How do we envision the America of tomorrow? You may not like what you hear, but if you want us to walk with you, then you need to change your tune (i.e., immigration).

2.) We are not a race.

There is no such thing as a stereotypical Hispanic. They are white with blond hair and blue eyes, they are black with curly hair, and they are everything in between.

They have Native American features and/or Asian features. They are Catholics, Protestants, worshipers of the Orishas (African quasi-deities), Jewish, atheists, spiritualists and followers of Amerindian religious traditions. 

Some speak “pure” Spanish. Others speak Spanglish and others only English. Still others converse in Cholo, Mayan, Náhuatl, or Pocho. Some have recently arrived in this country, while the ancestors of others were here centuries before the Europeans.

They live in the blank despair of the barrio and in the comfortable illusions of the suburbs. Some pick apples and grapes, others pick stocks and bonds. Do not treat us as some monolithic group where we all agree on the issues.

3.) We are not window dressing.

Finding an assimilated Hispanic who speaks with a Euroamerican voice and placing that person on a pedestal to be our spokesperson doesn't mean that the rest of us will follow, let alone listen. There is a slang word that is used to disparage those people – coconuts. It means that they are brown on the outside but white within.

Ask yourselves: Are there more Latina/os on the stage than in the audience? If the answer is yes, we call that tokenism and find it offensive.

4.) Even if you recognize that we come from multiple nations of origins, there are major differences among us -- even within our own ethnic group.

This is why you will never find a spokesperson for our entire community. There are major political differences between light-skinned Cubans in Miami and darker-skinned Cubans in New Jersey. Chicanos in California have different priorities than Tejanos in Texas.

You do yourself a great disservice when you attempt to lump us all together. We are not unified, and that is not necessarily bad.

5.) Despite our differences, anti-Hispanic rhetoric tends to unite us.

You cannot expect our votes after telling us to self-deport. Even though most of us are documented, demonizing the undocumented by portraying them as freeloaders, criminals, diseased and subhuman is an insult to all of us.

As Aretha Franklin sang, all we are asking for is a little respect.

6.) If you plan to hang on to philosophies that are detrimental to the Hispanic community, don’t come a courting.

Most Latino/as subscribe to a world view that sees the government as a vehicle that can protect the marginalized from the abuses of the plutocrats. So don’t tell us the government is the problem.

If you want to dance, then you too must change to enter into a relationship. It is not only we who must assimilate and conform. So must you.

I look forward to the day when a Hispanic Republican runs against a Latina Democrat for the presidency of the United States. But until then, both parties need to learn how to make us true partners in creating the future of this country. We cannot settle for less.

Miguel De La Torre is professor of social ethics and Latino/a studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and an ordained Baptist minister.