I'm aligned with a movement here called Defend Colorado Now and we're working to get an initiative on the November ballot that would disallow illegal immigrants from having access to any non-essential state services. It's actually a pretty lame bill (go to www.defendcoloradonow.org to read it) but it does have the support of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm as well as my personal hero on this issue, Rep. Tom Tancredo (two very strange bed-fellows!) I sang a variation of my song above at a rally the other day and Gov. Lamm spoke eloquently on the subject. The proposed bill is only a toe in the water, and next year we hope to introduce legislation with more clout. But the problem really can't be solved at the state level, because so many of the services that the illegals claim to have rights to are Federal programs that the state has no say over. The perception that ours in not the popular stance is only due to the fact that the media has jumped all over this Latino demonstration thing and made a big deal of it. Also, the Hispanic community is much more loyal within it's ranks and they've organized this protest thing pretty well. We in the "white" community are much more diverse and little attempt has been made to band us together as an organized group on this issue. The rally I sang at the other day was attended by only about 400 people and was hardly publicized. In fact, I didn't know about it until the night before. Hopefully our strength will become apparent through this ballot issue and ultimately at the voting booth. One thing in our favor - the illegals can't vote!
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