by Wendi Medashefski
The rally at the Babe Ruth field in Shenandoah was yet another successful, peaceful rally hosted by Voice of the People USA. More than 600 people attended, and they were quite vocal!
The speakers began with Dan Smeriglio leading the crowd in the pledge of allegiance, and then a brief moment of silence. Ruth Miller of Illegal Protest talked about the effects of illegal immigration and how the media basically ignores stories about Americans being killed by illegal aliens. Dan Amato of Diggers Realm was very impassioned while talking about the Balogna family that was gunned down in San Francisco by an illegal alien gang banger.
Next up was my husband, Ed Medashefski, of Voice of the People USA. He talked about the 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to determine immigration status and initiate deportation proceedings.
Dan Smeriglio, founder and president of VOPUSA, started to tell his personal story about 9/11, how he was in NY that day and lost a cousin and two uncles. This speech was interrupted by none other than Crystal Dillman, the alleged fiancee of Luis Ramirez. Dillman and a few of her friends were holding a Mexican flag and had been standing in the back for some time. They got NO attention from anyone, so they moved into the crowd of patriots, flashing the middle finger along the way.
The crowd got upset, and started to swarm towards her. Smeriglio kept talking, even saying “I guess they don’t care about 9/11” referring to Dillman and her co-traitors. The audience eventually came back to listen, but not until the police made her leave (giving the middle finger from the parking area).
Smeriglio introduced me, and the crowd cheered. I told them about the Criminal Alien Program (CAP) and briefly described its function. I went on to tell them that their mayor had been invited repeatedly to address them , but no reply was ever received. I had been told earlier that the mayor had gone to the “counter protest” in the church kitchen across town, but I guess we’ll have to wait to see if that’s true. I told everyone to remember his actions when election time rolls around.
Someone in the crowd shouted to me to run for mayor! I laughed and reminded them that I don’t live in Shenandoah. Then I asked, “Should I move in?” and the crowd roared.
All in all , the rally was a great success, and we are so very proud of everyone who was brave enough to attend. One very special person who came is an agoraphobic. This amazing woman managed to stay through the whole event, even talking to me afterwards. She has a beautiful daughter and a friendly husband, and I suspect she is going to be very helpful in bringing about some real changes in the area.
I will provide a more in-depth analysis of the Shenandoah protest as soon as I get some sleep. Dan Amato and Ruth Miller are trying to get the videos of the speeches up by this weekend, and I will provide links to them as soon as they are available. We also have video of the happenings in the crowd, including Dillman’s antics, and that should be available within a few days as well.
To the 600+ patriots we met tonight, God bless you, and we’ll be seeing you again soon!
Ruth
Mon 09/01/2008
Interesting – I found this in the Alipac website – a press release from 2006 which said Shen borough wanted to adopt the IIRA like Hazleton:
http://www.alipac.us/article1386.html
Wonder what happened?
Shenandoah Borough Council Monday approved advertisement of its Illegal Immigration Relief Act, the controversial legislation that would penalize landlords and business owners who knowingly rent housing to or employ illegal immigrants. The Shenandoah ordinance is patterned after similar legislation that was recently adopted in Hazleton.
Topics: Local laws, towns, cities, illegal immigration, ordinances, aliens, crimes, enforcement, Shenandoah, Hazelton, PA
Tuesday, 25 July 2006 <——————-
By MIA LIGHT
The Standard Speaker
Prior to last month’s borough council meeting, Solicitor Michael O’Pake acquired a printed copy of the Hazleton ordinance, which council directed its attorney to use as a guideline in drafting for the borough a similar ordinance in time for this week’s regular council meeting.
Monday, O’Pake presented council with the prepared document, which was unanimously approved for advertisement. Its formal adoption as law is anticipated next month.
According to Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta, while the city ordinance drew criticism from opponents to the legislation, the number of favorable comments his office received greatly outnumbered the objections.
Similarly in Shenandoah, the ordinance was approved for advertisement before an audience of about a dozen citizens, with just one person speaking against the proposed legislation, terming it as possibly unconstitutional.
“Is this actually constitutional to do this?” asked Flor Gomez, owner of La Casita de Familia, a Mexican-style restaurant located at 8 E. Centre St. in the borough.
Gomez urged council to “think twice” and consider all possible ramifications of the law before approving it.
She said that many Hispanics, including legal immigrants and U.S. citizens, are currently being “picked on” and discriminated against. She said she fears the proposed law would add fuel to the fire.
She said she hopes that enforcement of the ordinance, should it pass into law, would pertain to undocumented immigrants of all nationalities, not just Latino immigrants.
Council President Leo Pietkiewicz assured Gomez that the law would target all illegal immigrants, not just those of the Hispanic population.
“If you’re Greek and you’re here illegally, this ordinance targets you. If you’re an illegal Polish immigrant, same thing,” Pietkiewicz said.
Gomez said the legislation would also place landlords in a no-win situation in which they may be sued by a prospective tenant who is denied occupancy after failing to prove his citizenship or legal immigration status.
However, O’Pake said that a landlord who obeys the law is protected from such a lawsuit. A landlord who obeys the law cannot be sued for denying housing to an immigrant who cannot prove his legal status because the action taken by the landlord was taken in an effort to obey the law, O’Pake said.
Gomez, a U.S. citizen who was born in Texas and has lived in Shenandoah for approximately six years, implored council to realize that most of the Latino people in Shenandoah obey the law and many contribute to the community by paying taxes.
At least four Latino families are business owners in the community, Gomez said, and two additional Latino families are interested in opening new businesses in the community.
Pietkiewicz assured Gomez that law-abiding citizens are welcome to live and work in Shenandoah.
O’Pake concurred: “This ordinance, like all ordinances, is designed to curtail illegal activity. An illegal person, someone who is here illegally, is in violation of the law. Law abiding citizens are not the target of this legislation.”
Borough Mayor Thomas O’Neill said, “This is a quality-of-life issue. What this ordinance will do is zero in on absentee landlords who don’t monitor the people who move into their properties. In my estimation, that’s what this is all about. It’s about quality of life in Shenandoah.”
The Shenandoah ordinance is expected to include in its ordinance similar language to the Hazleton ordinance, which declares: “That illegal immigration leads to higher crime rates, contributes to overcrowded classrooms and failing schools, subjects our hospitals to fiscal hardship and legal residents to substandard quality of care and destroys out neighborhoods and diminishes our overall quality of life.”
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Mark G
Mon 09/01/2008
Just to confirm it is Monday Sept 15 at 7pm at the borough building.
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Mark G
Mon 09/01/2008
The meetings are held at the Borough building on the unit block of West Washington Street (next to the Police Station) at 7:00 pm. I would definitely get there earlier. I will get a confirmation on the date of this and get back to you to confirm.
Thanks again, and I would be interested in signing up for crime watch.
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Ruth
Mon 09/01/2008
To all the wonderful people of Shenandoah who came out to Babe Ruth park on Saturday – we are so happy to have helped you see how many people in your town feel the same way as you do. Now you know you have the numbers on your side and you can stand up to the pandering your politicians have been giving to the illegal aliens and the businesses who hire them.
Here are some resources for you to help you in this battle:
The 287g program – http://www.ice.gov/partners/dro/iceaccess.htm
Bring this information to your next council meeting and demand that your sheriff and police department get this training.
Report businesses hiring illegals to http://wehirealiens.com
Call ICE to report suspected illegal aliens at 1-866-DHS-2ICE
I have this number saved on my cell phone.
Use code enforcement as your ally in battling overcrowding in your community. There are limits to how many people may live in a home and it is under the jurisdiction of code enforcement to make sure those are obeyed. There are also limits imposed for fire saftey. Many times, illegal aliens live 20 or more people to a home and they also store hazardous materials improperly, or perhaps burn trash or raise farm animals in the back yards.. all of these things fall under code enforcement. Learn who is in charge of enforcing these rules in your town and pressure them if they are not doing their job!
We stand by your fight to take back your town as well as every town in this great country!
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Mark G
Mon 09/01/2008
Wendi,
I believe that the Shenandoah Borough Council meetings are held on the 3rd Monday of the month so the next meeting should be Monday Sept 15. If I find out otherwise I will let you know.
I hope you can all attend. If you can, please pass along your intention to all your readers as I think this would boost the attendance by the locals.
The rally was great but I do believe more will be needed to make any kind of difference on the subject of illegal immigration.
Thanks, and keep up the great work.
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ron zombie
Sun 08/31/2008
Dear Wendi:I attende the protest on saturday night and was impressed by all of the speakers.I feel that I can speak for most Shenandoah residents,living here all of my life,we appreciate your support and help.However you know that this will not end and more such actvities will be needed as the brown racists have vowed to carry on.I can only imagine what would have happened if someone from our group would have disrupted the anti-American/pro-illegal immigrants gathering that took place on Oak st in Shenandoah.By their thinking only pro-illegal(brown racist)groups should be allowed to demonstrate it must be a crime in their minds(small that they are)to be proud of our race and heritage.I can tolerate many things but I can not stomach any other flag being raised above or before the AMERICAN FLAG!!!! Dillman makes me sick !!! I am finding it difficult to express my anger and outrage appropriately!She is igniting a powderkeg that can and will explode if left unabated.No local citizens that I spoke to expressed any support or sympathy for her or her ilk!!! Any good will and/or sympathy for the latino community after mr.Ramirez death is quickly eroding thanks in most part to her and her antics,especially her posturing for the media.To quote some lyrics from a Ramones tune”I wish their time would go by fast,but somehow they manage to make it last”( and for those who don’t know-the Ramones were not a group of migrant workers)We the true and proper citizens of Shenandoah are ready stand up for ourselves and our town.I believe that these brown supremacists are trying to provoke a violent response as indicated by their actions and by their words.Let them be the ones to resort to violence for we are better than that.Those people are sadly mistaken if they think that the good people of Shenandoah will just lie down and allow others to trample us and our heritage.Thank you for allowing me an avenue to appropriately express my feelings and thoughts which right now run from disgust to anger! Oh yeah one more thing, I’ll pick my own damn Christmas trees and eat canned fruit!!! keep on rockin in the free world!!!!!!!
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Rosie
Sun 08/31/2008
Wendi,
Yesterday was my first protest and it was awesome. It was great to finally see who you were after reading what you write for so long. It was me that yelled to you to run for mayor, lol, and I would gladly have you as my neighbor so feel free to move right in!! I was extremely afraid to go to support my fellow neighbors and voice OUR opinions because of all the media… I thought for sure if someone saw my face in the newspaper or 6 o’clock news that I would be fired from my job but I couldn’t resist being there ( and I couldn’t fight back my emotions or my need to yell out from the crowd.) I can’t wait until the next borough council meeting!! That will be a first for me too, but now that I know that there are so many other people in Shenandoah and so many people who support us, I have to go to fight for what I believe in and what this county needs. It may not make a difference at first, but I know if we all continue to stand up for what is right and LEGAL, somethings gotta give. I thank you and VOPUSA for coming to Shenandoah to help us to realize that just because we want our town back from people here illegally, it doesn’t make us racist, like the media has made us all believe. You were all wonderful and aside from the mediawhore, it was one of the best experiences of my life.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
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