My name is Jake McMurray. I am an ESL (English as a Second Language) Instructor in Scott County, VA. I have been a life-long resident of Scott County, I am very proud of my roots, and I do believe in hometown pride. But...I refuse to let that blind me to reality. I will not vote for a candidate who does not believe in The American Dream, who belongs to a party that blatantly and unabashedly legislates and practices measures that clearly benefit Big Money and Big Business over the people. I will not vote for anyone who does not believe in educating our people and helping our people live healthy successful lives, which is impossible without affordable health care and public education. Jerry Kilgore?s support for education is laughable. Kilgore demanded that Virginia colleges rid their campuses of any illegal immigrants. In a memo while serving as Attorney General, Kilgore warned the colleges not to enroll children of illegal immigrants. He also instructed them to report to federal authorities any illegal immigrants they find on campus. This order violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that illegal immigrants are entitled to a primary and secondary education. Kilgore?s move came as many states were taking a dramatically different approach, not only allowing children of illegal immigrants to enroll in public colleges but also granting them in-state tuition. California, Texas and New York have passed laws to that effect in the last two years. Similar measures are either pending or being drafted in Maryland, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Utah, and Congress is considering legislation encouraging other states to follow suit.
This issue is personal to me. I have a 19 year-old friend, a graduate of Twin Springs High School and the Virginia Adult Education Program, who deserves an education, who gives more and tries harder than most American kids do. He passed his GED, he?s learned English, he?s smart and he CAN and WILL contribute to our society. He happened, by God?s will, to be born on the other side of a national border. Because of that quirk of fate, now he can?t attend college, even though he has the right to. But, practically, he can?t; he simply can?t afford it!
That is economic oppression. That is using economics to force people to do your will. Mountain Empire Community College just lost some good tuition money. That?s bad business. It doesn?t benefit either party involved, neither the college nor the students. It doesn?t even benefit Jerry Kilgore. In fact, I can?t think of one reason why any government, be it state or federal, would support such a measure. It?s stupid, plain and simple.
March 3, 2003 - Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and 7th District Congressman Eric Cantor today urged Governor Mark Warner to sign into law two sets of bills passed by the General Assembly that address illegal immigrants. One set of legislation blocks illegal aliens from obtaining driver?s licenses, while the other clarifies in the Code of Virginia that illegal immigrants are ineligible for in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.
Another point, these illegals pay taxes. I know this for a fact because I have many of these people as friends. They use erroneous social security numbers and receive no tax refund. Every year, illegal immigrants pay billions of dollars in unclaimed tax. It is estimated that illegal workers pay $7 billion into social security alone. Who benefits from those tax dollars? The Federal Government, not illegal aliens -- they get short changed on tax refunds, wages, health care, social security, and their children?s education meanwhile businesses benefit by using them for cheap labor. So, corporate America lobbies every year to keep immigration illegal, but the borders porous, so they can exploit these people, oppress them and deny their children an education.
Apart from that, its simply not humanitarian to force these people underground when they are running from economic disasters that many times were caused by US foreign policy. An example is what happened in Guatemala in 1954, where a CIA-backed coup overthrew Jacobo Arbenz Guzman?s legitimately elected government because he was implementing land reform and economic policies very much like Roosevelt?s New Deal to eliminate poverty. The time period of this progressive Guatemalan government is referred to as the ?10 Years of Spring? for its honesty, transparency, and humanitarian policies. However, because Arbenz Guzman?s government was expropriating idle land owned by foreign companies like the infamous United Fruit Company, the Guatemalan government was labeled Communist RED. Guatemala was ripped apart by civil war. Over 50 years of economic disaster and war crimes ensued. Atrocities were committed by the military of a U.S.-backed dictatorship in which whole villages of people were massacred. The most infamous was the horrific Massacre of the Two R?s ("Las Dos Erres") in December 1982.
Now, some politicians, like Jerry Kilgore, want to force the people fleeing this situation into the black market economy, treat them as sub-human, call them criminals for breaking US immigration laws, and even hurt their children by denying them the means to pursue an education. THERE IS NOTHING RIGHT ABOUT DENYING THEIR CHILDREN IN-STATE TUITION. These people are here to work, to feed their family, and if you or I were in the same situation we would do the same thing. Their children deserve to have a chance at The American Dream.
I will not vote for a candidate whose policies are against the American dream.
Instead of voting for people like the Kilgores, let us vote for freedom -- freedom from economic oppression, and freedom from the absolute economic power of Big Business and the exorbitantly wealthy. Today, those people are free to dictate wages and to lobby our Congress for legislation that benefits their vested interests and creates a black-market economy. Then, the law allows Big Business to hire illegal labor and force those workers into a permanent underclass by denying their children a college education. Plus, it leads to the export of American jobs to foreign lands where those workers are exploited, tortured and even enslaved.
Let us vote against a party that does all this while promoting itself as pro-family, moral, and respectful of life.
I oppose Jerry Kilgore and his brother Terry and everything they believe in. This November, I?ll cast my vote for Tim Kaine for Governor and for Rex McCarty for 1st District Delegate.
You begin by stating, ?Kilgore is a man of the American Dream?. While this seems more like an opinion than fact, it predicates, ?he has worked hard on the farm in Scott County growing up?graduated from high school, graduated from college?? Mr. Rat something is amiss, Kilgore has worked hard on the farm? I am a Scott County resident. I have fulfilled two of your three criteria for the American Dream (graduated high school, and college). However, I think anyone from the town of Gate City will confirm that Kilgores and hard, farm work is an oxymoron. I know that there are pictures of ?the twins? in a tobacco field. But, I assure you; no one works in tobacco wearing their Sunday?s best, no matter what the Kilgores would Have you Believe. Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Rat, tobacco farming is hard work and very different from the popular TV sitcom Green Acres. So, I have to ask, did the Kilgores grow up working hard on a farm?
Next, and my personal favorite, is the statement ?this sounds to me like someone who has worked hard for what he has and to me that IS the AMERICAN Dream come true?. Putting aside my initial question, for the time being, and any Disney Land fantasy of wishing upon a star or when dreams come true, lets look at this statement. My grandfather worked in the coalmines during the 1910-20s. He worked hard day in and day out. At the end of the week, after he had paid rent on the company house and paid for company groceries; he was in debt more than he was making. I know what your thinking, why didn?t he leave. Well it wasn?t that simple. The coal company hired a vigilante organization, Pinkertons, to make sure anyone who owed the company did not try to "skip the bill". My grandfather was held against his will to this slave labor. By using Rat logic, my grandfather worked hard for what he had, slavery, therefore that Must be the fulfillment of the AMERICAN Dream! Mr. Rat I must ask if working hard for what you have is the American Dream, then what about those who break their backs day in and day out and have nothing to show for it? If you have not had the opportunity to meet these people come to Gate City.
?Now all we have to do is elect him (Mr. Kilgore) as the next Gov. of VA and we will all have a better chance at the American Dream?. I must confess, Mr. Rat, I actually cut out this quote and hung it on my refrigerator. The Kilgore name has become synonymous with corruption. His family has been linked to voter fraud, which by the way undermines the whole democratic system and teeters on the brink of fascism, and phone tapping. Recently his biggest campaign contributor, owner of King Pharmaceuticals, is being investigated for Medicaid fraud. Please, Mr. Rat, explain to me how voting this man into office will help my pursuit of the American Dream?
The last statement, although there are many more faulty assertions, that I will examine is Mr. Rat claim: ?Did you forget that Jerry?s family is full of educators?this doesn?t sound like a LAUGHABLE support of education to me!? Webster?s dictionary defines support as: ?to provide for or maintain, by supplying with money or necessities?. Mr. Rat, just because Jerry?s family has educators, does not mean that Jerry is providing the public educational system with the necessary funding. He has consistently voted against funding public education, I should know I have actually wrote to his office on this subject. In concluding Mr. Rat, do you honestly believe that Jerry Kilgore ?provides and maintains, by supplying with money or necessities? our public school system? Although I do applaud all teachers and his family alike, I do not think that merely having a family member in the school system is the best that Mr. Kilgore can do to improve public schools and higher public education.
It seems to me that Raising Kaine blogger Tabitha Peace once supported the Kilgores. She discovered - it's on this site someplace - that her knowledge of the 'good' Kilgores was an illusion.
To paraphrase a book allegedly very popular with conservatives: If you do good only for your family and cronies, what have you done? Everyone else does the same. You should go a step further - and do good even for those that do your political career no earthly good.
Being caught ON CAMERA with enough members of the Kilgore nominees packing the Gate City Town Council to hold illegal meetings - whether they actually did or not - at the Scott County Registrar's Office a couple of times a week, almost every week ... but I suppose Willie Mae coud have been hosting 'social gatherings.'
Or perhaps we should discuss John "how did he avoid conflict-of-interest charges oh wait it's Scott County" Kilgore's ascension to the EDA, in which he presided over the creation of - let's count them - ONE JOB until brother Terry starting digging into the Tobacco fund. His paperwork on behalf of Scott County was reviewed as being "fourth grade level" until some nice VCEDA people started doing it for him.
I had the honor of attending a couple of John's presentations as EDA Director, or whatever the job title is now. To a room full of college graduates and community leaders, he gave presentations that MIGHT have been appropriate to kindergarten. MIGHT. To all questions that related to some measure of his performance, he replied with one of three stock answers: There's no way to measure', 'there's no way to tell', 'there's no way to know'.
Actually I come down on the Republican side of the illegal immigrants question. But more me, the issue is that the Kilgores have made the American Dream work FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR FRIENDS while running rough shod over the rest of us.
If your fine friends aren't law breakers, they are most certainly law benders. But then, bending the law is easy if you're the AG... or the heir designate of the Republican Elite Power Class.