The history of Irish immigration to America is grand indeed, but the chronicle of overcoming adversity and bigotry has always been marred by the flare-ups of our own version of arriviste nativism. Predominantly Irish rioters rampaged through the streets of New York in 1863, as blacks become the scapegoat for Irish anger over the Civil War draft. In the 1870s Irish American immigrants attacked Chinese immigrants in the western states, driving them out of smaller towns. Immigrant Denis Kearney led a mass movement in San Francisco in 1877 that threatened harm to railroad owners if they hired any Chinese. For immigrants so recently and flamboyantlhy deined their own rights, these episodes are a black mark on the long struggle of Irish Catholics in America.
And then there's Jim Gilchrist.
Gilchrist, whose name in Gaelic means "servant of Christ," is an Irish Catholic American who sends me emails urging support for his Minuteman Project.
The ironically-surnamed Gilchrist founded the Minuteman Project two years ago, with the aim of stemming the flow of illegal immigrants from across the border in Mexico. Gilchrist and his band spread a thin veneer of law enforcement and grassroots political credibility across their organization, but the Minuteman Project is nothing short of a return of the Nativists, that know-nothing, last one in shut the door bunch of haters that opposed European immigration a century ago. And sadly, the Minutemen - and one Jim Gilchrist - are the direct descendants of the haters who lynched the blacks and the Chinese in the 19th century.
That this movement is led by another Irish Catholic, the child of an immigrant culture that faced ethnic and religious persecution on these shores, is both sad and horrifying to this Irish Catholic.
Make no mistake, the Minuteman Project is a project of hate. While it describes itself as "a citizens' Neighborhood Watch on our border" - "white Martin Luther Kings" in Gilchrist's words - their actions tell another story.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a well-respected civil rights organization, white supremacists and neo-Nazi's are prominent Minutemen. At the group's rally last April kicking off a month of volunteer "patrols" along the border, members of the racist National Alliance were in action:
Prominent among the demonstrators were two men who confided that they were members of the Phoenix chapter of the National Alliance — the largest neo-Nazi group in America. One of the two, who sat in lawn chairs throughout, held a sign with arrows depicting invading armies of people from Mexico — a sign identical to National Alliance billboards and pamphlets, except without the Alliance logo.
In fact, National Alliance pamphlets were distributed in Tombstone and this predominantly Hispanic community just two days before the Minuteman Project got going. "Non-Whites are turning America into a Third World slum," they read. "They come for welfare or to take our jobs. Let's send them home now."
Then there was Minuteman volunteer Joe McCutchen, carrying his .38 snub nose automatic. Here's his take on the immigrants:
"A lot of these people coming in, they're diseased. They've got tuberculosis, leprosy. I mean, you don't even want to touch them unless you're wearing gloves. So why the hell should we pay our taxes to cure them? ... They're turning our country into a Third World dumping ground. We're losing our language to them, losing our culture. They're taking over, and if we don't stop [immigration], our society will not survive. That's why I'm here."
On their so-called patrols, the Minutemen say they will peaceably detain illegals and call local law enforcement. But during one incident last year, members of the group physically assaulted a young Mexican and forced him to be photographed wearing a T-shirt with a Minuteman slogan on it - you know, just for laughs.
Gilchrist knows the language of the haters of the far right, the quasi-David Duke code words, the kind of language that might pass Pat Buchanan muster. Here's what he told Fox News host Alan Colmes last year:
Alan, there are supremacist groups out there of all races, colors and creeds. It's not just white supremacists. Why are you picking on them? There are brown. There are purple. There are red.
Yeah, those purple supremacist groups are a real threat to our way of life. A month ago, a group of students from my alma mater rushed the stage when Gilchrist was booked to speak at Columbia, and fought a brief, pitched battle with his handlers. Reading what Gilchrist has said over the past few years, they would have been far more effective in their goal of marginalizing his views by letting him speak.
With an election only five days away, Gilchrist was hitting the send button big-time this week, penning this little missive from one Irish Catholic to another:
"We aren't taking anything for granted. We know the American people agree with us, by a large majority, a super-majority, but we are continuing to work with pro-security candidates to get our message out. If Americans who care about border security don't get out to vote this election, we can kiss the United States Constitution goodbye - but I believe we will see a great turnout, and it will be because no true American wants to lose his country for lack of border security."
Haters like Gilchrist hide behind "security" and immigration quotas, but always manage to slip that little "culture" thing in there, as if American culture wasn't polyglot, an ever-shifting amalgam of rich influences from everywhere on the planet. Funny, that's exactly what white Protestants said about Gilchrist's kind a hundred or more years ago: these Irish will change our culture, and for the worse. Perhaps Jim Gilchrist should peruse some of the literature of the day, it reads like a Minuteman's diary, substituting Mexican for Irish, of course. [Does he even realize that 75% of Mexican immigrants are Catholics? Does he see any hypocrisy?] From an 1854 short story:
"I can't imagine, Carrie, why you object so strongly to a Roman Catholic."
"Why, Edward, they are so ignorant, filthy, and superstitious. It would never do to trust the children alone with one, for there is no telling what they might learn."
One of the candidates this proud Irish-American touts for Congress next Tuesday is Republican Randy Graf of Arizona, who is for the open 8th CD against Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. Graf doesn't just support the Minutemen - he is a Minuteman [that's him on the left "on patrol" in the fight for freedom of the borders]. The district is 84% white and on the border with Mexico, so my guess is Gilchrist's gang and Graf's campaign believed an anti-immigration push would keep the seat in GOP hands. Here's what they say:
You can help strike a blow against the powerful groups in Washington that continue to condone the massive violation of our national borders. You can be a part of taking Minuteman Project to the next level by helping Randy Graf get elected to Congress where he will serve alongside Rep. Tom Tancredo and work for you to stop the border invasion.
Not happening. According to Real Clear Politics, a fairly conservative site, Giffords is dominating Graf by an average of 10 points in the cumulative polling. Graf is losing despite the very public endorsement of Mr. Straight Talk, John McCain, who clearly will do anything to try and get the conservative base behind his craven White House bid. Graf is being laughed out of Arizona.
See, the thing to remember about the Nativists and the Know-nothings and the Klan, and all the various leagues of hatred and prejudice, is that they failed in the end. Such will be the failure of the Minutemen on Tuesday. And this Irish American will be staying up late to watch another Irish American get buried politically.
