By ELLIS BOAL
October 27, 2007 04:00 am Charlevoix's Community Reformed Church has scheduled a forum for Wednesday on the subject of immigration. Originally, the sole speaker was to have been Petoskey ophthalmologist John Tanton, founder of FAIR, an immigration-restriction organization, and publisher of the magazine Social Contract. Articles in FAIR and Social Contract supported a bill passed by the House in 2005 to limit immigration and criminalize undocumented immigrants. Articles in Social Contract repeatedly use fear of non-white races to make its point: -- The most popular title of the magazine's catalog recently is a gloomy futuristic novel, "The Camp Of The Saints." In the book, immigrants from India invade Europe. Author Jean Raspail disparages them as "kinky-haired, swarthy-skinned, long-despised phantoms, all the teeming ants toiling for the white man's comfort ..." In the end, they destroy civilization. -- Social Contract interviewed Raspail and asked why he portrayed the conflict in terms of brown and black against white. He answered: "it is race that gives culture its mark in the beginning." A magazine review praised the book for bonding intellectuals and racists in "work(ing) ... toward essentially the same goals of limiting immigration." Lamenting the "greater reproductive powers" of Latin American immigrants, Tanton once wrote to activist colleagues: "Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down!" An article by a Japanese writer said: "Do blacks and Hispanics, for instance, have the skills and knowledge to run an advanced industrial economy? If the answer is yes, America will maintain its vitality through the next century and beyond. But I'm skeptical." In 2005 the magazine's editor, Wayne Lutton, advocated war: "Far from being a virtue, 'tolerance' of the wrong variety can lead to cultural suicide and risks the very extinction of peoples. Men and women of character will not let this occur without a fight." Lutton holds a Ph.D. in military history. Last year, some Petoskey-area neighbors and I sent Tanton written questions about the magazine's quotes. He wrote back saying he would answer if we first answered questions of his about racism. I obliged and sent researched single-spaced answers. Then he reneged, saying he wanted to focus on migration and didn't have time. In conversation he has not used racist arguments with me. But he will at the church forum if he sets out the world-view of his magazine. When challenged he will bob and weave and back down, as he did last year. On hearing of the forum, I contacted the church. Eventually it agreed to an additional speaker, the Rev. Wayne Dziekan, a Catholic priest and immigrant advocate in Traverse City. As written, the Tanton-supported 2005 House bill also criminalized charities that aid undocumented aliens in remaining in the U.S. by, for example, providing food, clothing or shelter. Had the bill become law, people like the Rev. Dziekan would have among those targeted. Thankfully it failed, amid huge protest demonstrations around the country. On Wednesday the two face off. Reach Community Reformed Church at (231) 547-9482. About the writer About the forum
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Ellis Boal is a Charlevoix attorney. Copies of cited materials are available on request at: ellisboal@voyager.net.
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