Minutemen not racist group, just concerned with legality of immigrants

June 9, 2007

Brian Wilburn


What is "More than 275" and "87.2%"? The answer: "more than 275" is the number of members and associates who are active in supporting the Ozarks Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and "87.2%" is the percentage of people who support our efforts to enact a city ordinance to punish employers who hire illegal aliens in a poll you took last week. That poll of more than 800 is consistent with national polls and it should show you that you are on the wrong side of this debate. Since you don't get it, let me try one more time to explain to you who and what we are and our position. By the way, maybe if you came to a meeting and saw for yourself who and what we are, then maybe you might be able to more accurately report on our activities. I guess that journalistic credibility and integrity is just not all that important to you!
The Ozarks MCDC exists to educate the public and our elected officials on the impact of illegal aliens on our social infrastructure (healthcare, education, social services) and law enforcement/courts, to propose and/or support legislation that makes the Ozarks unfriendly to illegal aliens, to identify businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens, to take such actions that would cause our elected officials to comply with and/or enforce existing laws, and to act as "eyes and ears" within the community reporting suspicious and/or illegal activity. The Ozarks MCDC believes that those who come here should come legally, that they should be required to learn English as an official language, and that they should be required to learn our laws, our customs, and our culture. Preference should be given to those who are willing to serve community and/or country! We believe that they should make every effort and be given every opportunity to assimilate themselves into society.



Since our formation a year ago the Ozarks MCDC has, like it or not, become very relevant in the local immigration debate and nothing you say in an anonymous editorial will change that! We've become relevant by doing what we said we'd do, doing so in a lawful manner, and by building our credibility person by person with those who are involved in this debate. There's not been one "incident" involving a member of the Ozarks MCDC. On the contrary, our members have stepped up to support the community such as during the ice storm and during the Marine Corp Homecoming. You are wrong about us, we are not a hate group! What we are is a group of law abiding men and women who are proud to be Americans, who believe in the Rule of Law and who want our borders secured. We reject those who support racist ideology and do so by conducting backgrounds and vettings. Our members agree to adhere to a strict set of policies and procedures and a code of ethics. Many of our members, including myself, have sworn an oath to defend the constitution and our country against all enemies foreign and domestic and have risked our lives doing so. That alone gives us a great deal of credibility in the debate. We earned it serving our community and country! How'd you earn yours?

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Brian Wilburn is chapter director of the Ozarks Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

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