(I changed the original title to accomodate addition "Updated".)

Slayings of Chilean students send a bad message to world

March 13, 2009

The value we place on human life is determined by different things: wealth, accomplishments, companionship, celebrity and apparently even U.S. citizenship status.

On Feb. 26, five Chilean students were gunned down in Miramar Beach near Destin. Two were killed, one remains hospitalized.

Reports say the disturbed shooter was known to make anti-immigrant remarks.

The students were in Northwest Florida legally on an international work program.

Whether they were here legally or not, they're human, and now two are dead.

Latinos worried about potential violence after politicians campaigned to eradicate our community of illegal aliens, and people fell for it.

I questioned how one determines citizenship while grocery shopping.

Nonetheless, after the ballots were counted and jobs secured, we're left to deal with residual solicited expressions of hate and intolerance.

The FBI reported that hate crimes nationwide, especially against Latinos, have been on the rise for the past four years — about as long as politicians have been addressing the current "immigration problem."

This week Chilean media contacted me to ask how we were coping.

I didn't have the heart to tell them the majority of Pensacola doesn't even know about the killings.

Many local Latino residents learned about the shooting from family members who called from across the nation and around the world worried about our safety after reading the news. It's out there.

International reports explained the shooting took place in Miramar Beach "near Pensacola." Northwest Florida is currently representing the United States to the world with this story, and the message is "immigrants, especially Latinos, are not welcome here."

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Liza Jackson Park in Fort Walton Beach on U.S. 98.

Officials who have opened forums about immigration, promoted foreign diplomacy or diversity are invited and asked to agree to respect all human life equally, to represent all citizens regardless of race or ethnicity whenever we work to resolve policies, and to please leave immigration enforcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Perhaps we'll send a new message to South America and the world that Northwest Florida is a peace-loving, caring community; and don't worry, Mom and Dad, we're OK; and to the kids' families, our sincerest sympathies.

Grace Resendez McCaffery is the president of Latino Media Gulf Coast Inc. (www.latinomediainc.com). She is editor of La Costa Latina newspaper and an Escambia County resident since 1993.

http://www.pnj.com/article/20090313/OPI ... 1020/RSS03