O.C.'s Jim Gilchrist wrought trouble for himself with MMP
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The Morning Read: Border burden
O.C.'s Jim Gilchrist wrought trouble for himself with Minuteman Project, but he's not backing off plan to counter illegal crossings.
By MICHAEL CORONADO
The Orange County Register
Social revolution is exhausting work.
And a current champion, retired accountant Jim Gilchrist, is tired, stressed and unhappy.
The hate mail has increased. Human-rights activists protested in front of his Aliso Viejo home over the weekend. And members of the Latin American gang Mara Salvatrucha have promised to do worse.
"I'd rather be fishing," said the 56-year-old Gilchrist, taking a drag from his Pall Mall cigarette at his home.
"I never thought it would get this big."
In just a couple of weeks, Gilchrist will lead nearly 1,000 men and women from across the country into the Arizona desert, where they will search for Mexicans and other Latinos crossing the border illegally.
The so-called Minuteman Project has grown exponentially since Gilchrist first sent out an e-mail last fall seeking a few dozen volunteers willing to spend days in the desert scanning deep valleys and unforgiving plateaus along the Arizona-Mexico border.
"Realistically, I thought I would get 12 (volunteers)," Gilchrist said.
Instead, he got 800 in 60 days. And the ire of the Mexican government, a violent gang and human-rights advocates who despise him.
Still, Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran, says the only person who can intimidate him at this point in his life is a Marine Corps drill instructor.
"I certainly would like to be liked," he added.
Next month, hundreds of vehicles are expected to pepper the vast 600-square-mile desert stretched across 80 miles of border from Tombstone to Douglas, Ariz. From the sky above, a fleet of 16 private aircraft manned by 40 volunteer pilots will do the same.
Volunteers will carry night-vision goggles and binoculars to search and cell phones and radios to report. And some will also carry weapons, to the worry of human-rights activists and Border Patrol agents.
"It takes one lunatic that isn't properly screened," said Ray Ybarra, an Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellow with the ACLU in Douglas. "The general concern of what these volunteers have planned for next month is there can be a mob mentality."
Meanwhile, ACLU attorneys are trying to figure out if there are legal grounds to pursue the Minutemen, Ybarra said. Mexican President Vicente Fox told reporters last week that his government will also use legal means to try to stop the Minuteman Project before it begins.
Perched on hilltops and other elevated land forms, Gilchrist and his fellow Minutemen and women will use high-powered optics and heat-sensing devices to scan swaths of desert in areas authorities consider among the most porous, where many of those seeking entry into the United States illegally cross.
When they spot their subjects, they say, they'll call into the Border Patrol and relay coordinates for pickup.
Gilchrist says he thought of the Minuteman name one day while driving to Starbucks for coffee. He insists that the project is a peaceful call to action and that violence will not be tolerated.
Ultimately, Gilchrist is hopeful that the large turnout will send an unmistakable message to the Bush administration:Thecountry's border policy is broken and its southern boundary undefended.
"I struck a common nerve," he said.
Minuteman idea has hit home
Gilchrist is a small-framed man with large smoky-hazel eyes and wavy salt-and-pepper-streaked hair.
Inside his home, a teapot painted like a cow sits on a stovetop underneath white cabinets covered in chicken wire. His living room and kitchen look like something out of a country-living magazine.
His two Chihuahuas, Misty and Tia, shuffle around on hardwood floors.
Gilchrist, married with two daughters, was never much of a revolutionary.
For 15 years, he crunched numbers at his accounting practice in Newport Beach and Irvine, all the while stewing about the changing face of Orange County.
But his was just another grumbling voice on the sideline until one day, "I noticed people here complaining about it but no one was doing anything."
So, he began the Minuteman Project.
Today, Gilchrist answers an estimated 30 phone calls and responds to nearly 600 e-mails from those interested in the Minuteman Project.
"We don't want arrogant, obstinate, mean people," he said. Still, he realizes there are those who can make things can go terribly wrong.
"Nothing is fail-safe."
Several of the applicants get turned down. One is too angry. Two others focus too much on rifles and handguns.
The phone rings and a reporter from the Times of London asks Gilchrist for an interview. He promises to call her back a little later. The more media attention, the better, he says. That way no one can accuse the Minutemen of violence where there is none.
A small ashtray on the patio of his home is filled with cigarette butts. The phone rings again 15 minutes later. Ten minutes later, he ignores another call.
"I really want to step down and get my life back," he said.
For him, issue is broken policy
Gilchrist wants something made crystal clear, he said.
"I'm not a racist."
He points to his son-in-law, who is Mexican.
"I'm very proud of him."
The issue is a broken border policy for which no one is being held accountable, he explained. That means a changing country and a worried Gilchrist.
"I don't see the United States as a melting pot," he said. "Instead, it's a big bag of marbles seeking dominance (over one another). There is a lack of assimilation."
Gilchrist paints a picture of the past, when those who migrated during the '40s and '50s retained their own values but worked to fit into the American culture. Immigrants learned English, he said, and sought to be embrace those traits that a typical American embodies, he said.
Today, there are too many subcultures grabbing for power, he says. When pressed for specifics about what makes the American culture, Gilchrist admits it's difficult to put into words.
He boils it down this way: When in Rome, do as the Romans, he says.
Gilchrist is proud of what the Minuteman Project has become.
But despite the overwhelming interest, he still wonders what he got himself into.
"It's too much to keep up with," he said.
Is it worth it?
He draws his hand to his brow and looks downward before answering.
"Yeah, it is."
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CONTACT US: (949) 465-5424 or mcoronado@ocregister.com
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Keep up the great work!!!
As I have gotten older (52) I came to the conclusion that our Nation is going downhill. Our presidentcy is not for the people. The Vietnam war was a police action and the govt was not telling the people everything, that is why C-Span got started. If I go to war or fight the object is to win. In 1983 when the terriots bombed the bank tower under Clinton's admin. 100,000 people could have been killed if the tower had fell over. Nobody did nothing. The terriorists killed over 5000 people on 9/11 and with all the high level, supposedly smart people in govt. nobody seen the attack coming. There is a town in the Northeast that was given Homeland security money and went out and bought 17 new garbage truck!!! The Feds have done nothing yet!! Fire the guy who bought the trucks!!! With over 40 million illegal aliens in our country and no end in sight, someone must take control. I will donate to the cause and you should too. I recommend that those of you that read this reply not buy books written by or of the past presidents, in at least the last 40 years as they do not need to benefit from their past ludicrious actions!!!
Minutemen are true American heroes
Isn't that something? These vile traitors at the ACLU are going to "search to see if theres any legal action they can pursue" against the Minutemen -- law-abiding American citizens walking around on American land....but they see no "legal action" they could take against the millions of ILLEGAL immigrants -- these foreigners! -- who are invading our country. I hate lawyers as as group, and the ACLU must be amongst the slimiest. But if theres any decent lawyers out there reading this, surely theres some action that could be taken against those slimeballs at the ACLU, like starting with "aiding and abetting criminals in the performance of a felony." Geez, this stuff is so mind-boggling ironic, I sometimes think I'm trapped in a really weird TWILIGHT ZONE episode.
A Brain-twister for Our Liberal Friends
I hesitate to bring this up, because I think the webmasters of this site are wise to tone down the "racial" rhetoric as much as possible. But, considering that the "racist" accusation is hurled at us by our detractors with dreary regularity, I think its high time we started hurling it right back at their chump, hypocritical faces. Consider this little tid-bit. Jews as a group have historically been among the strongest supporters of liberal immigration laws and open borders in virtually every country they live in (and thats certainly true here in America) except for in one country. Can you quess what that is? Why, its the country of Israel, which has EXTREMELY conservative and restrictive immigration laws -- in fact, you have to be Jewish to be eligible for first-class citizenship. Be sure to mention this little tid-bit to that pompous windbag Ira Glasser and all the other liberal schmucks at the ACLU.
