This editorial was just published in our local newspaper by Dave Rutter. Many folks (subject of a local call in radio show) are pretty upset at the arrogance of it. It was written by our new editor/publisher of just a couple of months. I doubt he lives in our town or has any idea what we are going through. Below in red is his email (if he pisses you off too) and a comment from our board...



fedupinwaukegan,
The email address for David Rutter is:
drutter@scn1.com

sidebar: A caller on the Lenny Palmer show suggested that those upset about this op/ed contact some of the regular advertisers in the News Sun about their concerns as to how Mr. Rutter views many of his paying LAke County customers (or FORMER customers in my case!)
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http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... S1.article


For racists, the song remains same

September 23, 2006

If you grew up where I did, you'd know about racists

They always sounded the same.

They often were indignant and very angry. It's a tone, a tilt and a particular tense that stuck with me for years.

Though it's not so useful a skill to possess, this long experience qualifies me as an expert

So, when I tell you this, don't take it personally, unless it applies to you and then maybe you should take it very personally

Based on my brief but happy time in Lake County, I'd say there are more racists here than you'd expect in a cosmopolitan, thriving county

Hard at the core, take-no-prisoners, pinch-faced racists, many of whom would argue that they are merely stand-up-for-the-red-white-and-blue Americans

But they kid themselves. They're the same sort who wore hoods and burned crosses when I was a young man. They all sound the same, think the same; value only what separates people. They all see the world from inside the same furrowed, petulant grimace.

And just with the racists of my youth, they almost never admit what they are because they're not adept at self-recognition. Racists always portray themselves as the good guys. The racists of my youth mostly were bigoted about blacks because they were the minority at hand, had very little besides their pride and desire to better themselves and they were easy to pick on. If there had been Vietnamese Boat People or Hmong or Haitians or any other folks with different pigmentation at close enough hand to rage against them, the racists I knew would have been racist about them, too. But those folks hadn't arrived yet.

Many of these pathetic patriots present themselves at the doorstep of this newspaper as letter writers, phone callers and e-mailers. In the spirit of knowing what's on people's minds, we even let some of them have their say because just because you're a repugnant, numbskullified idiot, that should not automatically disqualify you from public discourse

The targets in this county, of course, are Mexican immigrants

It must be difficult to be a local immigrant and know that so many white people dislike you so intensely for reasons that seem so patently preposterous and contrived

Racists always are toweringly angry about other people catching good breaks.

Yes, yes, I know that undocumented immigrants are violating the law, but thousands of born-here folks violate laws every day and never get caught -- or excoriated -- for their evildoingness. We don't execute cigarette company executives for killing millions of fellow citizens, but we prosecute terminally ill cancer patients for smoking marijuana. Go figure

If you are reading this and don't think it applies to you, ask yourself this question

Do you think your great-grandparents would not have leaped at the same chance to come here without properly signed papers?

Mine came from all over Europe. They had the right papers. But if my great-grandpas and ma'ams could not have made it here without breaking the law, without swimming across a shallow, dirty river at the nation's southern border, I bet they would have. They were a feisty, ingenious bunch. They had dreams. You often do what you must for your family. There's time enough later to worry about what people who wear white hoods will say.