| Just like a bad penny that always seems to show | | | | one with a great deal of integrity-resigns over |
| up, guess who is back in the limelight soaking up | | | | racism in the group and its unwillingness to excise |
| the press that was diverted to more serious | | | | "the cancer out of the (Goliad area) group". |
| world-issues like hurricanes and wars: The | | | | * Second, two months later, the guy who took |
| Minuteman Project.[1] | | | | Parmley's place, Kenneth Buelter, dissolves the |
| So, let's have a look-see, shall we, at what antics | | | | same Goliad chapter without so much as a "by |
| and hijinks they've been up to since we last | | | | your leave". |
| spoke: | | | | * Instead of an outside group, someone neutral |
| * July 2005: Former Texas and Goliad chapter | | | | and unbiased-without an anti-Mexican axe to |
| president Bill Parmley, one of the group's original | | | | grind-investigating this Parmely's allegation of |
| organizers, said in a July interview that the group | | | | racism, Garza proclaims the allegation as |
| would conduct observation activities mostly on | | | | groundless. |
| private land along a line stretching from Port | | | | What you didn't see in the mainstream Fair and |
| Lavaca, through Victoria, on to Goliad, then | | | | Balanced news coverage (besides everything I've |
| following U.S. Highway 59 to a point near Laredo. | | | | written above) is that there is more to Bill |
| Parmley resigned abruptly in late July alleging | | | | Parmley´s resignation. There is more than |
| racism in the local chapter and a lack of | | | | meets the eye here, like most everything with |
| organization on the national level. In subsequent | | | | The Minuteman Project. |
| interviews, Parmley stated the racism must run | | | | "Bill Parmley, former coordinator for Texas, quit |
| through to the national chapter since it had failed | | | | after alleging Simcox[5] botched the organization's |
| to take action against the Goliad group. "I have | | | | financing. He also warned that some members of |
| seen how they have not tried to carve the | | | | his Goliad, Texas, chapter, which recently was |
| cancer out of the (Goliad area) group. I can only | | | | shut down, were "racists" and "wanted to go |
| assume that (racism) is a part of their agenda," | | | | after Mexicans as a whole," not simply report |
| Parmley said previously.[2] | | | | undocumented immigrants to the U.S. Border |
| * September 12, 2005: "The Goliad chapter of the | | | | Patrol." |
| Minuteman Civil Defense Corps was dissolved | | | | Note that phrase, "wanted to go after Mexicans |
| today," reported Goliad chapter president Kenneth | | | | as a whole". I warned of this neo-populism in my |
| Buelter in a brief e-mail sent to the Victoria | | | | columns months ago: |
| Advocate on Monday evening. There was no | | | | "J.C. Hernandez, a third-generation Texan, is the |
| additional explanation in Buelter's e-mail.[3] | | | | founder and president of Americans for Zero |
| * Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Texas | | | | Immigration. Hernandez was working with |
| president Al Garza quickly jumped into the spin | | | | Minutemen organizers in Texas and said he |
| game: ""(The e-mail) really doesn't spotlight | | | | expected to play a leading role in the upcoming |
| anything in particular," Garza said. The e-mail | | | | patrol. He also wants the right, he said, to make a |
| simply said things weren't working out, he added. | | | | citizen's arrest of suspected illegal immigrants. |
| As to Bill Parmley's sudden resignation and | | | | "When you fight a war you don't fight it with |
| accusations of racism in the group, Garza, who | | | | rhetoric," Hernandez said. "When you fight a war, |
| worked for more than 30 years as a private | | | | man, you go in and kill the enemy.... A signal has |
| investigator, said he looked into the allegations and | | | | to be sent to Mexico and all those countries that |
| found them groundless. "It was merely a | | | | we are tired of it and we're not going to put up |
| misunderstanding and misinformation," Garza said, | | | | with it."[6] |
| referring to the charges of racism."[4] | | | | The Houston Chronicle reported: |
| Now isn't that rich? Do you think that Garza has a | | | | "Parmley said he has become concerned that |
| wee bit of a bias in this "internal investigation" of | | | | some of the Minuteman activists in his region |
| his? And do you really think that the appeal to the | | | | have a vendetta against the Goliad County |
| authority, "who worked for more than 30 years | | | | sheriff, who is Hispanic. He asserted they also |
| as a private investigator", constitutes proof for | | | | have made comments about shooting illegal |
| the claim that Parmely´s allegations was | | | | immigrants or letting them die from dehydration. |
| groundless? | | | | That's their mind-set, and I don't want my name |
| It strikes me, how shall I say this nicely, suspicious | | | | and my reputation associated with a group of |
| the chain of events here. Let's take another look: | | | | people who are racist like that," he said. |
| * First, a "dyed-in-the-wool" Minuteman-apparently | | | | |