Immigrant bashing, trashing, and blaming never really caught fire in Oracle. Sure there was a flurry of agitation egged on by a handful of folks, most from out of town, culminating in the summer of 2014, but overall the Oracle community just wouldn’t buy it. The “bus blockade” in July of that year went over like a lead balloon, ending in in the embarrassment of individuals who surged to the front of the group attempting to block the progress of a school bus believed to be transporting refugee children to the Sycamore Canyon Academy (see Episode 35 for more of the story). Deeply disappointed were those hoping to add Oracle to the building blocks of the anti-immigrant fervor … like Murrieta, CA.
But for the rest of us, after that, Oracle returned to the place it had been when we first moved here in 1979 - tolerant, neighborly, racially co-mingled. So Oracle never became that “next Murrieta” the blockaders so yearned for.
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Now fast forward to Springfield, OH - same train, different track -where some politicos ravenous for votes embraced a phony story about pet-eating immigrants. Many of us in Oracle can dope out exactly what’s going on because we had our own phony stories about disease spreading, MS13-joining, crime-ridden migrant children temporarily sheltered near our own town at Sycamore Canyon Academy.
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In Oracle’s reaction to what some in the media have taken to calling “false claims” (otherwise known as “lies”) was an outpouring of generosity for refugee children (“Have-a-Heart”) coupled with ridicule of the blockaders.
In Springfield local reactions included those of a grieving father whose son he said was a pawn (lied about) in the machinations of the immigrant bashers to hype the fervor of their racialized fever dream. Reminiscent of what Sheriff Paul Babeu and co-conspirators did in Oracle ten years ago targeting refugee children, some politicos seized upon the dog and cat eating stories to agitate fears about Haitian immigrants while trolling for votes.
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In Oracle not a single local institution bought in to the vulgarities of anti-immigrant agitation. One explanation for this is the depth and duration of local experience - in mine, mill, and smelter… in the benevolence of churches and schools… in labor unions… in non-profits like the Oracle Historical Society and the Oracle Community Center.
That’s what we trust, not the ghoulish ploys of political schemers.
Yaaay Oracle! Great writing Frank💖