13526: Simidor: Pina wrong on Meeks and on refugees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: karioka9@arczip.com

Pina postulates in "13514: RE: Raymond Joseph's theory on refugees:"

> The most compelling evidence in this direction was the statement made
> by Rep. Carrie Meeks that the refugees are victims of "repression". . . .

Pina's attack on Carrie Meeks only shows his own bias.  Carrie Meeks is a local
elected Florida official, a black woman, who from day one identified with the plight of
the Haitian refugees, because she knew without elaborate "postulations" that they
were victims of racism.  I met Ms. Meeks in 1996 and let me tell you this: she was
believable then, and she's believable now.  She's not a Bush agent, as Pina implies.
Pina's pitch, on the other hand, is identical with Brooklyn's Radio Soleil's Rico Dupuy,
a Lavalas PAID AGENT, who has violently denounced the refugees as people out to
embarass the great and mighty Lavalas Leader.

Meeks is only trying to get for (black) Haitians what every (white) Cuban or Russian
refugee gets when they reach US shores -- whether they land at Kennedy Airport or
in the Florida keys. Does Pina really believe that the post-Mariel Cubans, with their
angst for macburgers and DVD drives, have a stronger claim to refugee status than
the Haitians jumping off the boat earlier this week in Florida?

Carrie Meeks has a good record of speaking out on behalf of Haitian refugees.  Pina
on the other hand is only aping the Bush administation: "the Haitians are only
economic refugees, economic refugees, economic refugees…."

Daniel Simidor

Daniel Simidor