At the unveiling of his statue yesterday in San Diego, CA, former SD mayor/CA governor Pete Wilson called those opposed to the statue "thugs," "childish," and "horse's asses." He went on to state that whoever opposed the statue was in support of illegal immigration.

To clarify the issue, the border separating the U.S. and Mexico is illegitimate. This land was owned and controlled rightfully by First Nation peoples and by Mexicas. To build and maintain walls on the earth is an insult to the respect for the land practiced by these nations. Eso es Aztlan. Eso es el tierra del los Kumeyaays.

Given this historical reality, there is no such thing as illegal immigration. There are, however, illegal methods of governance that impose stringent laws designed to uphold those in power through police suppression, economic exploitation, and disenfranchisement.

A second reason why those of us in Gente Unida and the Peace & Freedom Party reject the statue of Pete Wilson is because of the profits he and his wife have made off of exploiting prison labor and prison privatization. During his tenure as Governor, Pete Wilson's wife, Gayle, owned over half of the prisons in California. At the same time, Wilson got re-elected using a tough-on-crime Republican platform which resulted in the denial of parole for numerous women serving excessive sentences for defending themselves against domestic violence. It also landed tens of thousands of minor drug offenders behind bars, as he aided & abetted Ronald Reagan's so-called war on drugs.

This was clearly a conflict of interest. One could picture Pete and Gayle in bed, chatting. Okay, honey, you buy the prisons, and I'll fill them up.

Enrique Morones put it best yesterday when he called Pete Wilson a "persona non grata." Nicole Murray Ramirez's history lesson on Wilson's legacy of hate in SD was very enlightening. By overlookiing violence in his police department against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer citizens, Mayor Pete Wilson colluded in the crimes.

There is the added concern about Wilson's impact on the gentrification of San Diego's downtown, urban sprawl, and the proposed Sempra Energy Sunrise Powerlink. He was and always will be a developer in a suit who hung California's worker out to dry. The hate propoganda he put out while in office still brings violence and harrassment upon California's Mexican and Mexican-American, Chicana and Chicano residents.

How long will it take for the Minutemen and capitalists like Wilson to realize you don't bite the hand that feeds you?

No statue should be erected in his name. Instead, he should be serving time in one of the very prisons he and Gayle bought. Let him make Starbucks mugs or Jostens uniforms for 8 cents an hour!



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