ALL WE ARE SAYING:
Waves of can't-we-all-just-get-along sentiment rippled through Santa Fe after the severe Feb. 27 beating of James Maestas. The city's citizens and government leaders rallied to condemn the crime purportedly motivated by Maestas' sexual orientation.
In a resolution adopted on March 9, the City implored "staff to facilitate roundtables discussing the cause and prevention of hate crimes, teaching tolerance, ending prejudice, and making Santa Fe a more welcoming community."
Now the City of Santa Fe-in conjunction with the Santa Fe Community Foundation-is putting its money where its mouth was by initiating "Roundtable: Cause and Prevention of Hate Crimes," the first official community discussion dictated by the resolution, at 5 pm, May 13 in Room 3 of the Sweeney Convention Center.
"This is just the first in a series of roundtable discussions or community forums," says Dolores Roybal, the SFCF program director. "There are several objectives, the first of which is to raise awareness of this issue. But more it's about getting the community involved on all levels."
And while the catalyst for the discussions was the crime perpetuated against Maestas, Roybal says the roundtables intend to tackle hate crime in all its manifestations. The forums will use what Roybal calls a "fish bowl" strategy utilizing a wide collection of community members who have historically been targets of hate crime.
"It's not just about lesbian and gay issues," Roybal says. "Hate takes many different shapes and affects many different types of people."
Roybal expects attendance at the first roundtable to be between 50 and 100 people, culled from the general public and from members of the 85 organizations that endorsed the City's resolution. The disparate litany of which ranges from organizations like the Human Rights Alliance and the New Mexico Green Party to the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Party of Santa Fe County.
"I think that that is very telling and encouraging," Roybal says. "So many diverse groups coming together and saying 'we will not tolerate hate crime.'" (ND)
WASTE NOT?:
Several months ago Dale Amburn witnessed a scene at the Albertson's on Zafarano Drive that left him unsettled. He saw Albertson's workers dumping pounds of produce. "They must have thrown $400 or $500 worth of packages of grapes because maybe there were three or four or five brown ones in the package," he says. After inquiring, Amburn says he was told it was Albertson's policy to throw away fruit that was ripe, bruised or otherwise flawed. "You can't find a ripe banana in there. Why? Because they're throwing them all away," he says. "Why can't you repackage them or offer them at a reduced price. The majority of people who go to the store are middle- or low-income." According to Andrew Lopez, a produce clerk at the Albertson's on Zafarano, at one time the store gave away produce, bread and other goods. "We used to give it all away to soup kitchens but, because of lawsuits, we can't donate anymore," he says. The produce manager at the Albertson's on 600 N. Guadalupe, who did not want to be named, says that all Albertson's employ this policy, which began about three years ago. The Intermountain West division of Albertson's in Idaho, however, tells a different story. According to the communications department there, last year Albertson's launched a program called Fresh Rescue. In the program, produce is collected and taken to local food banks. Last year, Albertson's donated 19 million pounds of goods to food banks throughout the nation. The fact that Santa Fe Albertson's haven't adopted the program yet may not be cause for concern. The Intermountain West Division of Albertson's says that the initiative may not have spread to all Albertson's yet. When asked about the food bank program, the director of the Albertson's on Zafarano declined to comment. (NK)
LABOR DISPUTE:
At today's Santa Fe City Council meeting, the City's Immigration Committee is expected to raise concerns about the Department of Labor's treatment of day laborers who gather between the DOL offices and DeVargas Park.
Specifically, the Immigration Committee wants to know whether or not DOL Area Director Nancy O'Rourke's comments about wanting the laborers to move to a different location to obtain work reflect the entire department [Outtakes, April 20: "Kicked from the Curb"].
The committee believes comments O'Rourke made in SFR and subsequently in the Journal Santa Fe were inappropriate. "She says she didn't make the comments quoted in the Reporter," Marcela Díaz, an Immigration Committee member, says. "But she said the same exact thing in the Journal."
Maria Cristina Lopez, chairwoman of the Immigration Committee, says she also objected to O'Rourke equating the day laborers with criminal activity. "Also, this idea of moving them away. The answer here is not to move people from this central location where they have a reasonable procedure to get a job. If traffic is a problem we agree with O'Rourke's idea of turning DeVargas into a one-way street." Lopez says they requested that the comments be retracted and an apology issued at a meeting the Committee had last week. O'Rourke referred all comments to DOL Spokesman Carlos Castaneda, who told SFR that Secretary of Labor Conroy Chino will meet with the Immigration Committee to address the concerns members have about the DOL. Asked if O'Rourke's views were reflective of the DOL, Castaneda said, "The Department of Labor's primary goals and the primary functions of this agency is to provide services to the unemployed as the largest employment agency in the state. We're committed to ensuring safety and protection of workers' rights in this state."
In addition to saying that the assembly of laborers reflect poorly on the DOL's image, O'Rourke told both papers that she would like the City to establish a center in which the immigrants could gather for work. But Mara Taub, a member of Los Amigos del Parque, a group that provides the day laborers breakfast and other services, says this would put the immigrants at a disadvantage. Particularly, Taub says the laborers would not have as much control over the work they obtained. Moreover, she says the laborers may feel more at risk waiting in a centralized location for work, if undocumented. INS officials would know just where to look for them, Taub says. (NK)
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