Coronado High School Gubernatorial Forum

 Friday's Gubernatorial Forum was "By students for students" according to one of its very young organizers. It was supposed to be a celebration of youth involvement. Or at least that's what we were all told when we agreed to speak. Most of the speakers did speak to the students in attendance(about 95% of the audience) about how essential their participation in the election process was and urged them to register to vote, no matter what party they wanted to vote for.

The event had plenty of students involvement. There were  four year olds who recited the pledge of allegiance, fourth graders who sang "Deep In The Heart Of Texas"..........

And then came Bill White. That's when everything changed. It went from encouraging students to participate and to educate themselves in the election process to grand standing by Bill White.

He was speaking to High School students and to a swarm of television cameras so he didn't really talk about too many issues. He did mention Facebook though. He didn't want to talk about anything of substance or controversial considering he was given a free ride. He focused on what affected most of those in the crowd, education. Why bore the students with real issues that affect our border other than education.

But speaking of issues, I have some with his speech.

The first issue is with his statement that said "I am here for a job interview". Well let's pretend we are a hiring manager and check some of his references. In his speech White said that 90% of Sheriff's support his plan including El Paso's own Sheriff, Richard Wiles. 

White was referring to his plan to add 1,000 more deputies and law enforcement agents in border communities. If I was White I wouldn't list Richard Wiles as a reference for this or any job considering Wiles contradicted him when he testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee saying:

"As a law enforcement officer, I respect the laws of our country and the necessity for them to be followed to provide for an orderly and safe society. Immigration and immigration enforcement rest solely with the federal government and federal agencies."

"In the past, there has been discussion of local, county and state law enforcement agencies "assisting" in the area of immigration enforcement; this is not good policy. While Chief of Police in El Paso, I was a member of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. This organization is comprised of the leaders of the largest sixty?four law enforcement agencies (local and county) in the United States and Canada. I was one of nine members of an immigration subcommittee that ultimately made recommendations to the full Association, which were adopted in June 2006. I have attached a copy of the report for your review. The general recommendation of the Major Cities Chiefs Association was that local law enforcement should not be engaged in the enforcement of federal immigration law"

These two statements alone go against White's plans to put more law enforcement agents to help enforce immigration law. Wasn't that Wiles' biggest argument was when he ran for sheriff in 2008. He promised El Pasoans that he would not enforce federal law if elected Sheriff. But now he is switch hitting and going on the campaign trail with Bill White telling everybody he supports White's ideas of law enforcement agents fighting illegal immigration. (Let me pull a Jaime here) Why hasn't the Bird Cage Special (El Paso Times) picked up on this story? Why haven't they torn him a new one for changing his position on this issue. Maybe because everybody bows down to the almighty Richard Wiles. As you see, there is no bowing here.

Wiles is just as bad as our current President. They both promised the Latino community one thing to get their votes then they go back on their promise once elected. (OOOOH, nice shot. I killed two birds with one stone on that one)

My next issue, Mr. White told students that "The voters are more important than those who seek to serve" and said that those who serve should be held "accountable". That's funny considering Mr. White has a problem with accountability. As in accounting for all of his tax returns. Rick Perry asked him to release all of his tax returns but only released some. Makes us simple mortals think that there is a problem with accounting for all the money he made and/or for the taxes he paid or didn't pay.

And I'll make this my last issue to try to keep this short. (too late) Bill White was tossed about five softball questions that were submitted by area high school students and moderated by the events organizers. Yet Gustavo Reveles Acosta from the El Paso Times wrote:

"All of White's comments went unchallenged by the audience that loudly cheered most of his remarks."

Due to security restrictions no one was allowed to enter if they looked like they were going to be against Bill White. In fact, I was questioned about what I was going to say because they had heard a rumor that I was going to ask a question that dealt with the expansion of Indian Gaming.  Gee, I wonder who that could have been? Hmmmmmmm I guess I will never know. Now that I look at it, I was the token Republican. They didn't want me to speak, they needed a Republican to speak. I guess it was the only way the school district would have allowed this "bipartisan" event to take place. I feel so used.

"The Coronado event was organized by students, and it included the participation of at least one local Republican Party official."

Now that I think of it, I would have cheered too if I was 16-17 years old and had my question asked and my name called out on stage. Most of the students cheered to support a fellow student from their school because their question was one of the chosen few to be read.

I was one of three Republicans in the audience, yeah pretty sad we should have had a better turn out, and did not see the same performance that Mr. Reveles Acosta wrote about. But I guess that goes to show the way our local media leans when it comes to politics. We need to get more involved and call out our elected officials and the media when they are slipping.