Are "outsiders" invading your state?
Who are the circulators? Where is Ward Connerly from? Are these Civil Rights Initiatives evil plots by “outsiders” who have moved into X state against the will of the citizens of that state?
The opposition has pushed this idea that “outside forces” are moving into various states like locust, leaving trails of destruction behind them, to force unwanted ideas on unsuspecting states.
Reality check: The Civil Rights Initiatives are supported by an organization called the American Civil Rights Institute, which was formed by Ward Connerly after the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209). Connerly had served as a regent on the University of California Board of Trustees when he discovered that the university claimed a policy of not evaluating applicants by race, color, creed, ethnicity, sex, etc., while it was indeed selecting applicants by race, color, sex, and such racist, sexist criteria. Connerly forced the University’s hand and they had to admit that they were indeed selecting applicants and employees by race, color, sex, despite claiming to be embracing a policy of “equal opportunity.”
This success spiraled into the state-wide initiative Proposition 209, which was shockingly passed by one of the most liberal states in America. Seeing this, citizens of the state of Washington asked Connerly to help them do the same in their state. He agreed.
Connerly formed the American Civil Rights Institute to promote race-neutral and gender-neutral policies by the U.S. government, and by governments in the states. He remains a resident of California and cannot even vote in other states.
Only the citizens of each state can change their own state. Those of us who embrace this all-American movement in other states than our own residential states cannot vote to change any state but our own. When these popular initiatives are passed by the voters, the people of that state have spoken.
Those of us who move to other states to get these initiatives on the ballot (many more than just Ward Connerly and his employees, by the way) have the right as Americans to try to change America. The idea that we’re “outsiders” ridiculous and divisive, especially considering that our opposition is also from “outside,” following the movement around from state to state. But they don’t mention that.
I personally have family in 15 states, close friends and shipmates in several more, and I work in and travel to several states. I have three children and no idea where my children and grandchildren will end up working and living. I will continue to travel and work in any state where the people want the chance to vote for equal rights before their state government. I am an American, and charge my fellow citizens to defend the Constitution of the United States and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Civil Rights Initiatives are movements by Americans, for Americans, in the United States of America.
Diane Carey