Your humble blogger quoted in “Latino Perspectives” article on East Valley Patriots

by David Safier

In another sign BfA is gaining recognition as an important part of Arizona's political discussion, I was contacted a month ago by Robrt Pela (yes, that's the proper spelling of his first name), a writer with Latino Perspectives magazine. He wanted to discuss my coverage of the East Valley Patriots for American Values, a Maricopa-based group trying to convince the city of Mesa to adopt the Utah Compact, a sane statement about immigration policy signed and supported by Utah progressives, conservatives and religious groups, including the Mormon Church.

Pela's article, What's in a name?, is now online and in print. It's the best article about the East Valley Patriots I've read, far better and more complete than what I've written. But hey, Pela is a real journalist, and I'm a blogger. I understand and respect the difference.

Pela gave me a neat little pull-out quote in the print version, but the best, most substantive quotes come from one of the East Valley Patriots' founders, Dan Martinez, "a former faculty member at South Mountain Community College."

"Conservatives don't have a monopoly on the word patriot," Martinez says. "We feel that all Americans are patriots who love their country. . . . We believe that people willing to stand up for the values they hold dear can belong to groups other than the god-country-religion crowd.

. . . "We are not just about immigration," he insists. "Our mission statement is to change the tone and civility of politics in the East Valley, pertaining to issues of employment, education, families and immigration."

Randy Parraz, who ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate — and I think has a potentially bright and important future in Arizona politics — spoke about how the group acted during a Mesa city council meeting.

"Everyone thought we were there to stage a protest," Parraz says. "But we presented ourselves as American citizens who were there to talk about changing policy in Arizona . . . We did not resort to name calling, and we came across as professionals who weren't necessarily anticonservative, but who had some real concerns about public policy and its impact on the state."

I applaud the East Valley Patriots for their aims and methods. We need to approach the problems facing this state from lots of directions, and this is one positive way to make our voices heard.