Playing the race card: wrongdoing can come from our side, too

Playing the race card: wrongdoing can come from our side, too‏

From:

Glenn Abraham (glennabraham@hotmail.com)

Sent:

Thu 11/01/12 9:26 AM

To:

glennabraham@hotmail.com (glennabraham@hotmail.com)

Cc:

manny de vera 6/11 (manueldevera@aol.com); myrna 4/12 (mdevera@ci.hercules.ca.us); TOM LOCHNER jan11 (tlochner@bayareanewsgroup.com); Lisa Vorderbrueggen CCTimes (lvorderbrueggen@bayareanewsgroup.com); steve duran,cityMgr 12/11 (sduran@ci.hercules.ca.us); dan,city 7/11 (danromero@ci.hercules.ca.us); bill wilkins 4/12 (wwilkins@ci.hercules.ca.us); gérard 4/12 (gboulanger@ci.hercules.ca.us); john delgado 6/11 (jdelgado@ci.hercules.ca.us); craig lazzeretti, tom's editor, 10/12 (clazzeretti@bayareanewsgroup.com); dan hatfield, überEditor 10/12 (dhatfield@bayareanewsgroup.com); danielBorenstein CCTimes 6/12 (dborenstein@bayareanewsgroup.com); Myrna de Vera 6/11 (myrnaldevera@aol.com)

Attached:    Manny’s 12oct12 race letter, doc 46a

Playing the race card:   wrongdoing can come from our side, too

Occasional Report No. 46

I have definitely not changed my position…I strongly urge that you vote for Simmons, Rubio and McCoy…but when somebody does something wrong, I cannot ignore it, even if the wrongdoer is on the right side.

Note that this is about Manny de Vera, and NOT about Councilwoman Myrna de Vera.

One of Manny’s PACs distributed a letter which played the race card, and injected ethnicity into an electoral race which has nothing to do with race.    Tom Lochner wrote about this in yesterday’s Times:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_21889738/hercules-councilwomans-husband-calls-filipinos-help-oust-incumbents.    I am attaching a pdf of Manny’s letter.  [Note to those who are reading this in the Patch:    I cannot attach pdf's to Patch articles.    If you'd like to see the letter, email me at glennabraham@hotmail.com.)

I am not at all happy to be writing this article.    I consider the de Veras to be friends; Myrna, who I know better, I consider to be a very dear friend, and one of the finest people I have ever known.    My friendship with her matters a great deal to me, and I hope that it will not be damaged by my writing this article.

The sum total of the racist attacks to which Manny refers in his letter are several old posts on the Patch.   In referring to “The racial attacks”, Manny writes that “…there was indication that some were supporters of Mayor Dan Romero….”    I saw those posts, and I remember nothing which would indicate a connection with Dan Romero.    Dan is not my favorite person…but this attempt to link him to racism is cheap, dirty, and ugly.   Deploying race in the pursuit of one’s personal agenda is, to me, one of the lowest forms of behavior, in politics or in anything else.    Exploitation of race and ethnicity is wrong, and I fear that some of the tar will stick (unjustifiably) to Phil Simmons, Hector Rubio and Sherry McCoy.     I also fear that some will stick to Dan Romero.    I believe that Dan has been a disaster as a mayor, but I have absolutely no reason to believe that he is a racist.    Vote against him for what he is:   incompetent, bullying, and deceitful; do not vote against him because of unsubstantiated insinuations about what somebody suggests he might be.

Tom’s article states that Manny’s letter “notes that Rubio has played tennis with Filipino-Americans for years and that his campaign manager is a Filipino-American;….”    Splendid.   Those are not the reasons why you should be electing Hector to the Hercules city council.    Manny’s letter also notes that Dan Romero declined to issue a proclamation regarding Philippine Independence Day.    How very awful.    But I don’t recall a proclamation for Kenya Jamhuri (Independence) Day, nor a proclamation celebrating the birthday of Queen Beatrix.   Failure to proclaim such pointless proclamations, in a Hercules city council session, has nothing to do with racism; and racism has nothing to do with our council election.    (And, to the best of my knowledge, the candidates whom I support [Simmons, Rubio, McCoy] had nothing to do with the injection of race into our election.)

 Hector spoke out against Manny’s race game, and that is commendable (and also, I think, very Hector).    I wish that Phil had done so as well, but, oh well…he will always remain my friend and, I hope, will soon become my councilman.

Manny is a wonderful guy, and I really do like him, very much.    I’m not sure that he was ever a real friend, since he seemed to get in touch with me only when he wanted something from me.   It’s different with Myrna:    I consider her to be a true friend; and, I very much admire and respect her, and know that she is invaluable to Hercules.    Still, Manny is a great guy…but I cannot, in good conscience, write about the dirty tricks of Dan Romero & Gérard Boulanger & Bill Wilkins, while ignoring ignominy emanating from my side.