It's hard to keep up these days with who hates who in the various anti-immigrant movements. Most folks hate Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist even though everyone else would be nothing without him. Gilchrist doesn't like California Coalition for Immigration Reform founder Barbara Coe even though he got the idea for his group from attending one of her Nuremberg rallies. And no one seems to like San Diego Minuteman Project founder Jeff Schwilk–oops, I meant to say no rational person. In the Know Nothing movement? Celebrated.
It's always a blast to see each side forward me the vitriol they spew against each other on chatboards and email blasts. Rarely am I included in their circle jerks, but that's what happened this week. It started with an email from Gilchrist (the sanest of the lot) sent to a bunch of people titled “William Gheen, Jeff Schwilk, Chelene
Nightingale, dirty newspaper journalist Frank Mickadeit, and their
hijacker friends hate war veterans.”
“I think we all have had enough of the counter-productive antics of grifters posing as patriots,” Gilchrist wrote. “In my opinion, the aforementioned charlatans of patriotism are incurable racists who limit activist participation to only white persons, bigots who hate you if you do not unequivocally support Ron Paul for president, fascists whose shortsightedness limits their association only to those who will goose-step according to their whim.” Gilchrist went on to call Nightingale, a California gubernatorial candidate formerly with Save Our State, a “failed actress,” accused Schwilk of “sending out vicious hate mails about anyone who does not pay him obedient homage (Gustavo note: we can attest to that) and Gheen–head of Americans Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)–of “hustling naïve donors for money to support [his] lifestyle.” I'm still not sure what Gilchrist's beef is with “the pro-illegal alien invasion” Mickadeit other than the Orange County Register columnist extensively followed the lawsuits filed against Gilchrist for control of the Minuteman Project.
Needless to say, some of the named weren't pleased.
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“Is there anyone close enough to Jim Gilchrist to stick a needle full of Thorazine in his arm?” Gheen shot back, before threatening, “If any harm does come to ALIPAC because of it, even one donor departs due to false statements by Gilchrist or a pro amnesty blogger then we have what we need to file a lawsuit.”
“Desperate words from a sad, fallen
hero,” Schwilk responded. “Looks like the pressure is getting to
him. Considering his documented mental instability/illness and PTSD, let's
hope and pray he does not resort to murder like his Border Directors
did.”
Ridiculing a Purple Heart veteran's war scars and insinuating he might snap? CLASSY–but what does one expect from Schwilk?
Folks on each side traded email a couple of times more–some even accused Gilchrist of being an agent for the Southern Poverty Law Center–making the reading on this gloomy Friday ever so delightful…
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