[img]1|left|||no_popup[/img]Sanity, it develops, did prevail two days ago in Claremont when an appearance at a restaurant by the founder of the border-watching Minuteman Project was scrubbed with almost no advance notice.
Nine hours before the highly emotional program was scheduled, the sponsors were forced to scramble. The cheering news is they soon found a substitute location nearby and ultimately pronounced the evening a success.
The man at the bottom of the ruckus pile, Jim Gilchrist, who created the Minuteman Project four years ago, undeniably is a polarizing figure.
Bringing a politically conservative personality into a hot-blooded community whose culture is dominated by seven colleges and their masses of Left-preferring students who are well-drilled in political protests, was bound to end on a dramatic chord, wasn’t it?
More strongly than anyone who has been in the White House lately or virtually any member of Congress, Mr. Gilchrist passionately opposes illegal aliens sneaking into the U.S. from Mexico and countries from around the world.
He drives left-wingers crazy with this philosophy, which appears to be what happened this time.
He hammers at a largely one-note message wrapped in red, white and blue.
Then he tugs at the annoyed whiskers of the testosterone-driven collegians who live to protest. He emphasizes that it is the patriotic duty of Americans to aggressively protecting the border and thwart hordes of illegals from entering our country.
The Winner — or Not?
By nightfall on Monday, the conservative Mr. Gilchrist and his supporters had deftly overcome the ham-handed last-minute interference from the restaurant.
While about 50 carefully organized college-age protestors fumed outside, Mr. Gilchrist addressed a law-minded crowd of 110 appreciative Republicans inside the Hotel Claremont.
“You could have heard a pin drop in the room when he was speaking,” said Ken Allison, president of the Mountain View Republican Club (www.mountainviewgop.com).
He said Mr. Gilchrist’s speech is only the opening act in a series of forums the club is sponsoring to attract all views — from the Left, Right and center — on how to resolve the gaping leaks up and down the border.
“We want to put all of the proposals on the table so that our members can make an informed, intelligent decision about which one to support,” Mr. Allison told the newspaper this morning. There aren’t any extremists in the Mountain View club, Mr. Allison said, just ordinary people who hold an ordinary desire to have the Mexican border mended and sufficiently guarded.
Opening Round
The drama began about six weeks ago when Mr. Allison approached the Buca di Beppo restaurant in Claremont to host a special meeting of the Republican club with Mr. Gilchrist as the featured guest.
He said the family restaurant quickly made an agreement. But he wanted them to know what they were getting. He underscored the extraordinary nature of Mr. Gilchrist’s presence and to make sure the restaurant was not walking in blindly.
The lady who authorized the arrangement insisted she was not political and everything would be all right.
But other persons in the restaurant power structure were more astute.
Throughout March and April, Mr. Allison and his colleagues promoted the program everywhere they went.
“Nothing seemed amiss,” he said.
Until his telephone rang on Sunday night with an invitation he could not resist.
Summoned to an emergency meeting at the restaurant at 9 o’clock on Monday morning, Mr. Allison was handed a cryptic message from the manager:
“Corporate has shut down your event.”
Just those six chilling words.
Boys, Where Is Your Creativity?
No one from the restaurant would blame the unseemly late-hour cancellation on something imaginative, such as Mr. Gilchrist having cooties.
Candor must have been out of town, on holiday.
Mr. Allison believes it was the massive influence of college students that killed his program at the restaurant.
The collegians are grizzled veterans at murdering the occasionally appealing notion of diversity of views.
Perhaps the restaurant was trapped.
“If Buca di Beppo had not played ball (with the college protestors),” said Mr. Allison. “they might have been blackballed.”
