From the Barrel of My Pen
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


NEW YORK STATE SENATOR: A RACIAL PROFILER?

Utah is one of the most Republican and conservative states in the country. Yet its congressman, Rep. Chris Cannon, known in his state as the “King of Amnesty” handily won the recent primary elections against an opponent who is anti-immigrant. In an interview, this xenophobic now realizes that the general sentiment of the American voters is in favor of President Bush’s “guest worker” immigration reform bill.

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Gloria Macapagal Arroyo recalled her Ambassador to the United States, Alberto del Rosario, because according to reliable sources, the good guy failed to neutralize Arroyo’s bad image in the American press. He also failed to arrange a meeting between her and President Bush. Well, I believe that’s not the Ambassador’s fault. I recalled that in a recent visit to the Office of Senator Richard Lugar, a staff member said to me that if somebody from the Arroyo Administration would request a meeting with the Senator, he would be conveniently out of town. How much more a meeting at the White House?

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Princess Lara Quigaman of the Philippines, reigning 2005 Miss International, joins the July 3rd Fashion Show as one the models at the Philippine Center sponsored by the Philippine Pearl Productions. I heard that the beauty queen takes her Christianity for real. She must be doing this for the sake of “faith, hope, and charity” as the Bible tells her so. Those interested may see the show and give to charity.

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June 26, 2006


Dear Mr. Editor:

In your June 15th issue, I read an article written by Adam Pincus on page 48, titled “Maltese’s racial profiling bill stirs outrage.” The article further reports that “Supporters said the bill was drafted to give law enforcement greater powers to detain suspected terrorists because “that would allow law enforcement authorities to take race and ethnicity into consideration when stopping and searching individuals.”

I presuppose that when this Maltese bill becomes law, Sen. Serphin Maltese, the bill’s sponsor, and all his relatives of Italian ancestry would be subjected to unnecessary and harassing police stops and searches. Poetic justice, I presume.

As a former immigration inspector and adjudications officer, I had training in racial profiling to identify possible terrorists from so-called “Special Interest Countries” primarily Arabic and Mediterranean. The federal government finally issued a policy banning racial profiling because so many innocent individuals were unnecessarily interrogated. Some Italians and Israeli who look Arabic have been singled out for questioning.

Carleton S. Coon, an American physical anthropologist, who wrote the book on the Mediterranean Race, enumerated the Mediterranean racial types as Spanish, Scottish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Arab, Bulgarian, and Afghan. Under the Maltese Racial Profiling bill, people belonging to these racial types are possible terrorist suspects owing to the fact that the 9/11 terrorists were all of Arabic ancestry. Now, fellow Americans who love equality and justice, do you want this scary bill to become law? Two of my daughters who look Spanish and Italian would then be always looking behind their backs in fear. And if this bill would also cover the racial types of homegrown terrorists such as Timothy Mcveigh, Terry Nichols, and Prof. Kacysnki, all Americans could be possible terrorist suspects.

I call on all freedom-loving Americans to work together and get the Maltese Racial Profiling bill off consideration.

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