Editor: If you missed it over the weekend, please go here and read all about the two events in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday.
One was a small gathering including union organizers and Somali refugees protesting—what were they protesting? They had planned to protest against a local VFW post for daring to allow a group to talk about their concerns about the direction St. Cloud and Minnesota in general are going as one of the top states in the nation resettling third world refugees.
The other gathering was to support the VFW and to defend free speech which attracted hundreds to the Granite VFW. You wouldn’t know much about the VFW event if you only read and watched the local media which presented only one side of the story.
Because the Somali supporters realized their folly with their plans to attack the VFW, they have centered their attack on Bob. Bob? Yes, Bob Enos who we showed you here making a calm and reasoned presentation to his local governing body.
What Ms. Jane Conrad (the union organizer) and her friends at the St. Cloud State University are doing is using Alinsky Rule 13.
The local media, both the St. Cloud Times and WCCO (CBS Minnesota) are aiding and abetting Ms. Conrad and should be ashamed of their one-sided reporting. I can’t guess their motivations, whether it is just the fact that most mainstream media, masquerading as supposedly unbiased, is owned and controlled by biased people with an agenda, or they are just generally not knowledgeable about organizing techniques of the Leftists/Progressives (or whatever you want to call them) and fall for the tactics.
This is Rule 13 (Rules for Radicals):
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
So, what I am saying folks is that this is what they will do to you in your ‘Pockets of Resistance,’ be ready for it! Don’t be deterred, remember it is a tactic (one that Obama learned in his community organizing days and uses to this day!) and the best thing to do is to laugh at them taking comfort in the fact that, if you are getting flak like this, you are over the target!
They only have one weapon, they throw out that word “racist” and think they can make you go away. Take away the power of that word and they have nothing!
Don’t cower, if they have labeled you a “racist,” an “Islamophobe,” a “nativist” or a “xenophobe” wear it as an acknowledgment of your growing power! Others in your group must rally around the “target.”
Bob Enos was accused of “racism” for asking for fiscal accountability regarding refugee resettlement. Ms. Conrad and the local media expect him to slink away, instead, below he gives us more background on what happened and what he thinks about it! (Emphasis is mine)
Bob Enos:
I received this link from a supporter yesterday. WCCO reporter Kathy Raddatz crafted a story that revolved around my participation in a meeting of St. Cloud citizens at the VFW this week. The meeting was supposed to have featured a speaker, Ron Brantsner, who was to talk about the economic impact of refugee resettlement on the taxpayers of Stearns County. I did not plan to attend the meeting, as I’m familiar with Mr. Brantsner’s presentation. When protesters intimidated the VFW into cancelling Mr. Brantsner’s presentation, I felt compelled to drive to St. Cloud in order to support the group, known locally as the Committee for Peace in Saint Cloud. When I arrived, it was clear the group could use a “pep talk”, and I was all too happy to provide it. Neither the protesters nor other members of Saint Cloud’s Somali community had sought to attend.
It is a sad day when my calls for transparency, citizen participation, and requiring our elected government to live within its means can be branded racism. I suppose that, had I questioned the cost of filling potholes, I’d be branded anti-pothole. What is also noteworthy is that, while WCCO found a gathering of three dozen Somalis and college students newsworthy, our simultaneous gathering of nearly 300 supporters of the service of veterans and the First Amendment rights that so many of them fought and died for received hardly a drop of ink in the local paper or a mention in the TV report.
I support the rights of protesters to express their opinions. It’s a shame the protesters don’t see this is a two-way street.
Incidentally, it has been reported that several professors at Saint Cloud State University, headed by professor Mark Jaede, used the internal SDSU email server – a violation of university policy – for the non-university purpose of encouraging students and staff to protest our First Amendment right to free speech. [See what Jaede did here—ed] In my day, a major purpose of universities was to encourage critical thinking, discussion, and debate. Today, it seems these professors choose to provide a very different role model to their young students: if you don’t like the opinions of people with whom you disagree, simply bully, berate, and intimidate them until they shut up. Perhaps that is why their protest was staged only by professors, college students, and the beneficiaries of taxpayer largesse. You won’t see any ordinary working class Americans on their podium. We were busy supporting our veterans and supporting the greatness of this country.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, friends: “first they ignored me; then they scorned me; then they fought me; then I prevailed.”
I figure I’m three-quarters of the way to my goal.
For more, see our extensive archive on St. Cloud and this post is filed in our new “Pockets of Resistance” category created so others of you might be able to quickly research what other resistance fighters are doing around the country.
About Alinsky’s Rules: Dedicated to Satan, every one of you must get Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, it is a disgusting but necessary read. Here is Alinsky:
“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins — or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”