Candle Power

Friday night in Nashville is like a Friday night in any other city in the country. People sit in traffic trying to get home to family so they may unwind from the hectic work week, or make their way along the crowded streets to meet friends at bars and restaurants to wash away the work week with a drink or a glass of wine. But, last Friday night things were different in Music City, USA. Instead of thinking of their own comfort, or their desire to put their feet up after a hard week, hundreds gathered in a small parking lot on Nashville's south side to do something for their nation.

They lit a candle of hope.

The crowd of 500-600 people came together in a peaceful candlelight vigil to Save the American Worker at Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's modest Nashville office. The crowd called on Sen. Frist (who was not in attendance) to take a leadership role in stopping the proposed guest worker amnesty in the Senate before it has the opportunity to further destroy America's middle class.

FAIR conceived the event when media splashed the news of Ford, GM and Chrysler firing tens of thousands of American automotive workers. We see that as another heap of dirt thrown atop the open grave of American workers and American pride. The only problem is the people being buried are still alive.

Let's look at the recent trail of economic tears: Years of outsourcing millions of jobs to other countries, sending entire industries and plants to places like India, China and Vietnam has ended the careers of millions of American workers, forcing them into lower paying jobs, and putting more families on the welfare rolls. Now the Senate is considering "in-sourcing" cheap foreign workers to take more American jobs in a guest worker amnesty scheme. These factors, alone and at face value are what President Bush might refer to as "our global economy getting stronger." But we challenge him to explain how the global economy is more important than the paycheck of a licensed electrician and father of three in Nashville who lost his job to an unlicensed illegal alien because the contractor wants to pay less, or the meatpacker in Minnesota who works for the same real wage her grandfather earned 25 years ago but who has to pay for food and shelter at prices far above what they were in the 1970s.

We quickly went to work putting together a team of organizations that care as we do, and want to bring attention and power to bear on these greedy corporations and their political fronts to stop the guest worker amnesty before it has the chance to put one more American out of work. We enlisted the help of nationally-syndicated radio host Phil Valentine, Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist, founders of the Minuteman project, Karl Two-Feathers Whitaker, founder Of the Tennessee Minutemen, and the Eagle Forum, a nationally-known conservative organization.

Word quickly spread, and people began pouring into the city early in the afternoon; some driving up to 2 hours to be there for the important event. By 6:00pm the small parking lot was packed by the 500-600 person crowd and candles lit up the Nashville skyline.

Tennesseans of all ages signed postcard with the No Guest Worker Amnesty logo on it asking Sen. Frist to continue to take the side of the American worker and American families to stop taking and giving away American jobs in the name of greed. They put the postcards through the slot in the Senator's office door, so he is sure to read them bright and early Monday morning.

This peaceful, prideful event was a great success! It is the first Candlelight Vigil to Save the American Worker, and a symbol of hope to people around the nation that change is in the air. They need no longer curse the darkness of this assault on our middle class, but can light a candle to show the way. Perhaps this is what George H.W. Bush meant by a "thousand points of light?" If it is, he should have spent more time teaching his son to care for the American family and the American worker.

Susan Tully, National Field Director for FAIR