-Caveat Lector-
Subject: Release: Linda Chavez
From: Libertarian Party Announcements <owner-
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: January 10, 2001
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Linda Chavez's only crime: She's not a
preening hypocrite like other politicians
WASHINGTON, DC -- Linda Chavez should receive a
profound "thank you" and perhaps a special Congressional award
for her personal efforts to help a penniless immigrant -- instead of
being forced to withdraw her name from consideration as the next
Secretary of Labor, the Libertarian Party said today.
"By sheltering a destitute, battered immigrant woman in her
home, Linda Chavez showed what real compassion is, and set a
shining example for all Americans," said Steve Dasbach, the
party's national director.
"Ordinary Americans might describe Chavez's behavior as a
selfless act of charity. Unfortunately, many politicians call it a
crime. Only in Washington, DC, could being a Good Samaritan be
considered a liability."
On Tuesday, Chavez abruptly withdrew from consideration as
U.S. Labor Secretary in the wake of revelations that she invited an
undocumented Guatemalan woman, Marta Mercado, to live in her
home in the early 1990s.
According to reports, Mercado had been beaten and badly
abused by a boyfriend and lived temporarily in a shelter for battered
women before being taken in by Chavez. In gratitude, Mercado
performed some minor household chores and was given some
spending money by the Chavez family.
Critics described Chavez's actions as "exploitation," a
violation of the Immigration Reform Act of 1986, and a possibly
illegal employer/employee relationship.
But Libertarians ask: When did compassion become a crime?
"When it becomes a crime to shelter an impoverished, abused
woman -- regardless of where she came from or how she got here --
it's the politicians who wrote the law that should be put on trial,"
said Dasbach.
And even if Chavez did technically violate the law, it simply
proves that the United States has too many laws, he said.
"Why should it be the government's business whom you take
into your home?" he asked. "Why should it be the government's
business if you shelter a refugee? And why should it be the
government's business whether or not you pay that person to do
chores?"
In fact, if Chavez's version of the facts is correct, said
Dasbach, then the country needs more people like her -- and fewer
politicians who confuse their favorite government programs with real
compassion.
"Unfortunately, most politicians think that casting a vote for
a new government program and spending other peoples' money
makes them compassionate," he said. "All it does is make them
hypocrites. They get an opportunity to preen in front of the TV
cameras, and brag about how full of compassion they are.
"But if politicians genuinely want to help the hungry, the
homeless, and the desperate, Libertarians challenge them to do
what Linda Chavez did: Take a poor person into your home. Make
them feel welcome. Give them clothing. Give them support. Give
them money. Give them love.
"Until they do that, politicians have no right to criticize
Linda Chavez for helping another human being in need."
Praise for Chavez's personal behavior aside, the Libertarian
Party is not saying that she should have been appointed Secretary
of Labor, noted Dasbach.
"President-elect George W. Bush likes to talk about
compassionate conservatism," he said. "From what we've seen,
Linda Chavez can do far more good being compassionate than she
can as another big-government conservative, running an inefficient,
wasteful, unnecessary government department."
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--
The poor we have always with us, and the purpose of
the Lord in providing the poor is to enable us of the better
classes to amuse ourselves by investigating them and
uplifting them and at dinners telling how charitable we are.
The poor don't like it much. They have no gratitude. ...
But if they are taken firmly in hand they can be kept
reasonably dependent and interesting for years.
-- Sinclair Lewis in the short story _Things_
first published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1919
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