Lights for Liberty Fernandina Beach to hold vigil in opposition of detention of children and separation of families July 12

Lights for Liberty
Press Release
July 8, 2019 4:00 p.m.

 

What: Lights for Liberty Fernandina Beach

When: Friday, July 12, 2019

Where: Meet at Fernandina Beach City Hall at 7:45pm

On July 12th local activists will gather to voice opposition to the detention of children and the separation of families at our borders. In Fernandina Beach we will be gathering at City Hall at 7:45pm, at 8pm we will walk over to the Fernandina Beach City Marina where there will be a short program. At 9pm we will join events around the country in lighting candles and observing a moment of silence.

Program: Opening words, singing, speakers, candle-lighting and group photo

9pm moment of silence

Local Speakers:

The Reverends Linda Hart Green and Patricia Thompson speakers at Lights for Liberty July 12.

Rev. Linda Hart Green received her theological education 40 years ago from Princeton Theological Seminary. Throughout these decades of ministry, she was involved in social justice work including advocating for women’s rights, criminal justice reform, human rights, and marriage equality. In retirement, she works at Shady Ladies Art Studio and coordinates her church’s work with the homeless.

Rev. Patricia Thompson is a life-long native of Fernandina Beach Florida. Retired educator, former business owner and community activist, previous president of NAACP and Nassau County Democratic Black Caucus, former city commissioner and vice mayor. She is an ordained minister and civil rights leader. She is married to Bernard Thompson, and they have 2 sons and 5 grandchildren.

Local elected officials have been invited to speak.

Fernandina Beach Organizing group: Linda Hart Green, Peggie Weeks and Zen Waters.

About Lights for Liberty

We are a coalition of the principle behind democracy that all human beings have a right to life, liberty and dignity. We are partnering with national, regional and local communities and organizations who believe that these fundamental rights are not negotiable and are willing to protect them.

On July 12th, Lights for Liberty will shine a light on the horrific abuses of the Trump administration in human detention camps. People will begin arriving at 7pm local time at locations around the nation. At five main locations, legislators, activists, and organizers, and members of impacted communities will speak until 9pm.

At 9 pm local time, at every detention camp, and in cities, towns, and homes around America, a silent sea of candles will light up the nation.

El Paso, Texas, where migrants are being housed in outdoor conditions under a bridge with no running water for months at a time, is the anticipated site of the main Lights for Liberty vigil. Legislators, activists, organizers, and members of impacted communities are expected to speak.

Other key events are planned in Homestead, FL, at a migrant child detention facility that has caused mass abuse and neglect; in San Diego, near the point of entry site from Tijuana; in New York City, at Foley Square, where hundreds of migrants are processed through detention a day; and in Washington, DC, in front of the Capitol building, to demand action from Congress to end human detention and impeach the President.

These events are being funded entirely out of the pockets of our organizing team. We have no sponsors and will not be asking for any financial contribution for these events. We will invite the public to directly contribute to organizations supporting migrant refugees on our donations page.

This moment has the opportunity to be a turning point in our nation’s history, a moment in which we

We invite you to stand beside us on the right side of history on July 12th.

For more information please visit our website: www.lightsforliberty.org

22 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

John Heck
John Heck (@guest_55396)
4 years ago

They are illegal, they have No right to be in this country ! You liberals have been luring them here just to get their votes ! Why on Earth would a party that promulgated infanticide give a ding dong about young illegal immigrants ! This is not only abjectly stupid but remarkably hypocritical ! These immigrants need to go through the legal process of citizenship and stop constipating the border with unskilled, uneducated disaffected miscreants ! My forebears could not come here without money and a job waiting for them…instead, the Dumbocrat idealists think we should pander to them with licenses, voting rights, & entitlements !!! They should stay behind and fix their countries woes in place of coming here to suck off the teet of Lady Liberty ! Liberals will Never be smart enough to think things through ! The only crisis at the border is the one created by them flooding here beyond our usual capacity !!!

Mary Libby
Mary Libby (@guest_55402)
4 years ago
Reply to  John Heck

You have an amazing amount of hate in your heart. I hope you don’t call yourself a Christian. Instead of helping the countries these people are escaping from, the TRump administration has cut funding. These people are escaping crime, death threats and fear for their lives. It is legal for people to seek asylum in this country. It’s the law of the land and has been going on for ages.

Joe L Blanchard
Joe L Blanchard(@jlblan2)
4 years ago

Well let me see, If I break the law and am convicted, the justice system will without a moments hesitation separate me from my children. So, when an invasion occurs at our border and the invaders completely ignore (read violate/break) the law, the same action, that would happen to me, a U.S. citizen, is supposed to be ignored. I fail to see the logic, yes a whole lot of emotion, but no logic. If I, as a U.S. citizen, were to put my children in harms way, social services would take my children away for their on good. The liberals would applaud it even. When are we going to realize that the plight of the children at the border is the responsibility of their parents.and no one else.

Mary Libby
Mary Libby (@guest_55403)
4 years ago

If you break the law and are sent to prison, your children are not sent to prison. Bit of a difference. These children, many very young, at the border are taken from their parents and sent to detention centers where they are treated very badly.

Jackie Tarkenton
Jackie Tarkenton (@guest_55421)
4 years ago
Reply to  Mary Libby

They are breaking the law.

Medardo Monzon
Medardo Monzon(@mmonzon)
4 years ago

Actually, the Geneva Convention established after WWII gives migrants fleeing violence the right to seek asylum in other countries. Our southern border is overwhelmed by thousands of those migrants and the solution is not to separate children from parents subjecting them to emotional trauma that can last a lifetime.

Joe L Blanchard
Joe L Blanchard(@jlblan2)
4 years ago
Reply to  Medardo Monzon

One should not reference the Geneva Convention of 1949 and the amendments later ratified, unless one has studied it. The Geneva Convention ONLY applies to Armed Conflict between the parties involved in the armed conflict. Mass migration is a conscious decision by families to invade another country. Nowhere is it decreed that the migrants can legally pick and choose the country to invade. I recommend that all the liberal activists, in the U.S., move to the various countries, that are the origination of the migrants and improve the living standards in those countries with their own funds and excess of energy.

Jackie Tarkenton
Jackie Tarkenton (@guest_55422)
4 years ago
Reply to  Medardo Monzon

The trauma is dragging them 1000s of miles to break the law.

Barnes Moore
Barnes Moore(@barnes-moore)
4 years ago

Does anyone remember when these activists protested when Obama did exactly the same thing? Yeah, me neither. Why aren’t they protesting House democrats refusal to do anything to help the situation, including providing funding for more beds and better facilities?

Jason Collins
Jason Collins(@jc18holes)
4 years ago

Easy solution to the problem….stop crossing our border
Illegally with your family??

Medardo Monzon
Medardo Monzon(@mmonzon)
4 years ago

When people seeking asylum reach our borders, they are not illegal, they are seeking refuge. How a country treats refugees is a matter of local policy, some countries treat them like human beings despite their request for asylum be denied.

The international legal position on the matter of refugees is clear. The US must permit entry and afford refuge to anyone it has recognised as a refugee or to whom it has granted asylum. Moreover, it cannot return any person to a country where she or he may suffer torture or other persecution. No ifs, no buts, no qualifications on national security.

Bill Owen
Bill Owen (@guest_55406)
4 years ago
Reply to  Medardo Monzon

If these invaders were truly fleeing persecution they should either apply for asylum at the US embassy in their own country OR come in through a port of entry. Crossing illegally, can you be sure that they are truly families and not children being sold into sex slavery? Didn’t think so. I’ve seen pictures of these caravans of illegals – laughing, well-fed, well-clothed, and waving flags of their homelands., not looking much like starving tortured refugees.They are largely being encouraged to INVADE this country through the likes of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, funded through the likes of George Soros. If these invaders waved the Russian, Chinese, or ISIS flags, would you be so sanguine about them?

Joe L Blanchard
Joe L Blanchard(@jlblan2)
4 years ago
Reply to  Medardo Monzon

As President Reagan said “there you go again”. I am always enthralled by bold rash statements that bear little resemblance to fact. The statement “The international legal position on the matter of refugees is clear” followed by a complete miss statement of the law is par for the course. The law specifically states that the refugee must enter through a legal point of entry and be processed in a legal fashion or through an embassy. If there are thousands rushing the border, then they will have to wait their turn not dictate the rules to the accepting country.

Andrew Curtin
Andrew Curtin(@bkdriverajcgmail-com)
4 years ago

If these migrants cross our border without authorization, they are illegal aliens and we owe them nothing. What we are experiencing is a concerted effort, supported and encouraged by liberals, to overload our border security and immigration procedures and demanding entry because of the backlog. The democrats have steadfastly refused to fund the necessary improvements, both material and personnel, needed to alleviate the problem and persist in blaming those charged with enforcing our laws.

Michael Harrison
Michael Harrison (@guest_55409)
4 years ago

It seems that the vigil is needed to raise awareness that the administration is doing little to improve the appalling conditions that have been witnessed at first hand by legislators and representatives.

Beverly Bertsch
Beverly Bertsch(@bcbertschaol-com)
4 years ago

All of these comments bring to mind a quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt-
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”

Medardo Monzon
Medardo Monzon(@mmonzon)
4 years ago

I can’t think of a more appropriate quote. Thanks for sharing it

Tammi Kosack
Tammi Kosack(@tammi-kosack)
4 years ago

Curious as to why my post was removed from comments???

Tammi Kosack
Tammi Kosack(@tammi-kosack)
4 years ago

Re-post:

Social injustice has been occurring since recorded Biblical times and prior, as recorded in other ancient texts. The spirit of goodness, rightness, beauty, and aliveness is always moving– like wind, like breath, like water–inviting us to enter.

When institutions (something that STANDS rather than MOVES) stand in the way or lack movement, the Spirit moves around them like water around a rock. But when the institutions and the movement WORK TOGETHER they provide direction, dynamism and stability. It’s this linking that keeps the goodness , rightness, beauty, and aliveness flowing.

Peggie Weeks
Peggie Weeks(@pegweeksgmail-com)
4 years ago

Thank you, Medardo! I am looking forward to your words of wisdom and compassion on Friday evening, along with Linda’s and Patricia’s.

Steven Crounse
Steven Crounse (@guest_55428)
4 years ago

The hatred and vitriol of some of these posts are astounding to me. These immigrant children have no say in their desperate situation. They are innocent children caught up in a political tug of war,and being used as pawns. They are being abused,mistreated, and molested while you continue to spew your hate towards them. I pray your children, or my children never have to experience this type of depravity. Shame on us as a country.