The Loudoun Neighborhood Agreement is a new joint project with my friends Ben Kelahan and Ricardo Cabellos. Both have impressive resumes as advocates for causes such as day laborer centers in Virginia. As a general rule, this places them both at the “Redskin Fan” level of people I am inclined to associate with. However since Ricardo’s parents had the integrity to name him after our 37th President, Ricardo Nixon, I agreed to get involved.
All joshing aside, the project came about when Ben, Ricardo and I were talking and realized that despite being on the opposite side of some big issues – such as illegal immigration – we shared similar views on smaller issues such as how we want our families to feel safe at home. From that common ground, we were able to expand to larger areas of common ground until we believed we had a sphere of agreement worth serious consideration.
Long story short, we agreed on a lot, and that is the basis of the LNA.
If I had to explain it in a paragraph I would say: My greatest concern as an advocate of immigration enforcement is the effect illegal immigration has in my neighborhood. And the factors in my neighborhood that concern me are chiefly the people who break the rules and make things worse for everyone. Yes, I care about the macro picture, I care about what is happening to our schools and the whole illegal employment mess – but in the end it’s the neighborhood issues that energize me to go door to door. If a person or family happens to be here illegally, but plays by the same rules as I do – maintains their property ok, does not turn it into a boarding house or heavy construction equipment lot, are not doing anything criminal – I will not take time out of my life to give them trouble. If we agree on having a safe, clean neighborhood, I consider them compatriots. I also have a lot of sympathy for people who are not illegal in any sense, but by virtue of their ethnicity feel lumped in with troublemakers. One thing that gratified me about the group when I was involved with Help Save Loudoun was we never allowed our message to demonize anyone because of their ethnicity, but the nature of the beast is the entire illegal immigration debate made people from Spanish-speaking countries feel put on the defensive. That is a big problem because in my neighborhood there are plenty of people of different nationalities who have the exact same standards as I do. We who care about neighborhood standards are walking past an open window if we do not make an effort to find common ground with our neighbors of all ethnicities.
The core of the LNA project is improved communication within our neighborhoods. I think just about everyone who lives in eastern Loudoun will agree that there is a huge open window. When a family of a different ethnic background moves in, is there open communication? Is it possible that no one ever told the person who owns the house that subdividing rooms and renting floor space by the month would evoke scorn and investigations? Yeah, I fully realize we have some really bad actors who flagrantly disobey the law, but I also think some people don’t know any better. If we could ameliorate the problem among the latter group, then the former would be easier to identify and possibly the feckless Loudoun County Zoning Administration authorities would have a better chance to actually do their job, as result of a smaller investigation workload.
In any case, with better communication within our neighborhoods, more residents would know the rules and it would be much harder for the Zoning Administration to continue to allow people to break them.
There is continued need to watch the illegal migration phenomenon and oppose what it is doing to our country. I will continue to do so. But as evidenced by the lack of concern over the Obama administration’s insane budget plans, macroeconomic idiocy takes a LOOONG time to translate into anything the average American cares about. Thus, Duncan Hunter’s one percent of the vote in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries.
In the short term, at the micro level, there are things we can fix, and by dropping the “immigration” issue altogether the Loudoun Neighborhood Agreement shifts focus 180 degrees by asking the question: Immigration status aside, what sort of neighborhoods do we want to live in?
I think it is safe to say that plenty of us would be on the same page, and could accomplish good things, if we would just make the effort to talk to each other.
UPDATE: Linked by Living in LoCo - thanks, Erica!
