Saturday night was the local celebration of the NAACP’s 100th anniversary. Imagine, the organization has been carrying the banner for social justice for a century now. The event started with a stirring video of the Star Spangled Banner, set to images of African-Americans. The video started with some imagery of slavery and moved forward in time ending with a picture of the first African-American President, Barack Obama. Obama’s image received a loud burst of cheers from the mostly Democrat audience. It looked like a full house of well over 150 guests.

As usual Don Williams was working his way around the room welcoming people and taking pictures. The guy takes more pictures than a tourist at Disneyland.

In terms of social justice, a lot has been improved over the last century. By far, the African-American community has reaped the biggest benefit in terms of advancement in the social justice movement. But despite successes over the last 100 years, there are still struggles this country still needs to deal with, most particularly the gay movement and immigration reform.

What has become a little disturbing to me is the fact that we are seeing some individuals reject the comparison of the gay movement to the civil rights struggle. While it is not an exact comparison -- very little ever is -- it is a reasonable comparison. The idea that there are people trying to make a social justice hierarchy is disturbing. How does one group in good conscience say they have had it easier or harder than the next group?

What is the measuring stick?

More importantly, what is the point?

I poked my head in to the celebration event and pretty much anybody who is anybody in terms of the local political stratosphere was in attendance. That underscores a point I made in a previous column about the fact that the African-American community is quickly becoming a power-player in terms of local politics because of the fact they have been able to work with the various political factions in power. The NAACP event and events held by the Black El Paso Democrats, headed by Don Williams, is seen as a faction-free zone because of the fact that all factions are welcome at the events.

African-American Democrats in El Paso have shown a remarkable amount of political finesse in being able to deal with all the factions. What is most remarkable about this is the fact that African-Americans in El Paso have managed to do this without creating a distinct “faction” of African-Americans.

The Local Healthcare Debate

Last week saw U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes pass up a town hall meeting on the President’s health care agenda, angering frustrated local Republicans, oops, I mean conservatives, who missed their life’s ambition, a chance to heckle the congressman and get a cameo on Fox News.

The congressman did take calls on a radio talk show and met with community members in one of the most conservative parts of El Paso, the Northeast, at city Rep. Carl Robinson’s monthly meeting. The fact that the congressman showed up in the Northeast, a place with large senior and veteran populations, apparently wasn’t good enough for El Paso’s local Republican grassroots activists (Grassroots El Paso). Sorry, there’s that word they don’t want to be associated with; again, I meant to say conservative.

No matter what the congressman does, short of tarring and feathering himself in the Plaza with a satellite link to Fox News, it will not satisfy the locals who only want to fry the congressman on ground of their own choosing.

That being said, it would’ve been nice to see the congressman show up and face the group with facts. El Paso Grassroots (can I call them Democrats?) has been steadily collecting signatures of people in El Paso who are in support of the President’s healthcare initiative. In fact, I ran into a signature-gathering event sponsored by the group at Music Under the Stars. The usual cast of activists where there led by Mike Apodaca and the new guy coordinating El Paso Grassroots, Xavier Miranda.

Powered by a group of about 30 volunteers, the group was able to collect more than 400 signatures on Sunday.

The health care debate is starting to do something I haven’t seen done in El Paso for a while; it's actually transcending the political factions. In attendance at the Chamizal were state Reps. Norma Chavez and Joe Moody, along with County Attorney Jose Rodriguez. Chavez, who has long feuded with Reyes, said in her remarks to the group that “We need to unite as Democrats. The Congressman is getting beaten up for not having a town hall meeting and that’s not fair. We have to support the Congressman …”

Bill White in El Paso

There were also two candidates in attendance, along with a rumored candidate. The candidates in attendance were Connie Telles, who is going to challenge embattled District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez, and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Mayor Bill White of Houston. The other Democratic candidate, John Sharp, was in El Paso about a month ago.

White is doing things a little differently from previous candidates for statewide office. Most of the time people take the Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas circuit on the campaign trail. White spent three days in El Paso attending several events, including the NAACP dinner.

White at the Chamizal

I had a couple of moments with Mayor White to talk with him a little bit more about 287(g) agreements, something I wrote about in a previous column. White wanted to clarify his position on the issue and explained that any 287(g) agreements would be predicated on ensuring that police officers weren’t enforcing immigration laws. White didn’t offer specifics on how he was going to manage that feat, especially because that’s exactly what a 287(g) agreement does.

I mentioned to White that several police and sheriff’s of large cities have signed on to a letter against 287(g) agreements and White said, “..I’ve always been against the 287(g)…I don’t let the police ask the immigration status of people for no reason…”

But White did underscore a fundamental point. He said that 287(g) agreements wouldn’t be necessary if we had comprehensive immigration reform. White continued, “…We need to distinguish between people who just work, and people who commit serious and violent crimes…”

I talked with a couple of local party regulars, one of them an elected official and the other an aspiring elected official, about White’s stand on 287(g) agreements. They both expressed disappointment at his position, but also said something that is pretty telling about Democrats in Texas. Though he isn’t the perfect candidate, they are willing to forgive a few flaws here and there for a viable candidate because they believe a Democrat is better than a Republican in the U.S. Senate. They further explained that they believe that a Democrat will be easier to work with than a Republican on controversial issues like 287(g).

What is most interesting about this race is something a lot of people are forgetting. It will be a special election, so there will be no primary election. The Democrats’ best chance to win the seat in the U.S. Senate will be to unite behind one candidate and not split the Democratic vote.

So will it be White or Sharp?

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Abeytia writes the Lionstar blog and is a political animal who spends way too much time traveling the wilds of El Paso politics. Reach him at lionstar@thelionstarblog.com.