Forget what I said earlier.I should have known a cause for injustice would prominently feature the putatively Christian Family Council. A tipster sends along an e-mail sent by the Family Council Action Committee to enlist help in the anti-immigrant petition drive. You may add immigrants to gay people and other minorities these good Christians want to oppress.

FAMILY COUNCIL E-MAIL FROM JERRY COX

Opportunity to Help with Illegal Immigration Petition Drive

Dear Family Council Friends,

Our friends at Secure Arkansas are working to place an important measure on the November general election ballot. Below is more information they have provided on how you can help them gather petition signatures.

Help Gather Signatures for the Illegal Immigration Petition

Secure Arkansas is sponsoring a proposed amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that would limit state benefits for illegal aliens. Several thousand signatures have been acquired to place this initiative on November’s general election ballot, but many more signatures are needed.

The deadline for turning in petitions is June 28. See how you can help below.

How You Can Help

1. Download and print this petition: http://www.securearkansas.com/Secure_AR_Act_Petition_Final.pdf Sign the petition and get family members, friends, co-workers, etc., to sign the petition. Gather signatures at your church, Sunday school class, work, festivals, or other public places such as post offices, community centers, or on the street downtown. Make sure everyone who signs the petition is a registered Arkansas voter.

2. Be sure to send in your petitions by June 28 to the address on the bottom of the petition: Secure Arkansas, P. O. Box 21096, Little Rock, Arkansas 2221. If you have any questions, call 501-765-3325.

3. If you would like to work with an experienced volunteer, contact Todd Sharp at 501-517-6056 or Jeannie Burlsworth at 501-517-6056. Or go to this link and find the coordinators in your area: http://www.securearkansas.com/officers.html.

More From Secure Arkansas About the Amendment and Their Effort to Place it on the Ballot

The proposed amendment basically requires that state agencies, counties, cities, and other local units of government verify the lawful presence in the United States of any person over 14 years applying for federal, state, or local public benefits. Persons not lawfully present in the United States will be denied these benefits (except those required by federal law which includes emergency medical treatment and education for children.) The full petition can be read at this link: http://www.securearkansas.com/Secure_AR_Act_Petition_Final.pdf

Canvassers report that ninety to ninety-five percent of registered voters are signing the petition, so the initiative should pass by a landslide if the 78,000 needed signatures are gathered by June 28th. As is quite often the case in a petition drive, the last several days will determine if the number of signatures meet the requirement by the deadline.

Jeannie Burlsworth, Chairman of Secure Arkansas, said everyone wants to sign, but not as many want to work. However, several dedicated workers have spent hundreds of hours collecting signatures. All hands on deck are needed these last few days to finish collecting the needed signatures. Jeannie Burlsworth is asking that you please help so that all the labor of these citizens (many of them elderly) will not be in vain. See the following ways you can help, after you read why it is so urgent that this initiative be on the ballot in November.

Why Getting This Initiative on the Ballot is So Urgent

U.S. taxpayers are giving more than $9,000 a year in cash or benefits to each immigrant, a third of whom are illegal aliens. That's $36,000 for each immigrant household of four. http://eagleforum.org/column/2008/apr08/08-04-23.html

Arkansas Has the Fastest-Growing Hispanic Population in the nation. 51 percent of the state's immigrants in Arkansas were undocumented in 2004—05, compared with 29 percent nationally. http://www.urban.org/publications/901061.html

Other states have passed some fairly stiff laws and that is causing illegal aliens to flee from their states and flock to Arkansas - so the rate of growth for illegal aliens will increase in Arkansas exponentially. See this link for what other states have done and Beebe's comments on delaying laws in Arkansas: http://www.wpaag.org/Immigration%20%20Illegals%20fleeing%20states%20enacting%20laws-Beebe%20should%20act.htm

This is the best way we can support Arizona in their battle — pass this amendment in our state.

If we can get this initiative passed, it will increase our potential for all conservative organizations to get other initiatives passed in the future. A network of dedicated workers is being developed that will work again on other petitions if they are assured that their efforts are not in vain. There are many issues that will never be addressed unless we the people get it on the ballot. This is one of the best means we have to save our country.

How You Can Help:

Everyone with a computer can do the first two, and we are praying you will at the very least act on these two.

(If you have any question about your rights to do any of the following or if anyone questions your rights, call Joe Woodson at the Secretary of State's office at this number (1-800-482-1127). He said he would be glad to clarify any questions you or anyone else may have.

Go to this link and print off the petition, sign it and get 14 other family members, friends, co-workers, Sunday school class members to sign it. http://www.securearkansas.com/Secure_AR_Act_Petition_Final.pdf One large church let us collect signatures in their hallways. They are not risking their tax-exempt status to do this. Or ask your pastor if you can collect them at the church.

Pass this email on to everyone on your email list.
If you are a pastor, get some members of your church to sit at tables and collect signatures or ask Secure Arkansas canvassers to help with this endeavor; or pass this email on to members in your church and encourage them to get members in the church or Sunday School classes to sign petitions.

Volunteer to help gather signatures by emailing or calling one of the people at this link: http://www.securearkansas.com/officers.html In most cases an experienced canvasser will be able to work with you. Even a couple of hours will help.

If you know employers who have several employees, ask them if they will circulate their petition at work. (Some employers have volunteered to do this)

Get a clipboard and a friend and go to a softball game or tournament and collect signatures on the parking lot, stand at the gate (or even go into the bleachers unless the park is privately owned and even then they may well give you permission to do that.) The Secretary of State office said that if it is a public facility and a public forum, we citizens have the right to collect signatures.

Go to a revenue office or the courthouse where driver licenses, car tags, etc. are issued in your area. There is usually a fairly steady flow of people there. This is one of the best places to collect signatures. State offices are public facilities so as long as you stand outside the door and don't disrupt business; the Secretary of State office has said it is the right of the citizen to collect signatures there.

Go to Senior citizens centers and collect signatures. Use your own creative ideas. Learn as you go. If you can't help in these ways, please donate so canvassers can be hired to help these last few days. You can donate by going to this link: http://www.securearkansas.com/

Be sure to send in your signatures by June 28 to the address on the bottom of the Petition: Secure Arkansas, P. O. Box 21096, Little Rock, Arkansas 2221. If you have any questions, call 501-765-3325

Amendment 7 of our Arkansas Constitution reads concerning initiatives & petitions: Initiative. The first power reserved by the people is the initiative (ellipsis)

No law shall be passed to prohibit any person or persons from giving or receiving compensation for circulating petitions, nor to prohibit the circulation of petitions, nor in any manner interfering with the freedom of the people in procuring petitions; (ellipsis)

This section shall be self-executing, and all its provisions shall be treated as mandatory, but laws may be enacted to facilitate its operation. No legislation shall be enacted to restrict, hamper or impair the exercise of the rights herein reserved to the people.

Let's not waste this opportunity to exercise our rights so eloquently protected in our Constitution on an issue on which so many Arkansans agree!

Jeannie Burlsworth, Chairman
Secure Arkansas