We've been burning the midnight oil in our Oakland editing room to bring you preview scenes from our next PBS film, NIOT III: The Patchogue Story.
It's the story of a small Long Island community where Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant, was murdered in November 2008 in an attack by seven high school students who were looking for "Mexicans" to beat up.
NIOT film crews have made more than a dozen visits to Patchogue. We've gotten to know the Lucero family as well as civic leaders and elected officials, who tried to bring the community together in the aftermath of this shocking hate crime.
Blog
July 16, 2010 - 2:23pm
Gettysburg, PA: When folks in Gettysburg, PA heard the Aryan Nations hate group was planning a rally on the very spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his most famous defense of American democracy, they knew they couldn't sit by in silence."Silence is the welcome mat for hate," notes Ann Van Dyke of Pennsylvania's Human Relations Commission, who has worked with almost two dozen communities throughout the state that were targeted by hate groups. The activist groups that formed in those towns are now part of the Pensylvania Network of Unity Coalitions, longtime members of the Not In Our Town family.
July 12, 2010 - 3:21pm
Oakland, CA: Last Thursday, July 8, former BART transit officer Johannes Mehserle was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the Jan. 1, 2009 death of Oscar Grant, an unarmed young African American man.
July 6, 2010 - 1:53pm
The faith community has been struggling to deal with their core teachings and deep divisions in their congregations over immigration.
It's not always easy for clergy to speak out on immigration reform. Sometimes they don't see eye to eye with their flock. Unity in the Community, the long-time Not In Our Town affiliate in Manassas, VA, has put together Words of Compassion, a collection of relevant resources from a wide variety of religious texts, faith-based organizations and the interfaith community. No matter your stance on the issues, anyone looking to approach the immigration issue from a faith-based perspective should find it tremendously useful. The teachings emphasize the religious bases for acceptance of differences, and recognition of our common humanity.
