President’s Veto of Civil Rights Bill
Those of us in California who care about the fair employment of minorities and women are outraged by President Bush’s veto of the civil rights bill, and by California Sen. Pete Wilson’s initial vote against this landmark legislation and his decisive support for the President’s veto.
We are living in tough economic and spiritual times. Unfortunately, bigotry finds a fertile breeding ground in such a climate. The presidential veto, and Sen. Wilson’s crucial vote to uphold that veto, sends a clear message that intolerance is again acceptable.
Those of us committed to equal opportunity and fairness will remember this gratuitous gesture from President Bush, whose isolation from the real work world and the needs of the average American worker allows him cavalierly to ignore the harm wrought by abandoning decades of civil rights precedents.
We who work to support our families and children must now work together to ensure that Bush, Wilson and those who join them are held accountable for this unkind, ungentle act. That they justify their conduct by cynically employing the absurd canard of “quotas” only reinforces the bankruptcy of their agenda.
DOUGLAS E. MIRELL
President, Pacific Southwest Region
American Jewish Congress
JOSE De SOSA
California State Conference President
National Assn. for the Advancement
of Colored People
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