Message from Ward Connerly

Ward Connerly asked me to forward the following note from him to you:

If you have a child who is white in the Huntington Beach Unified School District and you want to transfer that child to a different school, for whatever reason, you can't do so if the transfer affects the "racial balance" of the school. If your child is nonwhite, he or she cannot transfer into a different school if the percentage of nonwhites in the school to which a transfer is sought if the percentage of nonwhites is "too high."

I am not talking about something that existed in Huntington Beach, Alabama (if there is such a place), back in the 1960s. I am referring to Huntington Beach, California in 2002.

In the Elk Grove School District, the principal of T.R. Smedberg Middle School has scheduled four separate meetings with parents to discuss the academic performance of their children: one meeting is for whites, one for blacks, one for Hispanics and one for Asians.

At the March meeting of the University of California Board of Regents, Professor of Ethnic Studies, Armando Navarro, headed a delegation of "Chicano" students who "demanded" that the Regents appoint a Chicano/a chancellor at the UC Riverside campus. Why? Because Chicanos and Latinos, he said, comprise 25% of the student population at that campus and will soon be the majority in California. They deserve to be "proportionately represented," by one of their own, it was argued.

If you believe the incidents that I have shared with you are not important, delete this email and don't open any more from us. Better yet, let us know and we will remove your name from our distribution list so that we don't waste your time or ours.

On the other hand, if you are concerned about these things and the direction in which California is headed, and you want to do something about them, as I do, here is a chance for you to have an influence.

As you know, I am trying to get an initiative on the November Ballot in California that would put a stop to government racial bean-counting, which is always used to give race and ethnic preferences, despite the fact that Proposition 209 prohibits such conduct. Frankly, I had hoped that 209 would stop this nonsense-and it has had a profoundly positive effect-but 209 is not enough. We have to make the government "colorblind" and demand that all government agencies rely solely on individual merit, without regard to race, color and ethnicity.

I am not asking you for money (although if you are carrying around too much in your wallet or pocketbook and you want to lighten your load, we will by happy to accommodate you). What I am asking you for in this email is a small chunk of your time over the next two weekends to help us collect additional 150,000 signatures from our fellow Californians who are registered to vote. That sounds like a lot of signatures, but it really isn't, and they are not that difficult to obtain.

The average volunteer can get 85-150 signatures a day sitting at a card table at the local supermarket. If 1000 people out of California's 36-38 million people collected 150 signatures each by April 15, our initiative will qualify for the ballot, and the people of California get a chance to vote to end the racial nonsense that exists in our state and which will only worsen, if we don't challenge it.

There is no doubt that nearly all of you receiving this letter agree with my philosophy about getting rid of race preferences and making our government colorblind. But, at a time like this, moral support is not enough. I need you to help me! I need you to get actively involved. I need you to not rely on the possibility that someone else will do it. I need your help, and I need it now!

Please contact us now and let us know that you will be doing what I will be doing this weekend and next weekend-sitting out front of one of our local supermarkets asking registered voters to sign petitions to get RPI on the ballot. I will not stop until I personally get 500 signatures. But, I don' t expect you to make a similar commitment. If you collect 150, that is all I am asking for.

Even if you have already collected a large number, I need you to continue toiling in the vineyards for RPI. If you have children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews, I know you want them to be treated fairly, regardless of their skin color, and not mistreated so that someone else can benefit from a system of race preferences and quotas that remains in place because bureaucrats are circumventing Proposition 209.

Now is your chance to do your part to create a fair California for all.

Please help!