Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does. — Margaret Mead
I attending the screening of 9500 Liberty Tuesday night and as I watched the film, the above quote kept running through my head. The story was one with which I was vaguely familiar: a blogger who led the charge to do something about illegal immigration in his community. What I didn’t know was fleshed out in this 80-minute documentary. And I was left with the truism of Mead’s quote.
To be honest, I had no idea the extent to which Greg Letiecq, proprietor of Black Velvet Bruce Li, had managed to team up with ambitious politician Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors, to tap into the fear of the browning of their community. That they were able to convince every single member of the Board of Supervisors to engage in what was essentially racial profiling should scare all of us. Change the world, indeed!
Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” And for a while, it seemed that only the guys in the black hats were winning. Even the police chief, who was trying to reasonably implement the policy of the Board, was demonized. But there is one scene in the movie that stood out for me as a turning point. During one long, heated debate, a man came up to speak who said he had been lying in bed, watching the coverage on TV at 11pm at night, got up, got dressed and came to participate. He spoke against the resolution.
It seemed, though, that different people had different breaking points in dealing with the issue. For one supporter, it was when the police chief was labeled a traitor. For many, it was the economic effect: stores with no customers, empty houses, foreclosures – all the result of the Hispanic community fleeing.
Another small group emerged – and another blog, Anti-BVBL. This blog provided a place for those opposed to the immigration rhetoric to gather and discuss. Together, they managed to convince the BOS to repeal the anti-immigration resolution. And this, too, was a unanimous vote.
For good or evil, never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. 9500 Liberty showed us that it is possible.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
BTW – if you want to know what PWC folks thought of the film, head over to Anti-BVBL and wade through the comments.
“Merry Christmas!”
“vinny Cerrato,washington Redskins general manager, has resigned!”
Friend of friends,
Lamont
Try to stay on topic, Lamont – and give me a chance to catch up with the news of the day 🙂 You can always post this kind of thing on the guestbook.
Wow, you laid down some powerful words regarding 9500Liberty. It is a very remarkable film, in my opinion.
Please do stop by Anti-bvbl. (www.antibvbl.net) We welcome you. I am the behind the scenes administrator. Elena and Alanna can be seen in the film. They are the visible administrators. We don’t always deal with immigration but we do try to discuss current topics.
A small group of people can most definitely effect change. All too often the loudest group with the most momentum appears to be winning. Throwing a few obstacles in the way and letting your representatives know that their behavior is unacceptable is a very good place to start that change.