Hola.
I believe I'm too lazy to finish that survey I started last night, so let's all discount where I said I'd finish it later.
Got slammed at work again today. I mean I'm happy that the restaurant's doing so well, but GEEZ...a few nice normal slow lunches would be nice. I've been a waitress for a week, people, I'm good but I'm not superhuman! The whole "Oh, Cameron's here, let's give her 3 tables at once" thing is getting a little annoying. As well as the whole "Oh, you're doing fine, you still have a lot to learn though" thing...I'd just like to state for the record that I am making like twice as many tips as I had expected, so I'm fucking doing SOMETHING right. To quote Will Smith from Men In Black, I'd APPRECIATE it ya'd ease up off my back about it. *glares at James and Fannie*
Don't know if anybody's interested in attending this b/c I dunno how near you are to Philadelphia, but if so...
Philadelphia Inquirer
2 November 2003
Rally to Support Deportee Set
By Larry Fish
A man labeled a member of an Irish terror group was sent away. Some
say that violates a 1998 pact.
John McNicholl stepped out of his Upper Darby house at 5:30 a.m. on
July 17 to drive to his union job as a sprinkler fitter, as he had
been doing for years.
But on this day, he was seized by four federal agents, taken into
detention, and within hours was put on a plane to Ireland.
He's unlikely to ever see Upper Darby again.
Labeled a member of an Irish terrorist organization by the Department
of Justice, McNicholl had been in this country - illegally, but
trying to obtain citizenship - raising a family for almost 20 years.
His deportation has aroused Irish and Irish American anger. Many say
it goes against the spirit of the Good Friday agreement of 1998,
meant to bury old animosities and bring peace to Northern Ireland.
McNicholl's supporters will hold a rally for him Saturday at 1 p.m.
at the new National Irish Memorial at Penn's Landing.
His eldest son, Sean, a senior at Upper Darby High School, will
speak. But the rest of the family - another son, a daughter, and
McNicholl's wife of 20 years, Frances, will be with him in Donegal,
Ireland.
"It's not just my husband they deported," his wife, known as Frankie,
said this week by phone from Philadelphia International Airport as
she prepared to board a plane.
To keep the family intact, Frankie McNicholl and the two younger
children, all American citizens, will stay with him in Donegal. Sean
will finish his senior year at Upper Darby.
John McNicholl, now 51 and a native of the British province of
Northern Ireland, was arrested there and accused of a role in the
1976 murder of a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The
authorities said that McNicholl was a member of an outlawed group,
the Irish National Liberation Army, and he was sent to Maze prison.
He didn't stay long; he and other prisoners tunneled out and he fled
to the Republic of Ireland. Ireland declined to extradite him to
Britain, and today he is in little danger of being sent for trial.
John and Frankie McNicholl came illegally to the United States in
1984, and for most of that time they have lived in Upper Darby. He
has always denied any role in the murder or membership in the
Liberation Army.
Frankie McNicholl, like many illegal entrants, eventually got a
waiver for her status and became a naturalized citizen. Her husband
was attempting to go the same route, and he reported every 90 days to
the immigration authorities to renew his work permit.
The deportation action against him started in 1995, with the usual
series of appeals and reviews. The basic charge against him was his
alleged membership in the Irish National Liberation Army.
McNicholl's appeal of his deportation was denied on July 10, seven
days before he was seized, Lance Payne, spokesman for the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said last week, and the
deportation order became official. The Good Friday agreement freed
most "political prisoners," including those who were members of the
Liberation Army, said Dennis P. Heron, a member of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians in Philadelphia. And another man had long since been
convicted of the policeman's murder.
But the deportation case against McNicholl went forward, for reasons
his supporters say they cannot understand. They suggest that the
current administration wants to curry favor with the British and is
eager to be seen deporting anyone who can be called a terrorist.
"He has never done anything against this country," his wife said,
contending that he never got so much as a parking ticket.
"For the Irish American community here in the Delaware Valley and
indeed across the country, it's hurtful and even spiteful" to have an
immigrant who followed the rules to be seized without warning from a
sidewalk and hustled onto a plane, said Thomas Conaghan, president of
the Federation of Irish-American Societies.
Conaghan said the entire family was suddenly left without its
breadwinner, and Irish American groups and his union have pitched in
to help. As do the others, he calls it ludicrous to think of
McNicholl as a terrorist. And he said that the notion of rooting out
long-absent members of groups in Northern Ireland should be fading as
the Good Friday peace process continues.
"It's time to step beyond the blame game," he said.
McNicholl's lawyer, James J. Orlow, called McNicholl's deportation "a
political lynching" and said his case continues in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Orlow said that the Irish National Liberation Army is not on the
State Department's list of terror groups and that U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft arbitrarily and illegally has attempted to add
it. Shortly after McNicholl was spirited away, Orlow said, "John
Ashcroft claimed credit for deporting a terrorist."
Today's rally will be "more like a presence there, a remembrance,"
Conaghan said.
Heron summed up why McNicholl's supporters do not expect to see him
in Upper Darby anytime soon. "Once he's been deported," Heron
said, "we've never gotten a guy back." And Frankie McNicholl, asked
how optimistic she is, said: "Not very. I've lost faith in the
government here."
The squirrels are cracking me up. We have a lot of oak trees around our house so they're just spazzing over all the acorns; everywhere you look there's squirrels scrambling around carrying acorns.
OK, need to go make phone calls and work some more on my audition video for Alabama Theatre.
Got slammed at work again today. I mean I'm happy that the restaurant's doing so well, but GEEZ...a few nice normal slow lunches would be nice. I've been a waitress for a week, people, I'm good but I'm not superhuman! The whole "Oh, Cameron's here, let's give her 3 tables at once" thing is getting a little annoying. As well as the whole "Oh, you're doing fine, you still have a lot to learn though" thing...I'd just like to state for the record that I am making like twice as many tips as I had expected, so I'm fucking doing SOMETHING right. To quote Will Smith from Men In Black, I'd APPRECIATE it ya'd ease up off my back about it. *glares at James and Fannie*
Don't know if anybody's interested in attending this b/c I dunno how near you are to Philadelphia, but if so...
Philadelphia Inquirer
2 November 2003
Rally to Support Deportee Set
By Larry Fish
A man labeled a member of an Irish terror group was sent away. Some
say that violates a 1998 pact.
John McNicholl stepped out of his Upper Darby house at 5:30 a.m. on
July 17 to drive to his union job as a sprinkler fitter, as he had
been doing for years.
But on this day, he was seized by four federal agents, taken into
detention, and within hours was put on a plane to Ireland.
He's unlikely to ever see Upper Darby again.
Labeled a member of an Irish terrorist organization by the Department
of Justice, McNicholl had been in this country - illegally, but
trying to obtain citizenship - raising a family for almost 20 years.
His deportation has aroused Irish and Irish American anger. Many say
it goes against the spirit of the Good Friday agreement of 1998,
meant to bury old animosities and bring peace to Northern Ireland.
McNicholl's supporters will hold a rally for him Saturday at 1 p.m.
at the new National Irish Memorial at Penn's Landing.
His eldest son, Sean, a senior at Upper Darby High School, will
speak. But the rest of the family - another son, a daughter, and
McNicholl's wife of 20 years, Frances, will be with him in Donegal,
Ireland.
"It's not just my husband they deported," his wife, known as Frankie,
said this week by phone from Philadelphia International Airport as
she prepared to board a plane.
To keep the family intact, Frankie McNicholl and the two younger
children, all American citizens, will stay with him in Donegal. Sean
will finish his senior year at Upper Darby.
John McNicholl, now 51 and a native of the British province of
Northern Ireland, was arrested there and accused of a role in the
1976 murder of a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The
authorities said that McNicholl was a member of an outlawed group,
the Irish National Liberation Army, and he was sent to Maze prison.
He didn't stay long; he and other prisoners tunneled out and he fled
to the Republic of Ireland. Ireland declined to extradite him to
Britain, and today he is in little danger of being sent for trial.
John and Frankie McNicholl came illegally to the United States in
1984, and for most of that time they have lived in Upper Darby. He
has always denied any role in the murder or membership in the
Liberation Army.
Frankie McNicholl, like many illegal entrants, eventually got a
waiver for her status and became a naturalized citizen. Her husband
was attempting to go the same route, and he reported every 90 days to
the immigration authorities to renew his work permit.
The deportation action against him started in 1995, with the usual
series of appeals and reviews. The basic charge against him was his
alleged membership in the Irish National Liberation Army.
McNicholl's appeal of his deportation was denied on July 10, seven
days before he was seized, Lance Payne, spokesman for the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said last week, and the
deportation order became official. The Good Friday agreement freed
most "political prisoners," including those who were members of the
Liberation Army, said Dennis P. Heron, a member of the Ancient Order
of Hibernians in Philadelphia. And another man had long since been
convicted of the policeman's murder.
But the deportation case against McNicholl went forward, for reasons
his supporters say they cannot understand. They suggest that the
current administration wants to curry favor with the British and is
eager to be seen deporting anyone who can be called a terrorist.
"He has never done anything against this country," his wife said,
contending that he never got so much as a parking ticket.
"For the Irish American community here in the Delaware Valley and
indeed across the country, it's hurtful and even spiteful" to have an
immigrant who followed the rules to be seized without warning from a
sidewalk and hustled onto a plane, said Thomas Conaghan, president of
the Federation of Irish-American Societies.
Conaghan said the entire family was suddenly left without its
breadwinner, and Irish American groups and his union have pitched in
to help. As do the others, he calls it ludicrous to think of
McNicholl as a terrorist. And he said that the notion of rooting out
long-absent members of groups in Northern Ireland should be fading as
the Good Friday peace process continues.
"It's time to step beyond the blame game," he said.
McNicholl's lawyer, James J. Orlow, called McNicholl's deportation "a
political lynching" and said his case continues in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Orlow said that the Irish National Liberation Army is not on the
State Department's list of terror groups and that U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft arbitrarily and illegally has attempted to add
it. Shortly after McNicholl was spirited away, Orlow said, "John
Ashcroft claimed credit for deporting a terrorist."
Today's rally will be "more like a presence there, a remembrance,"
Conaghan said.
Heron summed up why McNicholl's supporters do not expect to see him
in Upper Darby anytime soon. "Once he's been deported," Heron
said, "we've never gotten a guy back." And Frankie McNicholl, asked
how optimistic she is, said: "Not very. I've lost faith in the
government here."
The squirrels are cracking me up. We have a lot of oak trees around our house so they're just spazzing over all the acorns; everywhere you look there's squirrels scrambling around carrying acorns.
OK, need to go make phone calls and work some more on my audition video for Alabama Theatre.