The Honorable John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington DC 20510
Re: BILLBOARD IN PHOENIX
Dear Senator McCain,
The organization I run, ProjectUSA, is sponsoring a grassroots effort called Billboard Democracy through which members of the public can vote to put up billboards advertising the immigration voting records of members of Congress. You won the very first billboard, a mock up of which is shown here.
Unfortunately, Viacom Outdoor, which has a virtual monopoly in the Phoenix area on “30-sheets,” the kind of billboard we must use, rejected the board based on its content. The company said it would not put up a billboard that “bashed” you.
You have stated repeatedly that you do not support an amnesty for illegal aliens, yet the bills you support are clearly amnesties, in our view, since they allow a class of lawbreakers to avoid the penalty for breaking the law they broke at the time they broke it.
As a senator, of course, you have ample opportunity to broadcast your claim that you don’t support amnesties. We, however, don’t have an equal opportunity to broadcast our claim that you do. We are a very small organization with very little money. On our budget, the only way we can get our message out is to rent cheap billboards, one at a time.
Now even that method of participating in our democracy has been removed by Viacom’s action. It doesn’t seem right, and, even though Viacom is your fourth largest contributor, I trust you’ll agree that a huge multinational corporation should not be able to use its media power to eliminate the public airing of viewpoints that differ from yours.
THE SOLUTION
Since the main issue is the public’s right to know whether you support amnesties, let’s agree to a public challenge. We’ll submit the texts of legislation you’ve backed [S. 359, S. 1461 (108th), and the McCain-Kennedy-Kolbe-Flake-Gutierrez bill] to an independent panel of five attorneys selected, at our expense, by the American Arbitration Association. They will be asked to answer the question: “Given the legal definition of amnesty, is either S. 359, S. 1461(108th), or [bill no. of the McCain-Kennedy-Kolbe-Flake-Gutierrez bill] an amnesty for illegal aliens?”
If three or more members of the panel say yes, then you and we will agree to take that decision as a verification of our claim that you support amnesty for illegal aliens. If three or more members of the panel say no, then you and we will agree to take that decision as a verification of your claim that you do not support amnesties for illegal aliens.
Neither you nor we will know who the attorneys are, or what the outcome of the decision is until announced at a press conference in Phoenix.
THE WAGER
In the event the panel finds the bills are not amnesties, we will erect 10 billboards for one month in the Phoenix area (locations to be pre-chosen) reading, “Senator John McCain does not support amnesties for illegal aliens.”
If the panel finds the bills are amnesties, you will erect 10 billboards similarly that read, “I, Senator John McCain, support amnesties for illegal aliens.”
The billboards, of course, would be owned by Viacom, so, in order for our wager to go forward, you would probably have to give them a call at 620 477 3072 and tell them to stop preventing us from participating in our democracy. The corporation will likely listen to you. It was concern for your feelings that prompted Viacom to reject our billboard in the first place.
Amnesties encourage illegal immigration, Senator McCain, and, given there are nearly 5 billion people in the world living in countries poorer than Mexico, I’m sure you’ll agree that voters have a very large stake in whether their representatives in Washington are supporting policies that encourage illegal immigration.
Sincerely,
Craig Nelsen, Exec Dir
ProjectUSA
Washington, DC