May 22, 2001
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To: ADL (Anti-Defamation League)
Dear Mr. Lehrer:
Monday evening, KABC-TV ran what I believe was an intentionally biased version of an interview they had done with me earlier in the day. They referred to this story as "Campaign of Hate", which implied that my mayorno.com website and my telephone solicitation was waging a hate campaign, which is quite the opposite of the truth. Ironically, the MayorNo.com website's primary and only objective is to focus on exposing un-American and anti-Semitic hate groups within the Latino community, and possible ties between Antonio Villaraigosa and one or more of these groups.
Last year, before I launched the MayorNo.com site, I forwarded examples of "Raza" organizations' Antisemitic material to the ADL. I was shocked that the Latino community may harbor the kind of anti-Semitic sentiments that were reflected in the documents. I was more shocked that the ADL did not respond. I'm sure you get hundreds of ranting warnings about racist activities, however it is one of your sworn duties to sift through all the leads, and separate the truth from the unsubstantiated claims. If my information was wrong or somehow inaccurate, I would have expected a letter back from you saying that you researched it and there was little or no such racist sentiment among Latino groups. I would have accepted that from you, and thanked you for getting to the bottom of it.
Once again, I previously sent you these two articles, which I feel have strong racist overtones or worse:
With all respect, did you have the ADL study these articles, and did you or did you not come to the same conclusion that I did?
It was only after the ADL (who are hopefully the champions of anti-racism) wouldn't take the time to do what it is supposed to do, that I was inspired to launch the MayorNo.com site. Because the research I did also (surprisingly) implicates Villaraigosa, I called for Villaraigosa to condemn the Raza racism, but he (even more surprisingly) refuses. Is my effort to draw Villaraigosa's racist past out into the open "hate" rhetoric like KABC implied? I don't hate, or even know the guy. I just saw that he MIGHT have some connection to racist activities, and wanted to get to the bottom of it. That's all.
I admit that I'm only an average man, without the polish and the PR skills to play in the big leagues of politics. I may come on far too strong, and I may appear a little too passionate about my beliefs...as such I'm ripe to be called a crackpot as a quick defense by anyone who doesn't want to hear what I'm shouting about. Sir, I have a whole website full of documented articles and evidence (directly from these Raza groups themselves), that you should look at even if my personal style or approach is "outside the box" or distasteful to you. Whether you think I'm off my rocker or not, for the sake of your conscience just please look through the following portions of THEIR website, information written by the Raza groups themselves:
For example, the website La Voz de Aztlan posts these:
The point of my mayorno.com website, as far as the mayoral election goes, is that Mr. Villaraigosa absolutely refuses to publicly repudiate by name any Raza organization no matter how vicious the group's Anti-Semitism is. It appears as though he's trying to maintain his political status with them, no matter the cost or the hate he must be allied with. I would also ask that you say what the ADL's position on the Anti-Semitic Raza organizations are. If ADL had responded to my initial queries, this would not be an issue. But what am I to make of the ADL's non-response to hard evidence about the (admittedly surprising) ties between Villaraigosa and Raza racism? If the racist literature from the Raza groups had instead come from skinheads in Idaho then would that be the type of racism that ADL opposes?
Please reply to me, Mr. Lehrer, I honestly want to know what the ADL's feeling is about the evidence I have collected, regardless of whether the ADL sees me as credible or not. This is a textbook example of the type of information your organization should be concerned with, regardless of whether it pans out or not.
Most Sincerely,
Hal Netkin
