Have you heard the news? WPB has become a Welcoming City!

West Palm Beach: Following in the footsteps of our City of Lake Worth.

Finally stepping up and declaring itself a “Welcoming City”, news from Joel Malkin at WJNO.

Please remember. This is very important:

The City of Lake Worth is and has been a “Welcoming City” for a very long time.

However, our City IS NOT and NEVER WAS
a so-called ‘sanctuary city’.

Not to be outdone or left behind in Palm Beach County history, suddenly West Palm Beach has declared itself a “Welcoming City” too following in the footsteps of the Lake Worth City Commission and Mayor Pam Triolo. But is West Palm truly “Welcoming”? West Palm likes to claim a lot of things. Time will tell. By the way, as long as one is not breaking the law, PBSO District 14 in the City of Lake Worth has strict rules about when and when not to inquire of someones immigration status. So if you happen to be undocumented just follow the law.

So a few days ago West Palm quietly took their first “Welcoming” step by sending out their police chief to break the news. From the news by Joel Malkin at WJNO (AM1290), Chief Sarah Mooney said,


Our municipal law enforcement agencies don’t really deal much with immigration and status of people and we don’t even really have an occasion to check on anybody’s status unless they’re involved in criminal activity. So, if you’re involved in criminal activity and there’s a reason to be checking documentation that’s related to a person that may be taken into custody [emphasis added] . . . She points out that anybody arrested in any Palm Beach County municipality gets processed at the county jail, which is operated by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.


At the conclusion of Malkin’s news report is an all-too-common error in press and media reports:


[W]hen the city [West Palm] first passed the resolution which declared West Palm a “Welcoming City,” there was controversy over some thinking that meant it was a “Sanctuary City,” [sic] but city officials say that is not the case.


The term ‘sanctuary city’ must never be capitalized! Find out why later in this blog post.

So how did all this come to be, that West Palm Beach felt the need to copy what the City of Lake Worth did three months ago?

Below are two excerpts from The Lake Worth Herald that sum up this situation quite well.

But first, please remember the term “sanctuary city” is a fallacious term (also called a Red Herring), just an urban myth really that was created to divide the public and to demonize diverse, integrated areas and therefore the term should always be used in quotation marks or with air quotes (see definition below) or when speaking in public employ what are called “finger quotes” when enunciating either of the terms ‘sanctuary city’ or the plural ‘sanctuary cities’.

It’s worth noting that according to newly-adopted standard uniform English-speaking accepted style guideline the mythical term ‘sanctuary city’ should always be lowercase within a sentence and in public speaking the speaker should always raise both hands in the air, above the shoulders, pause momentarily and wiggle the index and middle fingers of each hand prior to saying the words ‘sanctuary city’.

Air quotes are, as explained in Wikipedia:


Air quotes, also called finger quotes, are virtual quotation marks formed in the air with one’s fingers when speaking. This is typically done with hands held shoulder-width apart and at the eye level of the speaker, with the index and middle fingers on each hand flexing at the beginning and end of the phrase being quoted. 


Now let’s proceed to the topic at hand, the news in The Lake Worth Herald about the City of Lake Worth being a “Welcoming City” and not a ‘sanctuary city’.

To see the latest front page of the
Herald click on this link.

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Here are two excerpts from the Herald about our “Welcoming City” of Lake Worth:

The City of Lake Worth has named April 17, 2018 as Welcoming City Day [see proclamation below], celebrating all residents of the City. The proclamation, read by Commissioner Omari Hardy declares Lake Worth fosters a welcoming environment for all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity or place of origin, enhances Lake Worth’s cultural fabric, economic growth, global competitiveness and overall prosperity for current and future generations.

and. . .

[T]he City encourages the business leadership, civic groups, other governmental agencies and community institutions to undertake their own initiatives, beyond this resolution, to make Lake Worth not only a welcoming place for new residents from other countries but also a center of world commerce.
     A resolution was passed by the City Commission after much debate with the commission instructing City Attorney Glen Torcivia to add a paragraph stating Lake Worth is not a “Sanctuary City” [sic].

What follows is the agenda item from a City Commission meeting last April, “Proclamation declaring City of Lake Worth a Welcoming City”:

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, Fostering a welcoming environment for all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity or place of origin, enhances Lake Worth’s cultural fabric, economic growth, global competitiveness and overall prosperity for current and future generations; and

WHEREAS, Lake Worth has long been recognized as a hospitable and welcoming place where people, families and institutions thrive and the contributions of all are celebrated and valued; and

WHEREAS, Lake Worth is committed to continue building a welcoming and neighborly atmosphere in our community, where all are welcome, accepted and integrated; and

WHEREAS, Community efforts that promote understanding and collaboration between our native-born and foreign-born community member regardless of legal status, are crucial in encouraging and preserving Lake Worth’s welcoming environment; and

WHEREAS, Lake Worth encourages the business leadership, civic groups, other governmental agencies and community institutions to undertake their own initiatives, beyond this resolution, to make Lake Worth not only a welcoming place for new residents from other countries but also a center of world commerce.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Pam Triolo, Mayor of
the City of Lake Worth, Florida, by virtue of the
authority vested in me, do hereby proclaim

APRIL 17, 2018

AS

WELCOMING CITY DAY

In the City of Lake Worth, Florida and we urge
all residents of Lake Worth to do their part in reaching out to and welcoming all who live in
and visit our City. 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the Seal of the City of Lake Worth, Florida to be affixed this 17th day of April, 2017.