"Coffee Party" issues wake-up call

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The angry debate over Arizona's new immigration law is not unique. In fact, in 2007, the Board of Supervisors in Prince William County, Virginia, instructed it's police department to question people about their immigration status if the officers had "probable cause" to suspect they were illegal immigrants.

A huge controversy erupted and according to the director of a documentary film on the fracas, the "probable cause" clause was eventually removed when the supervisors realized how much it would cost to enforce. In the meantime, though, the film, which is headed for Austin, argues that thousands of immigrants fled the county - collapsing the economy.

Through it all, a resident of the county shot video of the day-to-day developments for what became an “interactive documentary” on the Internet. Co-directors Eric Byler and Annabel Park posted videos on YouTube and according to Byler, a comment by Park on Facebook led to the formation of the " Coffee Party ". Eventually, the YouTube videos were compiled into 9500 Liberty , a feature length documentary which played in April at the Phoenix Film Festival. The documentary later returned to Phoenix for an extended theatrical release and will open a run at Austin’s Dobie Theater Friday, June 4.

"Especially when it's election season and that's what we're seeing in Arizona right now and that's what we saw in Virginia in our film - It's not really necessarily information that people are after; they're looking for ammunition," said Byler. "And so the facts really go out the window. It's, ‘What's going to support my team? What's going to help my candidate?’

The Virginia saga began with a blogger who argued that God wanted illegal aliens removed from America.

"The result of the 2008 election was very disappointing for a fragment of the conservative part of our country," said Byler, "and because we have the ability now to use a satellite to amplify a tiny fraction of our society, to make it look like it's so much bigger, these shadows on the cave wall become larger and larger and larger until they really dominate political discourse.

"I think the America that we foresaw in 2008 has sort of been preempted by this reality TV show that Fox News has been presenting about the Tea Party. And we've all said, 'Oh, if this is America, that's not what I expected and I don't know if I want to participate. I think that's been incredibly effective because it's shrunken the participation down to something that's easier to manipulate for special interests and for lobbyists and for extremist groups.

“What Coffee Party is trying to do is to expand that participation back to what we had in 2008, back to you know, the time when we all felt good about America and about our political process. That means including diverse perspectives, diverse cultures, diverse voices, embracing our identity as a nation of immigrants and really insisting on fact-based, solutions-oriented, respectful, civil dialogue when we talk about politics.

But Byler also blames the media.

"The media went and they found only the most sensational, most aggravated, most apoplectic participants in those town halls meetings about health care and showed us that 24/7. What did that do? It made people who actually had a thoughtful perspective about health care decide not to participate," he said. "For the media to allow that to become the face of American political participation has been bad for the Tea Party, but it's been really bad for America. The Tea Party rightfully complains that only the worst of the worst are shown on television, but it's also made all of feel like, 'I don't want to be part of this. If that's democracy, then you can count me out. I'm just going to attend to my own little plot of land, my own job and my own family and let these people who are willing to exist in this arena, this gladiator war, let people who thrive on conflict deal with that.’"

Still, Byler remains optimistic.

"There is an ailment in our democracy that has to do with hyperbolic claims and hyperbolic positions being taken by these two sides that we're forced to choose between," he said. I think there is a method by which we can go about making collective decisions in the democratic process that embraces fact-based, solutions-oriented, respectful and civil problem solving. There is a way for the silent, alienated majority to accept their civic duty and stand up and be heard on the important political issues of the day.

"I think 9500 Liberty is a great example of that on a county level. I think that the Coffee Party is a good example of that on a national level. And today in Arizona, right now, there is a movement called, 'Liberty Arizona' that's just beginning, where we can actually watch it happening on a state level.

"So I have a lot of hope, after having lived this movie and made this movie, that people will, after they get to a certain threshold, decide that their silence costs them too much."