Leonard Sannon is quite composed for a boy who is only 14 years old. [...] So when his parents offered to send him with a prayer group to see the religious relics of Ireland, Leonard, an American born to Haitian parents, packed his well-traveled passport and was off. But the ninth-grader said he needed all of his composure on his way home last Wednesday when U.S. immigration agents in Ireland accused him of having forged his passport. They sent his travel companions, 38 adults, back to New York without him and told Leonard he would not be allowed back in the United States. [...] Leonard was traveling with the Queens-based The World Cenacle Prayer Group, which organizes religious pilgrimages. The trip's volunteer coordinator, Conrad Ponio, said he returned without Leonard because immigration officials told him there was nothing he could do. "They told me you can't wait for him because the passport was counterfeit,” Ponio said. "They said you can't do anything.” [...] The Sannons said they agreed to send their son on the trip to religious sites in Ireland to help him understand that people other than African-Americans have been the victims of persecution. Now, they wonder whether the lesson he will carry from his experience is that racial bias still exists. "We wanted him to know that even though the Irish have been better off than black people, that they have been persecuted, too,” Jocelyne Sannon said. "But I doubt very much if he were a blue-eyed boy they would have allowed this to happen.”
Replies: 30 comments
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:17 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Just wanting to let you know that I am Leonard Sannon, the one that got caught in Ireland
Posted by Leonard Sannon @ 06/10/2002 05:18 PM CST
Leonard, you a homo
Posted by J @ 07/08/2002 05:58 PM CST
This is me, I can honestly look back on that day and laugh
Posted by Leonard @ 02/12/2003 07:51 PM CST
This is me, I can honestly look back on that day and laugh
Posted by Leonard @ 02/12/2003 07:52 PM CST
This is me, I can honestly look back on that day and laugh
Posted by Leonard @ 02/12/2003 07:53 PM CST
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
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