progressive involvement

Get the smelling salts

Pat Buchanan seems surprised and annoyed that "Hispanics already comprise 42 percent of New Mexico’s population."  

The place is called New Mexico, after all.

My congressman tells a whopper

"There's another piece of this puzzle," (Cong. Mike) Coffman (R-CO) continued. "What the Administration is doing, is taking a very aggressive move in the people that have illegal status and moving them through citizenship and waving all the fees and waving anything they can to get the process done in time for 2012. That's something I would love to see the media focus on."

The administration is doing nothing of the kind.  For one thing, those with "illegal status" are not in a citizenship process to begin with.  Secondly, the process for those who are eligible is not something that can be slowed down or speeded up.

393,000, 0

Number of illegal immigrants and bankers rounded up by the Obama administration last year, respectively.

A Molly Ivins moment

Sen. John McCain recently blamed western forest fires on "illegal immigrants."

Back when California was considering an anti-immigrant law in the 1990's, Molly Ivins was speaking in California relating that, in her native state of Texas, when times were bad, her fellow Texans had blamed just about everybody they could for their dire plight--Jews, liberals, etc.,--but even they never thought to blame the Mexicans.

Sen. John Kyl, incidentally, also from Arizona, said that trees should have been chopped down in advance.  These people are in positions of responsibility?

Because Catholics aren't Christians?

The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution supporting "a path to legal status for illegal immigrants."

Resolutions committee chair, Paul Jimenez, said "the main reason for the resolution was the desire to spread the gospel to immigrants." 

Shooting yourself in the foot

Seems that Georgia farmers are not able to get their crops in because the Georgia legislature passed an anti-immigrant bill, and they can't get anybody to come into the fields.

Unemployment in Georgia is around 10%.  If the farmers really need workers, they could hire some of the unemployed.  They'll have to raise their wage, of course--something above a dollar a day and abysmal conditions.

Not surprisingly, some folks in Georgia think conscripting labor from local prisons would be fine.  Apparently, that form of government bailout, the kind that would benefit them, is all right.

States with less draconian laws on immigrant labor are quite likely to find that their produce competes better in the open market--ergo, their farmers are likely to make more money.

States like Georgia that want to stick it to brown people are quite likely to find that their produce rots in the field, and their farmers will be lucky to stay in business. 

Demographic change from 1990 - 2040

America's Tomorrow from PolicyLink on Vimeo.

 

$11.2 billion, $0

United States taxes paid by illegal immigrants and General Electric, respectively.

President visits tomb of Archbishop Romero

President Obama's recent trip to Latin America was cut short by events in the Mediterranean, and his trip has received relatively little attention in the American press.  

While in El Salvador on March 22-23, he visited the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero in San Salvador.  The 31st anniversary of Romero's assassination was March 24.  Romero is a national hero of El Salvador, and his life is celebrated throughout the country.

Obama's visit has been heralded as "the most dramatic gesture" of his five day trip.  Others, however, expressed regret that the President said nothing about the cause of Romero's death.  Romero's assassination was said to have been ordered by Roberto D’Aubuisson, who was trained in the United States at the School of the Americas (SOA) and supported by the Reagan administration.  National Catholic Reporter:

 

The 1993 U.N. Truth Commission Report on El Salvador found that the U.S.-armed and trained Salvadoran military had killed tens of thousands of civilians in a systematic attempt to eliminate its political opponents. Forty-seven of the sixty-six officers cited for major atrocities were SOA graduates, including the killers of four U.S. churchwomen, six Jesuit priests and hundreds of civilians, mostly women and children, at the village of El Mozote.

Obama’s visit "could have been a historic moment," Bourgeois said, one similar to former President Clinton’s rare apology for the US role in the training and arming of Guatemalan security forces that slaughtered more than 200,000 civilians.

"Obama didn’t even acknowledge, let alone apologize for, the U.S. role in El Salvador," Bourgeois said.

It's not surprising that Fr. Bourgeois would take such a stance.  He has been working to close the School of the Americas for years.  It's also not surprising that the President didn't mention past crimes.  The President regularly shows no such inclination.  

While in Chile, he had told the Chileans that governments must be accountable for their actions while choosing not to acknowledge the involvement of the United States in Chilean politics in the 1970's.  

As the President put it, he could not "speak to all of the policies of the past" but could "speak certainly to the policies of the present and the future." 

Still, that the President of the United States stands beside the grave of Archbishop Oscar Romero, champion of the poor, is a potent image and a powerful gesture.  It repudiates everything Romero's assassins promoted.  Moreover, there are about 200,000 Salvadoran expatriates in the United States who surely appreciate this gesture of respect toward their national icon.  NCR:

Obama’s visit says something about Romero, increasingly a man for all seasons and for all peoples. Jesus said, "If I am lifted up, I will draw all to myself." In Romero we see what that means.

His courageous defense of the poor, in the name of the gospel and unto death, is drawing everyone to him. The beauty of his life, his preaching and his self-gift, seduces. This is the way forward for all of us, especially, of course, for the Church.

Obama’s visit also says something about the president. Surely, it burnishes his image, but give him credit. Even as he exercises U.S. power, with its militarism and imperial sway, he detours to acknowledge a champion of the poor and a martyr for the truth.

 

 

 

 

 

Aurora is Colorado's first "majority-minority" city

Aurora is a city of 325,000 people, the third-largest in Colorado after Colorado Springs (414,000), and Denver (600,000).  

Aurora, and Arapahoe County, are national bellwethers--that is, places where national trends are first expressed, observed, and felt. During the last two national elections, for example, strategists on both sides knew well that whoever won Arapahoe County would likely win the election.

It is not surprising, then, that Colorado's increasing diversity would be symbolized by Aurora becoming the state's first "majority-minority" city, according to a Census Bureau report issued Wednesday and summarized in today's Denver Post.  53% of Aurora's residents identify as "non-white."

All minorities increased their percentage of Colorado's population, with hispanics making the biggest jump.  Hispanics increased from 17 to 21 percent of the population.  All but 6 of Colorado's 64 counties became more diverse.  Curiously, one of the six was Denver where the white population inched up from 51 to 52%.

Some folks will see those numbers as being a cryin' shame.  Predictably, the comments to the Post article included at least a few complaining about "foreigners."

In the history of the United States, Colorado has always been multicultural.  When the first white settlers came here from points east, hispanics were already here.  The oldest church in Colorado is not in Denver.  It's in the San Luis Valley.

The multicultural environment is one of many reasons that Colorado is a great place to live.  The hispanic culture brings its colorful and rich tradition.  African-Americans have likewise made their contribution.  Some of the earliest settlers in Denver were blacks who had escaped from slavery.  Asians were early residents as well, living in "hop alley"--now Wazee St.--as early as 1870.

Nor is that all.  About 10,000 Ethiopians live in Aurora, and perhaps as many as 30,000 Koreans.  In fact, anyone who likes international food would love Aurora where you can find everything from middle-eastern to Mongolian to Vietnamese to Eritrean.  My personal favorite is Masaala, which serves Indian food from the Mumbai region.

Congratulations to Aurora, Colorado, which knows the meaning of E Pluribus Unum, one out of many.