A recent March 12 New York Times article shows some balance (other than the title). I am accustomed to such a general pro-illegal alien bias, I was pleasantly surprised.
This is the most interesting quote of the piece:
"In my heart of hearts," [Principal] Watterson said, "I thought, 'Honestly, people can't vote for something that would hurt kids who are taking college classes.' I thought they just didn't understand. Honest to God, that’s what I thought. But the overwhelming reply was, 'That’s exactly what we intended.'"
----------------------------------------------------
Principal Sees Injustice, and Picks a Fight With It
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
March 12, 2008
PHOENIX — One morning last August, Yvonne Watterson, the principal of GateWay Early College High School here, sat in her office, grimly scrolling through the database of its 240 students.
At the behest of a new state law she detested, she looked for which ones listed a Social Security number and which did not. Without a number, it was virtually certain that a child was in America illegally.
Ms. Watterson wound up with 38 names, many of them of boys and girls she had personally recruited to the school. Under the statute popularly known as Proposition 300, illegal immigrants could not receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in Arizona. Nor could school administrators like Ms. Watterson use state money to pay it.
GateWay’s students, while still in high school, are able to take courses at a community college in the same building, with in-state tuition paid by the high school. Ms. Watterson knew her students could not afford to pay the out-of-state rate, generally $280 a credit. And without the college classes, there would be less reason to stay in school.
So she made the list and sent letters home and began to call in the affected students one by one to tell them that their tuition was no longer subsidized. A girl named Karla crumpled to her knees in the principal’s office, and said, “But I’m a good person.” A few weeks later, Ms. Watterson heard, Karla was riding a bus back to Mexico.
Yvonne Watterson vowed to do something so she would not lose any more of her students. She made the vow because of what happened every July 12 back in Antrim, Northern Ireland, her hometown.
On that night, the local Protestants celebrated their forebears’ victory over a Catholic army three centuries earlier in the Battle of the Boyne. Even in the Arizona desert, Ms. Watterson remembered the sound of Loyalist anthems and the smell of burning tires and the sight of the pope being burned in effigy. Though she was a Protestant, even as a child she had always cringed imagining how July 12 felt to her Roman Catholic playmates up the block.
“I thought, ‘Here we go again, segregating kids, putting kids on a list,’ ” Ms. Watterson, 44, said recently in her office at GateWay. “It’s that hatred. It’s that separation. Not having to look someone in the eye. It’s a horrible, cowardly — I don’t know what to call it. I wouldn’t have believed I was in America.”
In her career as an educator, Ms. Watterson had been nothing if not decisive. When she became principal at GateWay in 2003, she threw out a progressive curriculum and replaced it with a traditional variety. She required all 10 teachers on the staff to reapply for their jobs and hired back just one. After visiting early-college high schools in New York City and Stockton, Calif., and seeing how well they served immigrant teenagers, she brought the model to GateWay.
So she went immediately into advocacy mode, giving an interview to The Arizona Republic, the daily newspaper in Phoenix. In the subsequent article, she was quoted describing the plight of her undocumented students and talking about her own experience as an immigrant after she came to America in the mid-1980s.
She mentioned Jose Razo, heading into his senior year, on track to accumulate more than 50 college credits in courses ranging from macroeconomics to video-game design. At home, he had a cologne box filled with certificates for the honor roll, perfect attendance, good citizenship. But he was not a citizen, and because of Proposition 300, he was already thinking about going to Mexico, a country he had left at age 2.
Ms. Watterson reaped the whirlwind of the blogosphere, as readers responded to The Republic’s article.
From Gilbert19: “These children are dishonest law-breakers; why do we want them going to our schools?”
From gbishop01: “You have totally destroyed your integrity.”
From AWhite: “All I have to say to these criminals is ‘DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT’!!!!!”
The attacks attested to the vox populi. Proposition 300 had been approved with 71 percent of the vote. It won alongside three other ballot measures denying various rights to illegal immigrants and declaring English the official state language.
“In my heart of hearts,” Ms. Watterson said, “I thought, ‘Honestly, people can’t vote for something that would hurt kids who are taking college classes.’ I thought they just didn’t understand. Honest to God, that’s what I thought. But the overwhelming reply was, ‘That’s exactly what we intended.’ ”
Still, the response was not unanimous. A lawyer who doubled as a television host, José A. Cárdenas, called Ms. Watterson and arranged for Jose Razo to appear on his show.
About a week later, GateWay received an anonymous donation of $25,000 to help undocumented students pay their tuition. Mr. Cárdenas recommended that Ms. Watterson approach the Stardust Foundation in suburban Phoenix, and it gave $50,000.
Ultimately, Ms. Watterson received $83,000 from various donors. In January, she was named one of seven winners of a Phoenix-area award in memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After having her students write autobiographical thank-you notes to donors, she had the letters collected and published as a bilingual book, “Documented Dreams.”
Still, this ending is not quite happy. The donations came in too late for the affected students to take their college classes in fall 2007.
About $27,000 of it went toward their tuition for the spring semester of 2008, and the rest will cover next fall’s needs. Beyond that, there is only uncertainty.
"I don’t wake up every day to steal purses," said Noemi Ariza, a 17-year-old student at GateWay. "I wake up to try my hardest to succeed. And for people to despise me, to tell me I have no right to be here, to look at me like a murderer — it’s so dehumanizing. All I’m trying to do is make something of myself."
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Supreme Court Votes to Destroy 2006 Ballots
Supreme Court President Minister Ortiz voted "yes" to the Federal Electoral Institute's mandate to destroy the 2006 presidential election ballots. Destruction of the ballots had initally been delayed by the request of political magazine Proceso to have access to all the documents involved in the election process. The final argument was that the Federal Electoral Court already made a ruling on the validity of the 2006 election.
Failed 2006 presidential candidate Lopez Obrador does not recognize the result of the election and has always demanded a ballot per ballot recount.
Failed 2006 presidential candidate Lopez Obrador does not recognize the result of the election and has always demanded a ballot per ballot recount.
Another Way of Looking at Anti-Semitism
From a recent AP article on a State Department report:
Unremitting criticism of Israel is mounting, the report said, and Israeli policy is sometimes likened to the Nazis. At the same time, the report to Congress said, there is a failure to pay attention to regimes guilty of grave violations.
This has the effect of reinforcing the notion that the Jewish state is one of the greatest sources of abuse of the rights of others "and thus, unintentionally or not, encourages anti-Semitism," the report said.
Unremitting criticism of Israel is mounting, the report said, and Israeli policy is sometimes likened to the Nazis. At the same time, the report to Congress said, there is a failure to pay attention to regimes guilty of grave violations.
This has the effect of reinforcing the notion that the Jewish state is one of the greatest sources of abuse of the rights of others "and thus, unintentionally or not, encourages anti-Semitism," the report said.
FLOTUS Visit
The first lady of the United States was here. We were extremely busy but all went well and Mrs. Bush advanced a cause that she travels the world to promote -- better health for women and breast cancer awareness.
Remarks by Ambassador Garza at the launch of the "Tómatelo a Pecho" ("Take it to heart") program of the Carso Institute
March 11, 2008
Good morning. I want to thank Marco Antonio Slim, Dr. Julio Frenk and Dr. Felicia Knaul for inviting Mariasun and myself today to the launch of this important project.
When Julio and Felicia came to see me about “Tómatelo a Pecho” (“Take it to heart”), I was struck by their experience and impressed by the commitment of the Carso Institute to this project.
Julio and Felicia shared with me the personal struggle they face, and also asked me to share a little today about my personal experiences with cancer.
I witnessed my mother’s and my sister’s courage when they learned they had cancer. From that experience, I learned that early detection is vital.
I am not an expert on breast cancer. I wish I knew how to cure it. But I am sure glad to see that experts are increasingly working together toward that goal: a cure. You’re already familiar with most of the statistics, but the one that hit me the hardest is this: in Mexico, only 5% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in stages 0 and 1 – before they have spread throughout the body; and that 12 women die daily as a consequence of this disease, whereas in the United States, 50% of cases are diagnosed in the early stages.
A diagnosis of breast cancer does not mean that life is over. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 18 months old. She was lucky enough to detect it early, and she lived to enjoy a little over a decade with her three children.
I have vivid childhood memories of spending time in the hallways of the M.D. Anderson Center as my mother fought cancer. First a mastectomy, then a radical mastectomy, two years of dormancy, and then nearly 9 non-stop years of radiation and chemotherapy until she died in 1972. It would be easy to merely discuss her illness and treatment, but the things I remember about her aren’t focused solely around her fight with cancer.
I remember her grace, her energy and her zest for life during those 13 years. She went back to college, and took up painting. She talked about the Vietnam War and indulged what must have been her hippie spirit by letting me and my brother grow our hair long.
We spent hours at the library, which gave me a lifelong passion for reading. Everyday I carry with me her spirit and the lessons she taught me. By having her cancer diagnosed at an early stage, she was able to give us a great childhood…. That’s why I’ve said that my mother’s life had a far greater impact on me than her death. My one regret is that we didn’t talk about her disease.
In the ’60s and ’70s, people just didn’t know how to talk about it. It wasn’t until those last days when the doctor tries to give comfort to the family, by saying “we’ll do everything possible to keep her from suffering,” that my dad told us that she wanted to see us and took us to the hospital. It was then that my brother and I understood and felt the weight and seriousness of her illness.
A few days later we were swimming and playing at the neighbors’ much like any other day and my dad called us. When I walked into the living room and saw a priest sitting there – I knew my mother had died. At that age, it might have been easier if we’d talked about it before.
That was another lesson I learned: you have to talk about what’s going on. And while you may think you’re protecting your children by keeping things from them, you’re not, what you are really doing is confusing them and leaving them to wonder why.
My sister, DeAnna, was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. That year, she’d put off her checkup by a few months, which was rare for her. When she went in, the doctor found a tumor and put her in surgery what seemed like the next day. He told her that if she’d skipped her exam that year, it would have been too late.
Thankfully, DeAnna was diagnosed early, and she filled the next eight years with zest, enjoying everything that life provided her. During that time, she and her husband made several trips they had been planning for years, she saw her two daughters grow up and attend college, her son get married, and her daughter-in-law pregnant with what would have been her first grandchild. She saw the laying of the foundation of her dream house. She gave us eight more years of memories that live on in our hearts, and that we think about daily.
So I’ve seen cancer as a child and as a grown-up brother. As a brother, I was able to speak much more openly with DeAnna about her disease. But more important than the conversations between us were the conversations she and her husband were having with their children. They were open and honest with them throughout her illness. They made the most of the time they had and truly filled those eight years with life.
So you see, early detection is the difference between watching your children grow up and having life tragically cut short. It’s the difference between creating big and small memories, all of them meaningful, or leaving a void in which our loved ones can only wonder what might have been.
All of us here want the same thing. We want women to have more time to be with their families, time to create memories -- to fully live. The Carso Institute is about creating hope for each cancer patient, and their families, to not only defeat this terrible disease, but to detect it early enough to allow for successful treatment.
In the United States, because of early detection and improved treatment, the five-year survival rate for women who were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer is 98%, and there are nearly 2.5 million survivors of breast cancer living today. It’s time for these advances to be brought to women, not only in Mexico but everywhere. I’m sure that is one of the main goals of the Carso Institute.
In support of that effort, later this week, First Lady Laura Bush will be in Mexico City to formally launch the Mexico-United States Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Our goal is to partner alongside already strong efforts such as those being initiated by the Carso Institute. We are all focused on the same goal— to give more women more time to live.
I want to thank you for allowing me to join you today to share my story and would like to close as I always do, simply asking that God, now and forever, bless the United States and Mexico, and on this particular day, all women who face the challenge of dealing with cancer. Thank you very much.
Remarks by Ambassador Garza at the launch of the "Tómatelo a Pecho" ("Take it to heart") program of the Carso Institute
March 11, 2008
Good morning. I want to thank Marco Antonio Slim, Dr. Julio Frenk and Dr. Felicia Knaul for inviting Mariasun and myself today to the launch of this important project.
When Julio and Felicia came to see me about “Tómatelo a Pecho” (“Take it to heart”), I was struck by their experience and impressed by the commitment of the Carso Institute to this project.
Julio and Felicia shared with me the personal struggle they face, and also asked me to share a little today about my personal experiences with cancer.
I witnessed my mother’s and my sister’s courage when they learned they had cancer. From that experience, I learned that early detection is vital.
I am not an expert on breast cancer. I wish I knew how to cure it. But I am sure glad to see that experts are increasingly working together toward that goal: a cure. You’re already familiar with most of the statistics, but the one that hit me the hardest is this: in Mexico, only 5% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in stages 0 and 1 – before they have spread throughout the body; and that 12 women die daily as a consequence of this disease, whereas in the United States, 50% of cases are diagnosed in the early stages.
A diagnosis of breast cancer does not mean that life is over. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 18 months old. She was lucky enough to detect it early, and she lived to enjoy a little over a decade with her three children.
I have vivid childhood memories of spending time in the hallways of the M.D. Anderson Center as my mother fought cancer. First a mastectomy, then a radical mastectomy, two years of dormancy, and then nearly 9 non-stop years of radiation and chemotherapy until she died in 1972. It would be easy to merely discuss her illness and treatment, but the things I remember about her aren’t focused solely around her fight with cancer.
I remember her grace, her energy and her zest for life during those 13 years. She went back to college, and took up painting. She talked about the Vietnam War and indulged what must have been her hippie spirit by letting me and my brother grow our hair long.
We spent hours at the library, which gave me a lifelong passion for reading. Everyday I carry with me her spirit and the lessons she taught me. By having her cancer diagnosed at an early stage, she was able to give us a great childhood…. That’s why I’ve said that my mother’s life had a far greater impact on me than her death. My one regret is that we didn’t talk about her disease.
In the ’60s and ’70s, people just didn’t know how to talk about it. It wasn’t until those last days when the doctor tries to give comfort to the family, by saying “we’ll do everything possible to keep her from suffering,” that my dad told us that she wanted to see us and took us to the hospital. It was then that my brother and I understood and felt the weight and seriousness of her illness.
A few days later we were swimming and playing at the neighbors’ much like any other day and my dad called us. When I walked into the living room and saw a priest sitting there – I knew my mother had died. At that age, it might have been easier if we’d talked about it before.
That was another lesson I learned: you have to talk about what’s going on. And while you may think you’re protecting your children by keeping things from them, you’re not, what you are really doing is confusing them and leaving them to wonder why.
My sister, DeAnna, was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. That year, she’d put off her checkup by a few months, which was rare for her. When she went in, the doctor found a tumor and put her in surgery what seemed like the next day. He told her that if she’d skipped her exam that year, it would have been too late.
Thankfully, DeAnna was diagnosed early, and she filled the next eight years with zest, enjoying everything that life provided her. During that time, she and her husband made several trips they had been planning for years, she saw her two daughters grow up and attend college, her son get married, and her daughter-in-law pregnant with what would have been her first grandchild. She saw the laying of the foundation of her dream house. She gave us eight more years of memories that live on in our hearts, and that we think about daily.
So I’ve seen cancer as a child and as a grown-up brother. As a brother, I was able to speak much more openly with DeAnna about her disease. But more important than the conversations between us were the conversations she and her husband were having with their children. They were open and honest with them throughout her illness. They made the most of the time they had and truly filled those eight years with life.
So you see, early detection is the difference between watching your children grow up and having life tragically cut short. It’s the difference between creating big and small memories, all of them meaningful, or leaving a void in which our loved ones can only wonder what might have been.
All of us here want the same thing. We want women to have more time to be with their families, time to create memories -- to fully live. The Carso Institute is about creating hope for each cancer patient, and their families, to not only defeat this terrible disease, but to detect it early enough to allow for successful treatment.
In the United States, because of early detection and improved treatment, the five-year survival rate for women who were diagnosed with early stage breast cancer is 98%, and there are nearly 2.5 million survivors of breast cancer living today. It’s time for these advances to be brought to women, not only in Mexico but everywhere. I’m sure that is one of the main goals of the Carso Institute.
In support of that effort, later this week, First Lady Laura Bush will be in Mexico City to formally launch the Mexico-United States Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Our goal is to partner alongside already strong efforts such as those being initiated by the Carso Institute. We are all focused on the same goal— to give more women more time to live.
I want to thank you for allowing me to join you today to share my story and would like to close as I always do, simply asking that God, now and forever, bless the United States and Mexico, and on this particular day, all women who face the challenge of dealing with cancer. Thank you very much.
Strong Opinions
Ana Maria Aragones wrote an op-ed with the following headline and subhead.
When Will the Hits Against Migrants to the United States Stop?
When Mexico's president defends them with the same commitment he uses to spport this dishonest politicans in his cabinet.
When Will the Hits Against Migrants to the United States Stop?
When Mexico's president defends them with the same commitment he uses to spport this dishonest politicans in his cabinet.
Prior to the weekend, employees were warned about the local Power Company Union (Luz y Fuerza del Centro), which is renegotiating their contract. They were possibly going to have a strike commencing at noon on Sunday March 16. Local residents were worried the power was going to be shut off.
No such luck.
No such luck.
Happy St. Patrick's Day
In Mexico, we celebrated the holiday with a day off to remember Benito Juarez.
Employees May Be Rewarded for Good Health
Rep. James P. Moran, Virginia Democrat, outlined a plan to give feds a cash payment at the time of retirement for unused sick leave.
Employees under the Civil Service Retirement System have that benefit, but the majority of feds, under the newer Federal Employees Retirement System, have only a use-it-or-lose-it option.
Mr. Moran's plan, outlined at the Federal Managers Association convention in Arlington, requires approval of Congress and the White House.
Employees under the Civil Service Retirement System have that benefit, but the majority of feds, under the newer Federal Employees Retirement System, have only a use-it-or-lose-it option.
Mr. Moran's plan, outlined at the Federal Managers Association convention in Arlington, requires approval of Congress and the White House.
A Spanish Tale
From a colleague: An applicant was going through the line. I told him courteously in my Dominican Spanish; "Senor, ya puede ponerse su correa", which in English means "Sir, you can now put on your belt." The man looked at me awkwardly revealing his discomfort. Apparently, in Mexico, correa means dog leash.
Monday, March 10, 2008
A Startling Achievement
Approximately 90 percent of all cocaine consumed in the United States travels through Mexico.
Kahlo's Star Dims
I recently went to the famous blue house of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. A recent Washington Post article has some great bits.
"Lots of artists that I've talked to say they've had enough of her: In light of current art, her painting can seem overwrought and underskilled, more fussy than profoundly complex."
"She constructs a vision of herself as a very idiosyncratic kind of a woman, immersed in her own homemade visions of femininity and Mexicanness and resistance to norms -- social, sexual, artistic and political."
"The weaknesses in Kahlo's paintings are irrelevant, so long as you think of those pictures as nothing more than documents or ephemera left over from the larger creative project of her life. We don't blame great dancers or architects -- or performance artists -- if there are flaws in the images and evidence that fill us in on their achievements."
"Lots of artists that I've talked to say they've had enough of her: In light of current art, her painting can seem overwrought and underskilled, more fussy than profoundly complex."
"She constructs a vision of herself as a very idiosyncratic kind of a woman, immersed in her own homemade visions of femininity and Mexicanness and resistance to norms -- social, sexual, artistic and political."
"The weaknesses in Kahlo's paintings are irrelevant, so long as you think of those pictures as nothing more than documents or ephemera left over from the larger creative project of her life. We don't blame great dancers or architects -- or performance artists -- if there are flaws in the images and evidence that fill us in on their achievements."
Trials Go Live
Guillermo Ortiz Mayagoitia, president of the Supreme Court approved the live recording of trials for television broadcast. This is a first in Mexican history.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Jews Purchase Property
In 1658, 15 South American Jewish families of Sephardic lineage settled in Newport, Rhode Islan, and established a Jewish congregation, and used private homes to conduct services. The community purchased a parcel of land for a Jewish burial on Wednesday, February 28, 1677.
This was the first piece of land owned by a Jewish congregation in the colonies.
This was the first piece of land owned by a Jewish congregation in the colonies.
The Real Deal
The White House has confirmed Laura Bush is coming to Mexico City. We don’t have to use odd acronyms and nicknames during our planning meetings.
More clues...
Mexico’s police has linked last month’s bomb plot with Sinaloa state, and potentially a powerful drug cartel.
Budget Battles
The president has proposed a 2.9 percent raise for federal employees and a 3.4 percent raise for the military, even though Congress traditionally prefers parity in pay adjustments between civilian and military personnel.
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, is fighting for a 3.9 percent pay increase. The NTEU is also lobbying for a full repeal of the Homeland Security Department's new personnel system.
Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, is fighting for a 3.9 percent pay increase. The NTEU is also lobbying for a full repeal of the Homeland Security Department's new personnel system.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Network thwarts enforcement
The Chicago Tribune reported a Reseda neighborhood watch have been protecting illegal aliens from ICE raids. Angelita Pascacio, an organizer of Madres Contra Redadas (Mothers Against Raids), described the surveillance by illegal aliens as increasingly more effective.
"When [pro-illegal-alien] crashed and burned, I think many communities throughout the country began to focus their attention more on protecting the limited rights that [illegal aliens] do have," said Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a non-profit legal foundation for illegal aliens.
"When [pro-illegal-alien] crashed and burned, I think many communities throughout the country began to focus their attention more on protecting the limited rights that [illegal aliens] do have," said Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a non-profit legal foundation for illegal aliens.
Emissions Restricted
The NY Times reported Mexico's new ban of the import of any cars for personal or commercial purposes unless the car was manufactured in 1998 or earlier based on emissions risks.
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