Hola
So President Calderon comes to Washington.
He comes from the front lines of hte War on Drugs. In Mexico they are fighting a war against the Drug Cartels that the U.S. makes rich and powerful. Mexico either produces or transports quantities of drugs that can't be used domestically. They have to be transported to the USA.
With all the economic and social problems Mexico has, they are taking action against the Drug Cartels and the US needs to curb the demand for drugs and the ease w/ which rich foreigners (legal or not) can launder money thru US banks.
By curbing our drug use I mean we individually can stop using marijuana and worse and even stop drinking alcohol. Considering how much damage alcohol does to families and the community we could improve ourselves by just eliminating that.
Hola
Okay a week ago or so. President Calderon and wife camer to Washington D.C.
The two first ladies went to an elementary school to play nice w/ some school kids and one little Latina tells Mrs. Obama, her mother has no papers and fear being deported. (O.K. she didn't phrase it that way but you get the point)
Mrs. Obama gracefully deals w/ the embarrassing situation and only the TV news people seem to enjoy the moment.
Okay, let's look at the irony of the moment.
Uno, how did this Latino woman even bring her child all the way to Washington D.C. w/out the benefit of papers? How did she even manage to cross the border? and why would she endanger herself and child by doing so?
Dos, Said Latina woman who crossed the border had no reservation about sending her daughter to school even though she, the mother knew she had no papers, but she was willing to avail herself of the free public school system.
Tres, The question of illegal entry was not posed to the First Lady of Mexico. Not why is it you and your husband, have not created an economic system from which people do not flee. What are you doing to improve Mexico so countless people and future generations don't abandon your nation?
Mrs. Obama was polite in her response, saying something like it wasn't the President's job to deport people w/out papers and the real problem is that people don't have papers and what can be done about that.
Again I ask where the responsiblity lie? With the USA that accepts illegals in order to exploit them or the Mexican ruling class that prefers to exploit the poor then showcase them when it's to their advantage?
Hola
Okay I was there in San Francisco yesterday, Sunday May 30, 2010.
I had to park on the far side of the 101 freeway then walk over to the Mission District to join the crowd.
Mission Blvd is very crowded and not the best looking street. I prefer Valencia street to it. I noticed a lot of small shops and restaurants on Valencia.
La Encantada Galeria is nice shop w/ cool ceramic Mexican talavera goods. The owner is a knowlegable lady who's been around for several years.
Down on Harrison Street were the majority of venders and such. All kinds of stuff for sale. To my surpirse I saw the ''Cultura y Mas'' people selling T shirts. Maybe 10 years ago in Los Angeles I bought a great Quetzalcoatl shirt w/ two snake heads on it. I think I bought it at "Premiere Aztlan" store in Montebello Town Center Mall. Everyone who saw this shirt up here in San Jose etc, liked the shirt but afterward I could never find another copy of it. So I asked the proprietress about the shirt and she insists they still sell it on the website. I'll take another look for it.
Yes, there were a lot of police at the event. Things seemed peaceful but w/ cops on foot and cops on bikes, they were ready for anything.
I passed out a lot of my world famous "Mex-I-Can? Yes, you can!" pens to people on the street. Hopefully some people will check out our shopping cart webpage and buy something.
I wrote the following for Amazon.com and I include it w/ a more fiery addition. This movie delivers a great visual image of the story. From start to finish we see who is who and what the protagonists are up against. It is a sympatheitc and endearing portrayal of simple people up against a monolithic system of oprression that can not be beat and yet can no longer be tolerated. The story is cut and dry, good guys vs bad guys and it's easy to sympathize w/ the good guys. Unfortuanately, or maybe obviously without disguise it is also a Socialist apology and propaganda. I say those harsh words deliberately. My biggest criticsm w/ Socialist propaganda and rhetoric is simply that a labor union and improved conditions for workers is just the first step in any improvement of the people's lives. The Socialists are always out to unionize the dishwashers and cotton pickers but they never seem to ask the obvious question that no one really wants to be a dishwasher or cotton picker all their lives.
This is a well made movie and portrays the people's struggle and all without a word of Marxism but the underlying premise is that these people merely want a fair shake; they just want another crust of bread and maybe some milk. I disagree. These people want a option and that means a different job. The film is amusing, even cute in that is seems to show these people as content but just wishing a few improvements in their awful lives, when anyone watching it in the comfort of a middle class American home, w/ cold soda, chips and air con or central heating, would realize they the viewer would really ask for a one way ticket out of there! Yes, particularly cute when the women folk take over the picket lines (b/c the men are barred from doing so) and thje women are jailed and quaintly annoy the sheriff until he releases them, ha ha, yeah real funny, I don't hear anyone laughing.
Cute Socialist propaganda, well done movie, worthy of watching and it should b shown to teenagers as a history or Civic classs. The story to suppress it is more interesting and more crucial to debate. Is there freedom of expression? Can we speak freely? and moreso What should we be saying?
Hola I continue... I know when I was a teenager I felt lost and adrift waiting to grow up. I wish I could have dropped out of high school. If I could have joined the military I would have but I couldn't so I was stuck where I was and that stunk!
If 16 year old teens were allowed certain adult privileges, like working, leaving school etc. then all those unhappy 13 and 14 year old kids would have something to aspire to. If they weren't happy in the 8th grad they could plan on making the big break at 16 and Bang! off they'd go.
And instead of 17 year old grown boys and grown girls wasting time and providing bad roles models for others in high school, they would be gone.
Let teenagers go off and run their own lives when their young and think they can do it.
Okay over the last six months in the San Jose CA area we've seen some terrible crimes involoving teenage boys under 18 years old. I'll go in depth on the crimes in another post and I'll try to be more disciplined about writng this blog okay so bear w/ me a moment.
I think a lot of juvenile delinquent behavior comes from the lack of direction and mixed signals teens receive from our Adult Society. Here in California USA 16 year old kids are told they are children who bear no responsibilty for their actions on one hand, then told they are young adults supposedly ready to stand on their own on the other.
I think if teens were actually treated like adults instead of just saying they are young adults , I think the kids would shape up. I'll explain. In high school teens are told they have to grow up but they are never given the chance to act like ''grown ups''. Maybe 16 year old kids can work but they can't drop out of high school. Yet any adult who has ever worked with teens, and any adult who was ever a teenager, know that most teens already think they are mature enough to be on their own, making their own money and making their own decisions. But parents and Society treat these kids like babies who can not make their own decisions.
Unless of course these kids commit a serious crime, usually violent, then they are tried in court as adults, Or a sixteen year old girl gets pregnant and she is ''pressured'' to have the baby and goes on Welfare just like an adult. Hmmm, so why not treat them like adults and they may not go bad?
Here in San Jose Ca just a few blocks from Santa Teresa High School, a teenage boy was stabbed to death by (alledgedly) two teen classmates. (I'll document this case in another post but you can find it if you search the San Jose Mercury News website. Maybe I'll set up a link.) In an article about the two teen suspects, one boys' blog glorifies violence and Satanism and details his desire to meet Lucifer himself. It's a lot of hogwash I know but how is it this fool glamorizes satanism etc but he would not have been allowed to quit high school at age 16 and join the military? Maybe if he could have become a marine at 16 he could have aspired to that instead of pretending to love violence and devil worship etc?
Last October 31, on Halloween night when I was giving out candy to the kids on my side of town a boy on the East Side was shot in a case of mistaken identity by a couple of gang wannabes. The two perpetrators will be tried as adults. Coincidentally this shooting happened a half mile from a Jack in the Box where a few years earlier a 16 year old shot someone and will also be tried as an adult. Do you see a pattern here?
I was in D.F. over the Thanksgiving weelend It was grrreat! To keep the masses busy the local govt builds a huge ice skatingg rink at the Zocalo in front of the Cathedral. I'm told the ice rink is free, so it's always crowded! Two years ago I was there over the X-mas holiday and it was packed! Yes an ostentatious display of wealth for a country that can't afford it. Two years the local media had stories about a company in Mexico City that trucked hundreds of Washington Christmas trees downto D.F. They sold these trees to. local folks and it looks like the tradition has caught on. There were some plastic trees and lots of American style X-mas lights and decorations. My cousin told me this is not really new. He says as a boy, 30 years ago, they had Christmas trees and Santa Claus then in early January they have the 3 kings. I thougght this was all a recent addition so I decided to keep silent.
While in D.F. I made my susal pilgrimage to La Ciudadela, a great artisan market . I did the gift shopping for my kids. Then Coliseo Mexico for some lucha libre, and a great meal at Cafe de Tacuba, right on la calle Tacuba. I also discovered a couple cheaper hotels than my usual haunt so I'll check them next time. This year I'll be in town for Christmas.
I understand as an autobiography one gets to write it their way but this goes too far. This is a several hundred page sobfest from someone who didn't seem to suffer much. Quinn grew in poverty, yes like so many others, but it's apparent what he was starved for was spiritual attention and guidance, like so many others. Reading his life story as a youth you see a fellow who has too much energy then wastes it craving happiness. Growing up in the 1920's Hollywoood was this big dream machine that did actually take in young talent and gave them a chance. Regardless of their skin color Hollywood was indeed a superficial lover who did deliver the goods to those lucky enough to be talented and in the right place. Quinn had the inner turmoil to act, and let that turmoil bubble out. But Quinn's downfall was that as great and powerful actor he may have been, he was a terribly weak man. He had it rough for sure, dealing w/ a flamboyant uncle and a father who died too early for the son to ever eclipse, butinstead of seeing the impediment to his success removed or the rival now gone, he saw this as a ghost he could not defeat and who might revive and destroy him. His life and the book had far too much tawdry sex, I just don't care about anyone's first sexual experiences; and much of what he describes would today be classified as sexual abuse. Perhaps these segments added to his sense of shame and that kept the inner turmoil going. Anthony Quinn tells of having to choose between joining the white kids to fight the Mexicans or joining the Mexicans to fight off the Whites; after it all he has beaten up himself and who was the winner?