We All Have A Right

Now by blood she is forever linked
To a nation of people whole
Who ripped from their mother land, their soul,
Endured boundless tortures, each distinct
Humans enslaved, now not extinct
Only through a strong will to survive
Did their descendants live to thrive
Though the hate and fear continues
The people bring forward these issues
We all have a right to be alive!

When Evil Prevails

Do you think you're a big strong man
With a boot on a child's small chest
Your gun pointing at her head lest 
You decide to kill her, and her clan.
Deep hatred, we don't  understand
How you, a human, can be so cruel
You are not superior to
This young child who's ready to die
A challenge that makes us ask why
Your people have become evil's tool 

Israeli soldier threatening a Palestinian child for protesting.

This could be any soldier anywhere, and any child...
We must stop the wars, stop the hate!

In Not So Sleepy Towns, With or Without Lagoons ~

                     3


Nineteen forty-two, the big war
raging over in Europe and
back home people's heads in the sand -
scapegoated, Mexicans and more.
Japanese put behind locked doors,
Though it was Germans who murdered
Millions, just because of who they were.
Our people, loyal to Country
Served in the war, then treated badly.
Not the last time this would occur...

During the 1940’s the print media played a big role in sparking the fire of hatred towards Mexicans. The imagery in the newspapers portrayed Mexicans as disloyal foreigners, murderers and Zoot suiters. As a result many young Mexican American males were killed in L.A. These riots got really big after some time when around 5,000 civilians and servicemen attacked the Mexican Americans. World War II saw the Mexican Americans working together with the general American population as around 300,000 of them served in the US armed forces. Unfortunately this did not deter the Mexican American discrimination as many of them were denied medical services on their return to the U.S.

Water Woman ~

                  4

A dream deferred comes into being

When the people who dream it can see,

Vision the best possibilities 

No reason to give up hoping

If we pass the torch onto the young

Yes, the struggle for justice is long

Keep on marching, singing out your songs

A new world is possible now 

The answer's in love, that's how we grow

Together in struggle, we stay strong

Solidarity With The Indigenous Peoples of Peru!

Murdering people for protesting is a very terrible situation, to say the least. Indigenous peoples have a right to protest like any other group. The problem is that institutionalized racism believes that those of us who survived the massacres, since the arrival of the European people, are a conquered, broken and invisible people. They want us to stay that way... and since perception lags behind reality they are not aware that we have been rising for a long, long time and our children and their children will continue...


http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/8/peruvian_police_accused_of_massacring_indigenous

http://peruanista.blogspot.com/

prescription: drugs

part of the web of
life series

before the shining
glass beads dangled and
called bright the colored cloth and
hammered iron pots strung up alongside our
white shells the sugar and flour and whiskey flowed
down the ancestors throats
now the plastic money and
shiny fast cars
and foods
computers and the
latest flat screens blinking loud
with their lies called the news
a prescription:
drugs to numb the senses
to keep a people defenseless
entertained mindless
while we are traded like pelts
the land raped and stripped
like our warrior's scalps stretched
a nick for someone's belt
our children bent and stooped
in fields
carved by cruel knives
clearing ancient trees
whose roots talked
and told the crops to grow
to cover up the crime of all time
sown in our people's blood that
flowed in rivers across the burnt land
fertilizing bitter the fruit
poisoned by greed but heeding
the call to survive we eat while
these people force feed us
their trinkets


©/Odilia Galvan Rodriguez, 2008

SUPPORT ELVIRA ARELLANO!!!

AFP Photo


A CALL TO SUPPORT THE CASE OF ELVIRA ARELLANO
Stand in solidarity with all immigrants, documented and undocumented

The IAC urges you to support the case of Elvira Arellano. Elvira is an undocumented worker who is taking a heroic stand against deportations and fighting for her rights. She is a native of Michoacán, Mexico who came to the U.S. like many of the other 12 million undocumented in this country, in search of work and a better life.

In 2002, Elvira was detained by Homeland Security agents in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep at O’Hare Airport in Chicago under the guise of allegedly looking for “terrorists”. She was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for using a false social security number on her job at O’Hare.

On August 18, 2006 Elvira Arellano and her seven year old son, Saul who is a US citizen, took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago instead of reporting for deportation, primarily because Saul has health problems. She has pledged to live indefinitely in the church until granted a reprieve.

Elvira is a well known activist, representing many families in Congressional hearings and speaking on behalf of immigrant rights. She worked to organize in July 2005 a march of 50,000 for immigrant rights in Chicago, and went on a hunger strike to support workers who were picked up by ICE prior to the historic May 1st boycott in 2006. Arellano was a founder of both La Familia Latina Unida and the Coalition of African Arab Asian European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois (CAAAELII).

The case of Elvira Arellano is a just case

Elvira Arellano has become the symbol of resistance to the heartless and callous deportations that are sweeping the country. Despite a legislative standstill in Congress, not only are deportations escalating, local officials around the nation are implementing de facto immigration policy that amount to a witch-hunt against immigrants. A case in point is the anti-immigrant ordinance that passed in July in Hazelton, PA.

Due to her heroic stand, a group of Black ministers spoke last week at Adalberto Methodist of the comparisons of Arellano to Rosa Parks. Reverend Albert Tyson said he hopes “their support would increase the bonds between Latinos and African-Americans.” At the meeting Arellano said, “I don’t only speak for me and my son, but for millions of families like mine.” Supporters from the predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood chanted, “Luchando mano y mano, Boriqua y Mexicano!” (“Fighting hand in hand, Puerto Rican and Mexican!”)

Elvira Arellano is the perfect example that the anti-immigrant hysteria sweeping the country is an inhumane situation that has become intolerable. The human rights of immigrants are being cruelly violated under the guise of fighting terrorism or stopping “illegal” immigration. In fact, no human being is illegal and whether in the U.S. documented or undocumented, immigrants have a right to live in peace, without fear of evictions from their homes or the country.

How you can help Elvira:

1. Write letters to Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Barack Obama as well as your own legislator urging them to prevent her deportation.

For Senator Durbin visit: http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm#contact
For Senator Obama: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/index.php

2. Send Letters to the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune asking them to stop demonizing Elvira as well as all immigrants. Their emails are letters@suntimes.com and ctc-tribletter@tribune.com.

3. Send letters of support directly to Elvira at the organization she works with and who has been spearheading her support, Sin Fronteras at Centro Sin Fronteras 2300 S. Blue Island Ave., Chicago IL 60608 or visit the website: www.legalizationyes.com. For Spanish speakers visit:
www.legalizacionsi.com

WE WANT PEACE, WAR NO MORE

PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

I can not get it through my head why we as a nation would prefer war to peace.

Can anyone explain this to me in any real way so that I can wrap my head around it and agree.

I do not think any mother in this country wants her child dead, can't want her child killing other peoples children either.

This is a call for all mothers of the United States of America, for all the mothers of the world to stand up and say, "Basta Ya! Peace in the Middle East, Peace in the World!"

Ase, Ase, Ase O!

Margarita's Letter to George Bush

Twelve year old Margarita Rodriguez has a campaign to collect one-million signatures on a letter to George W. Bush, because she's heard that thousands of immigrants could be arrested, charged with felonies and deported along with their children, who incidentally were born here, if they are caught living undocumented here in the US. I think this is a noble effort by one so young and deserves all of our attention. It makes me sick to think that children have to be worried about being rounded up, humiliated and treated lord knows how -- all because their parents chose to come here looking for a better life.

Then there is the whole issue about why come here looking for a better life? What is so bad about Mexico, Central and South America or other immigrant's countries of origin, that makes people risk their lives to come here under very scary conditions? Most of the time people trying to reach our land paved with gold have to deal with some very unscrupulous or unsavory characters like the so-called coyotes (people who illegally smuggle folks across borders for a living) who have not only been known to take peoples money and then leave them stranded in the desert, or in some abandoned truck with no water, food or ventilation, or even worse, have outright murdered them. This business is a sad state of affairs with all kinds of crooks involved and so it makes one wonder why anyone would take such risks. However, if you visit these countries you start to get a sense of what is really going on. Globalization has not only brought more poverty and suffering there but also the propaganda about supposedly just how great it is to live in the US of A, shown via cable TV, has reached almost every corner of this globe. One can experience the promise of bling bling right in their own homes!

Laws like NAFTA (the North American Fair Trade Agreement) which was touted as the answer, to bring jobs and other opportunities to Mexico, has done nothing of the sort, rather it has only made the rich richer and the poor, well you know. The gutting of resources of "third world" countries by the super powers has gone on for too long and it is going to take leaders like Chavez, Morales, Bachelet and Da Silva to start to make a difference in their own countries. This will not be easy at all as there has been over 500 years of pillaging and plunder. Hopefully we will also be seeing a regime change in Mexico, the presidential elections are coming up in July, which will start to make a difference there. In the meantime we need some immigration laws that work. Making families felons or putting up bigger and uglier fences is not the answer at all.

If you want to help little Margarita Rodriguez get her message across to Bush please go to the page given above, click on the title of this post, and sign it. While I think much more has to be done, it's great that this child decided to take action to protect herself and her family and/or friends and community and it is important to support young people who are trying to make a difference in our world. It is also important to support the people who were brought here on false pretenses and promises because their was little or no hope of a job in their own countries due in large part to our economic systems that feed off of theirs!

Mexican Invasion? The Only Illegal Aliens Are US!

Just a few days ago, a Mexican army convoy of 45 vehicles accompanied by 200 soldiers and around 270 tons of aid - which includes two mobile kitchens that can feed up to 7,000 people a day, water treatment equipment, blankets, food and water, crossed the US - Mexican border at Laredo Texas on their way to bring aid to Hurricane Katrina survivors who have found shelter in that great state.

It made few people uneasy though, to see Mexican troops crossing the border - even if this is a peace mission. The BBC NEWS World Edition reported that "US troops and Texas officials will accompany the Mexican convoy to provide security." That got me thinking, security, for whom and why? Then, later, after I started reading other accounts and opinions on this generous gesture by the Mexican people I figured it out - what the worry must be about - Mexican government troops have not set foot on "US" soil for 159 years, when they advanced north of the Rio Grande into Texas, which at the time was still Mexican territory and set off the US - Mexican War.

Other people, see Prison Planet, got really upset by the whole convoy affair and went as far as categorizing the Mexican presence as, "Armed Mexican Troops Invade US" with a caption stating, "Under cover of aid, combat ready soldiers roll into Texas, Congressman Ron Paul says Mexican troops in US period is "illegal, unconstitutional" and if that weren't enough the authors asked people to, "call the state police to interdict and determine if these forces are indeed armed and if their guns have ammunition or if their weapons are ceremonial (which is doubtful)". Wow! (This, my favorite word lately...)

As another aside, in the same BBC article about the Mexican convoy, Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying, "... no offer that will ease victims' suffering will be refused." Though today, I read that in yesterday's White House press briefing by Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, when asked the question, "Cuba offered help to the United States. Are you considering taking any of this help? They offered medicines and doctors? What's the situation with that?" among other things McClellan stated, "... When it comes to Cuba, we have one message for Fidel Castro. He needs to offer the people of Cuba their freedom."

I thought that's typical, but definitely not in keeping with what Rice said or what should happen. Aid is aid. If the people of Cuba want to change their political system or leaders they will do it on their own, because they want to, like when they took Fulgencio Batista out of power in 1959. Again, if we stopped being the police force of the whole world and took care of our own, the USA would be a different place to live altogether and the horrible scenarios of the past week would not have had to unfold as they did, bottom line, we are too busy trying to control the whole world. Hands off Cuba! It's a sovereign nation with intelligent people who can make up their own minds if they are free or not!

So back to the supposed Mexican Invasion, and what the fear about seeing Mexican troops rolling into Texas might be about... In 1848 at the conclusion of the US - Mexican War both countries signed the Treaty Of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty stated that Mexico would give up almost half of its territory, which included most of Aztlan - California, Arizona, Nuevo (New) Mexico, Texas and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. In exchange, the US paid 15 million dollars in war-related damages. (There's that 15 million dollar figure again - see my entry on the Louisiana Purchase.)

The other contents of the treaty outlined where the border would be placed between the two nations - at the Rio Grande, but it's most important provisions provided for the protection and civil rights of Mexican nationals, who chose to stay living on what would now become US soil, many of whom elected to become American citizens. Of course, if we've learned the real history of our great nation we know the track record it has in honoring treaties - just remember what it did with the many treaties signed with Native American Nations.

Keeping true to form, when the US Senate ratified the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo it watered down Article 9 - which dealt with citizens rights and totally eliminated Article 10, the one that guaranteed the protection of Mexican land grants. In Texas, Mexicans were not allowed to vote, and California passed discriminatory laws, some known as the "Greaser Laws".

This government-sanctioned anti-Mexican sentiment made ripe the conditions for serious civil rights violations against the people: violence, torture, rape, murder and yes, the good old land grab. By the end of the 19th century most Mexican-Americans living in the areas supposedly protected by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo had lost their lands either by force or by fraud...and so it goes.

It's no wonder some gringos got a little nervous seeing Mexican troops coming across the border - armed or not - after all, it's not like Americans are used to having any other nation come into police what their government is doing with its citizens or if they are truly free. So, there you go, it just looked to them like it might be a Mexican invasion dressed up as aid to Katrina survivors.

The last thing, when I asked a friend of ours who lives in Rosarito what his thoughts on Mexican aid to the US were, he said he thought it was great that Mexico was able to help its neighbors and countrymen from the affected areas who have suffered so much in the aftermath of Katrina. And on the subject of the US's fear of a Mexican invasion, he said, "Well, they [the US] promised we could keep our land but they stole it and after all these years we've slowly been getting it back, a little piece at a time," and then just smiled knowingly at me. c/s



See: Web Poster Exhibition - Zapata vive! Mexican Posters for peace in Chiapas.
For more information on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and Reies Lopez Tijerina's struggle to recover stolen land grants.

(c) 2005

THE NEW LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Well, it looks like I have to jump on all the things that keep making me angry about this monumental tragedy before I start to cry again. Some of the new debit cards, that are being handed out to the survivors of Katrina, are called of all things "The Louisiana Purchase!" They're blue and have these words emblazoned on them. When I saw that (on the Spanish language news on Telemundo) I thought to myself, isn't that funny, not as in funny ha! ha! but funny as in, do they really think people are that unaware of what's going on and are they just gonna keep rubbing our faces in it? More on this in a minute...

I mean, forget that I am still trying to pick my chin up off the table after reading Barbara Bush's comments, well-meaning as she may have thought they were - they were stone cold racist in many people's minds. Yes, I know, a lot of people in this country hate that word - racist, so what if I said instead that what Ms. Bush said was at best super insensitive - would that feel better?

For those of you who don't know what the heck I am talking about, during a tour of the Astrodome in Houston, TX with her husband George Bush Sr. Barbara Bush had this to say: "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." As if living in a cot space in the Texas Astrodome with thousands of strangers, with no privacy and a myriad of serious problems hanging over their heads (like how to rebuild lives, jobs and homes) was better than living their underprivileged lives back in New Orleans, before HK hit, just because of some good old Texas hospitality and now, a 2,000 dollar debit card!

And by the way Babs I wonder what is it that scares you so, is it the sheer numbers of people or their skin color? By the way, that Texas hospitality goes only so far, I know, I was born there. For more on this see Barbara Bush comments on survivors spark outrage.

Now back to the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana purchase was a treaty signed between the United States and France wherein the US paid France more than $15 million for approximately 800,000 square miles of land which extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. That was a lot of francs back in 1803 even if the French only received around $11,000,000 in cash for all they handed over - the rest went to pay off debts of the French to American citizens. The thing is, there had been a secret deal back in 1800 wherein Spain receded Louisiana back to France thereby making it part of Napoleon Bonaparte's booty, you remember him - another famous land grabber from back in the day.

Upon learning of this, the Americans got nervous, even President Thomas Jefferson was quoted as saying, "The day that France takes possession of New Orleans ... we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation." Control of New Orleans was tantamount to control of the Mississippi River, probably the most important waterway with regard to commerce - getting products to market etc. Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte having control of the Isle of Orleans would not fare well for the American economy should he decide they could not use the river or charge them big bucks to do so. The US had to figure out a way to buy it or get it away from France. So to the bargaining table, they went and in the bargain, the US got all of the old Louisiana, see map above, and for more details about this history see Louisiana Purchase (and I thank them for the loan of the map).

Yesterday I was reading an article by the Black Commentator entitled, New Orleans Population has the Right of Return which is really from the text of Radio BC audio commentary for September 8, 2005. This commentary discusses how the population of New Orleans has the right to return to their city, "... before newcomers benefit from the tragedy of the previous population's displacement." It also states that it is not too early to start discussing this issue - and many agree. The real scary fact is that many survivors may choose to abandon their city and make Houston or other places their home instead of having to face going back to the ruins of New Orleans. That would leave New Orleans wide open for the 21st-century land grabbers, those that would come in after the levees are fixed, and after Halliburton has come in and rebuilt the city in its own vision of a modern port.

This New Louisiana Purchase is going to cost a lot more than the thousands of lives that were already lost, or the two thousand dollar debit card which is supposedly going be given out to over 100,000 folks. Which can't even begin to cover their loss - these people whose lives have been disrupted at best, destroyed at worst.

All of the displaced people of the Gulf Port States should have right of return and should be encouraged to do so, once it is safe. They should also have the right to assist in the planning stages - to map out how their hometowns are going to look now, after this tragedy. A tragedy that probably could have been mitigated but instead, was allowed to unfold in the way that it has.

No I am not blaming George W. Bush for the hurricane, I am not giving him that much power, but call me a conspiracy theorist - that's theorist not terrorist, please - because I do blame him for a lot of things among them, for not allowing New Orleans to have the money to shore up its levees and instead diverting this money to the war in Iraq. I blame him for not allowing New Orleans, the Big Easy, to be strong enough to stand up to a hurricane above a 3.0, and for not wanting or being able to respond as quickly as we did to the Tsunami, which was also a horrific tragedy but one that we were able to respond to within 2 days - not five, six or even seven! And I hope against hope that I won't have to blame him for a 21st-century land grab - for a New Louisiana Purchase.

(c) 2005

Who is Bush Kidding?

Our country can and has responded to many emergency situations across the globe in record time so now all of us are asking the same question, why did it take almost a week to respond to our own emergency right here at home?

The feds are pointing fingers at the state and city governments, in turn, they are pointing right back but the bottom line is, that the shameful lack of response was tantamount to NOT CARING. Why didn't the federal government care enough to respond rapidly or even in a timely manner? Could it be because the hurricane of poverty had already hit and held so many of New Orleans' people in its grip? Could it be because as always, poor people (especially people of color) are expendable in the eyes of a government made up of people who have what they need, and those in need can just wait until someone gets around to helping them? This experience is a wake-up call for so many Americans on so many levels and as my fellow writer friend says, ¡Abre los ojos! Open your eyes! If you haven't figured out that this is just the beginning of days like these then you'd better... we'd all better.

Many of us sat glued to the tube trying to figure out what we could do besides praying because it sure looked like no one in the gvmnt was going to ride up in white hats to save the day... others of us headed out for the affected areas to try and make a difference.

There have been many good people around the country who have opened their hearts, wallets, and homes to the survivors of Katrina and in the months to come we are all going to have to do more to help our fellow citizens who by the way, are not refugees!

Go to http://www.nola.com/ to see the open letter to Pres. George Bush from the Times-Picayune a mainstream media daily newspaper in New Orleans, even they are fed up with the treatment their city received in their time of greatest need.

(c) 2005

Vigil For Those Who Can't Get On With Their Lives

I started reading Cindy Sheehan's blog from Crawford, TX where she is camped out at Camp Casey - named for her son who died in Iraq in April, 2004, he was only 24 years old. She is camped out in front of the Bush ranch and says she won't leave until he meets with her about the war.

In her blog dated Tuesday, August 16 she relates that on Saturday, when asked why he had time to take a two hour bike ride but not to meet with Sheehan, President Bush was quoted as saying, "I have to go on with my life."

Tonight there are many candlelight vigils going on in support of Cindy Sheehan's efforts and that of so many people who want an end to the war in Iraq.

Anyone who is a parent of a child who is directly involved in this war, who is questioning what is going on over there by reading and finding out just who is profiting from this war has to be devastated. Cindy Sheehan asks the question that all of us, who have young people around the same age as her son, are asking...Why, if this war is so noble and so important, are Mr. Bush's daughters and so many others of their social status, not involved in the war effort -- out there on the front lines willing and able to die for their country?

My vigil is for all the middle, working class and poor young people of this land who feel their only choice to get a higher education these days is to have it paid for by enlisting in the armed forces, only to find themselves in deaths' path later.

My vigil is for all those misled and misinformed people who continue to support this war because they think that is the patriotic thing to do, may the light of these candles open and illuminate their minds.

Tonight my vigil is for Casey Sheehan and all the other soldiers who have died in Iraq, who unlike Mr. Bush can't get on with their lives because they were killed in this senseless war.

(c) 2005