Latino Voter Turnout is Vital

Sacramento Bee columnist Marcos Breton is correct in saying on Feb 25, that  low Latino voter turnout is a major issue.  And, he is on target in saying the issues include poverty, lack of job opportunities, and in asking why young Latinos are “ so disconnected?”

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article11125448.html

 Student political apathy and disconnectedness is significantly caused by Latino absence from the K-12 textbooks and curriculum.

Children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics engagement in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools-  ignore the students’ own history, cultures and experiences.

California state textbooks largely ignore the roles of Mexican Americans and Latinos in building this state.

Students need to learn civic engagement – it is not automatic.  Students need to learn that they belong , that they are a part of the community and its history.

Then they will participate and vote.

Obama takes a stand- Immigration today !

MIAMI – A defiant President Obama pledged on Wednesday to do everything in his power to overhaul the immigration system and veto anything that stood in his way. At the same time, Obama challenged voters concerned about the issue to hold Republicans accountable for killing reform efforts.

“In the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote,” Obama said. “I will veto that vote, because I am absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do.” 

Obama’s remarks came at an MSNBC/Telemundo town hall hosted by José Díaz-Balart at Florida International University, where the president took questions in English and Spanish about immigration policy. The president met earlier in the day with top immigration activists to discuss his next steps as well.

Vote for Eric Guerra

The Sacramento Progressive Alliance supports Eric Guerra for Sacramento City Council, District 6.
Special election.  April 7, 2015.
The Sacramento City Council has not had a Latino member for twenty years. Most of the Democratic Party clubs are supporting his opponent.
Contract the Guerra campaign on Facebook. Campaign volunteers are needed.
The decision was made at our board meeting on Feb.21. 

Cesar Chavez Day- Support

Join the Sacramento Central Labor Council at the Supervisor's meeting.

Join us TOMORROW, Tuesday 2/24 @ 2:30pm at the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting in support of making Cesar Chavez Day a recognized holiday for the County of Sacramento! 

What: County Supervisors Meeting
When: Tuesday 2/24 @ 2:30pm
Where: Co. Supervisors Board Chambers
700 'H' Street, Sacramento, 95814

U.S. Immigration Battle Heats Up

 A Republican appointed  judge, Andrew Hanen of Texas, on the night of Feb. 16, temporarily blocked the first of several programs President Obama announced in November to offer work permits and a three-year reprieve from deportation to more than four million immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and who have no criminal record. The decision is temporary and was immediately appealed by the Obama Administration. It will probably be overturned. 

By David Bacon

In an escalating dispute with President Barack Obama, Republican members of the United States House of Representatives have passed a bill which will cut any funding to the Department of Homeland Security for suspending the deportation of undocumented people.

In December the President ordered the department, beginning this spring, to defer the deportation of undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children (who are thus U.S. citizens).

A previous Obama order suspended the deportation of young people without documents, brought to the U.S. as children.

The Republican bill would rescind both orders.

Read David Bacon’s complete  excellent piece.  U.S. Immigration Battle Heats Up http://www.dsausa.org/the_u_s_immigration_battle_intensifies_dl

All are urged to continue to prepare for their application. The temporary decision has no effect on DACA applications. For updates go to the SEIU site: http://iAmerica.org -- Ed

Judge temporarily blocks DAPA. Has no effect on DACA.

As expected,  a Republican judge Andrew Hanen of Texas on Monday night temporarily blocked the first of several programs Mr. Obama announced in November to offer work permits and a three-year reprieve from deportation to more than four million immigrants who are parents of U.S.citizens and who have no criminal record.

The decision is temporary and was immediately appealed by the Obama Administration.  It will probably be  overturned. All are urged to continue to prepare for their application.

The temporary decision has no effect on DACA applications.

Get familiar with the Do’s and Don’ts of the relief program Deferred Action for Parents (DAPA):

The Do’s

	Do:  Collect documents to prove your: identity, presence in the U.S. on November 20, 2014, continuous residence in the U.S. since January 1, 2010, relationship with U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident child.
	Do:   Get information from iAmerica and help from reputable community legal services organizations or attorneys.
	Do:   Contact the consulate of your home country to get your ID.
	Do:   Save money for filing fees. Currently filing fees for deferred action are $465.
	Do:   Visit our page on all things DAPA to get more facts, find out if you qualify and much more.

The Don’ts

Don’t:   Travel outside the U.S. Travel outside the U.S. before you are granted DAPA and permission to travel may cause you to be ineligible for DAPA. If you are found trying to return to the U.S. after traveling, you will NOT be eligible for DAPA. Don’t take a chance – don’t travel outside the U.S.

Royal Chicano Air Force

Reshaping Latina/o America

By Ed Morales

Turn-of-the-century Cuban revolutionary José Martí presaged this with his vision of “Our America,” a call for Latin American unity as the Spanish-American War erupted. As “Americans” with a broader hemispheric perspective, U.S. Latina/os remain a group with much invested in their home countries, and a clear understanding of how free trade agreements cast a glaring light on wage inequalities on both sides of the border. We can theoretically connect issues like the downward pressure on wages—a class issue regardless of race and ethnicity—with the destructive, inequality-creating neoliberal agenda that harms our home countries. Bringing all this into focus is a more comprehensive and potentially revolutionary agenda than merely advocating for immigrants to be allowed a pathway to citizenship solely on the terms of the status quo U.S. hemispheric agenda.

While aligning with the just and noble cause of bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, Latina/os should also join with other U.S. Americans to demand reinvestment in public education, the right to unionize and engage in collective bargaining, the protection of local communities from neoliberal gentrification projects, and economic justice from queer and race-based lenses. Latina/os need not only to protect our most recent arrivals from ruthless exploitation, but also to reignite the legacy of our long history in the United States and continue to engage the struggles we embraces during the civil rights era and its aftermath.

Include Chicano Students in Civic Education Reform

by Duane Campbell

The Sacramento Bee editorial board was correct in their Friday Feb.6, 2015,  piece, “Civic Education is Essential to Democracy. " I congratulate them on their position. http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article9373664.html

However, they missed the boat on how to get to improved civic education. 

While it is accurate that we have a general problem of civic engagement of the young,  it is also true that we have a very specific problem with the rate of Latino and Asian voter participation and  civic engagement.  Together they comprise over 60% of the students in our schools.  And, the textbooks have yet to acknowledge their presence.

 Rates of voting and voter registration provide a window into civic engagement.  The proportion of state voter  registration that is Latino and Asian has remained far below the proportions of these groups in the state’s overall population. In 2010, Latinos in the state made up 37.6% of the general population while they were on 21.2 % of the registered voters. The Asian population was 13.1 % of the state but  only 8.1 % of the registered voters.

The Bee recommendations , like the earlier report, Revitalizing K-12 Civic Learning in California, http://www.powerofdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/CLTF-Final-Report.pdf

miss the single most direct and important  issue – include the children.  See http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2014/08/another-opportunity-missed-civic.html

 Children and young adults need to see themselves in the curriculum.  Students, particularly students of color, have low levels of attachment to California and U.S.  civics messages in significant part because the government institution they encounter the most- the schools- ignore the students own history, cultures and experiences.

A fundamental way to engage students in civic culture is to engage them in their own schools and communities.  That is where the students most encounter civic opportunities.

Choosing Democracy: It is Time for Civic Education for All

Choosing Democracy: It is Time for Civic Education for All: by Duane Campbell The Sacramento Bee editorial board was correct in their Friday Feb.6, 2015,   piece, “Civic Education is Essentia...

Diane Nash Bio

LBJ Doesn't Deserve Credit for Selma

By Diane Nash  NNPA Guest Columnist

Joseph Califano’s statement that Selma was Lyndon B. Johnson’s idea is patently false. Although the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had come to Alabama earlier to organize to obtain the right to vote, for me, the Alabama Right to Vote movement began the day the four little girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.

That was Sunday, September 15, 1963 – before Lyndon Johnson became president.

James Bevel, my-then husband, and I believed that a man and a woman would not allow those four little girls to be murdered and do nothing.

On that fateful Sunday, in Edenton, N. C. in Golden and Mrs. Frinks’ living room (Golden Frinks was a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) staff person.), James Bevel and I conceptualized and wrote the plan that became the Selma Right to Vote movement. We believed that if Negroes in Alabama could vote, they could better protect their children from things like the church bombing.

Bevel and I resolved that no matter how long it would take, we would get the right to vote in Alabama. We took the plan to SCLC and subsequently, SCLC, including us as staff persons, began organizing in Alabama for the right to vote.

Interview: Jorge Mújica, Last Candidate on the Left » Gozamos

Interview: Jorge Mújica, Last Candidate on the Left » Gozamos



Candidate for Chicago City Council.

California State Senate Condemns Death of 43 Students in Mexico

Lara Resolution Condemning Deaths of Mexico's 43 Students Approved Unanimously By CA Senate Same Day UN Committee Holds Hearing on Enforced Disappearances

February 02, 2015

SACRAMENTO, CA — The California Senate today passed Senate Resolution 7 authored by Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) unanimously urging the government of Mexico to support further dialogue between the international community and human rights organizations in light of the disappearance and deaths of the forty-three students in Iguala, Mexico. The resolution comes the same day that Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission presents to the United Nations (U.N.) Committee on Enforced Disappearances a report that underscores the country’s "serious problem" with disappearances and lacking a comprehensive national list of those missing to effectively address the problem.

“California joins the international community in voicing our concerns against human rights violations in Mexico and throughout the world,” said Senator Ricardo Lara. “At least forty three young lives have been lost for standing up for what they believed in and many questions about how they went missing remain. I urge the Mexican government to support further dialogue between the international community and human rights organizations to implement human rights reforms that protect free speech and eliminate retribution of any sort for individuals expressing their opinions.”

Public Education, Not Privatization