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Why we will save the North American Auto Industry |
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Contributed by Prometeo
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Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
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EDITORIAL:
 Yes, that is right, there is no such thing as an American Auto Industry. We are all in the same boat, Mexico, the primary manufacturing country, the US and last but not least Canada. The entire Continent has been built around this item, the automobile. We developed our cities, our communications, our economy; our livelihood depends on the automobile. We can substitute it, but it may take 100 years for us to develop an alternative. Meantime, all of us alive today need the car.
I have no idea how many cars we need in North America, it must be many millions. But our cars do not last forever, they need to be replaced. Every years North America needs something like twenty million cars just to keep up the replacement rate. There is a certain point where a car becomes more expensive to keep than to replace. Even if we tried to hang on to our existing cars we would eventually fall into a huge money pit.
So we are going to need new cars until at least 2100.
The Japanese, the Koreans, the Europeans, and the Chinese of course, everyone can build a car economically except the Gringos, or so it seems.
Some say that Obama was inexperienced and he might be tried by some mysterious foreign foe. Well, those Bad Americans that are praying for Obama to be a failure are the ones testing President Elect Obama. These people would love to see our country go down the tubes so that we all run to them and ask for salvation. I am sure the American People and their new President will not succumb to such a stupid ploy.
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Contributed by Señor Guapo
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Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
 Valerie showed up one year as an assistant. You have to have an assistant. Even in a small class a couple of assistants can be very helpful. Some of the students are at different levels, and even then some students learn easier than others. An assistant can work one-on-one with a student who needs a little extra help.
Valerie was tremendously helpful with Duan Wang, a Chinese student. Truth be told, Duan had a better grasp of English than most of the students in class, but she was shy, and she struggled with pronunciation. Valerie addressed both those issues first in being Duan’s best friend in class and second encouraging Duan to speak up.
When you’re introducing a new word, you say, “Everyone say ‘shoe’.” When the entire class speaks, it’s easy for a shy or under confident student to lip sync. Having Valerie work with her forced Duan to pronounce those difficult words instead of hiding behind other students.
Duan was pretty cool. She had ten kids. I told her that she needed to review her numbers because ten means this many [I held out all my fingers]. She provided ten names, and one day she came in with a picture of the entire family. Her husband had one of those “O my God what am I gonna do now?” faces. All her children were born in the US, but she never had the time to learn English because she’d been so busy taking care of all those kids. Despite ten kids, she had the body of a teenager, and despite all that work she always showed up with an energetic smile. But I digress.
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Immigrant Rights Organizations Announce Mass Mobilization and Renewed Call for Just, Humane Reform |
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Contributed by Administrator
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Monday, 17 November 2008 |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Mary Moreno (202) 339-9316,
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Mario Quiroz (240) 353-2288,
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Lucero Beebe-Giudice (703) 684-5697 Ext. 313,
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 Washington - Under a theme that declared, “A New Day for America, A New Hope for Our Communities,” leaders from grassroots immigrant rights organizations from across the nation stood together with renewed hope and sense of opportunity for just and humane immigration reform. The National Capital Immigrant Coalition and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement announced a mass mobilization planned for January 21, 2009 in Washington DC, to welcome the newly inaugurated President Obama.
“The immigrant community has fully embraced the spirit of hope and democracy surrounding this historic election,” said Jessica Alvarez, NCIC president, “We will remain active long after the election. Together, NCIC and FIRM, represent millions of Americans that are committed to doing whatever it takes to help the new administration institute immigration reform.”
Immigrants were heard loud and clear in this election. The Latino vote alone went up 30% from 2004. Immigrant rights groups will use this political muscle to push for renewed commitment to fixing our nation’s broken immigration system and put an immediate stop to the raids that have terrorized immigrant families.
“From New York to California and from Washington to Florida, the immigrant community is becoming more aware of its economic and political power,” said Angelica Salas, member of FIRM and executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “Today, we celebrate a new day for politics in America that honors the sanctity of family and hard work by instituting practices of reform, not raids; of hope, not fear; and a better America for everyone who lives here.”
In the months leading up to the mobilization, both coalitions will conduct a series of events designed to open the dialogue between policy makers and the community. Immediately, FIRM groups will convene a forum in Washington, DC with the Campaign for Community Values, key policy makers, union leaders and members of the presidential transition team to help shape a progressive agenda that includes immigration reform in the first year.
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The National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC) is a coalition of more than 30 organizations that advocates, educates and mobilizes the immigrant community in the Washington metro area. The Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) is a national coalition of community organizations fighting for the fair treatment of immigrants and for just and humane immigration reform on the local, state and federal level.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 17 November 2008 )
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Contributed by Tony Cheek
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Sunday, 09 November 2008 |
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 Last Tuesday, a revolution was held. It wasn't one of those noisy types of revolutions where the radio station is invaded and propaganda spewed 24/7 (although some would say that's the job of either MSNBC or FOX News, depending on one's political bent.) No, this revolution was the same no-shots-fired organized chaos that the United States goes through every four years. But this time, history was made.
For the first time in our history, an African-American was nominated and elected Presidedent of the country, something I didn't expect I'd see in my jaded lifetime. Sure, all teh pollsters and th epolitical wonks and everyone with an opinion said he had a 98% chance of winning the White House, but last Tuesday there were a lot of chewed fingernails as the results slowly trickled in, first overwhelmingly favoring the Republican candidate, but quickly turning into a political route as Barak Obama routed his opponent John McCain in an overwhelming mandate by the voters to end the last eight years of malformed policies.
For many the mandate was simple: the economic bubble burst, sending stocks into a tailspin and laying off workers by the hundreds of thousands. As homeowners and families struggled to keep a roof over their heads and food in their bellies, John McCain and his VP running mate Sarah Palin told them to worry about insignificancies such as Obama's pastor or a man he once worked with on a foundation. Smears also went out about Obama's religion and even questioned his birth in this country.
But the majority of voters looked beyond the smears and saw a man rising above the political muck, a man unflustered by the attacks and the name-calling and mud-slinging, a man who would lead the country into its second decade of the 21st Century.
President-elect Obama comes to the office facing a tsunami of issues: the economy in a tailspin, the health care crisis, two unpopular wars, and a federal government clearly out of control with its War on Terror.
Big issues. But we've elected a man willing to face the challenge.
Congratulations, Mr. Obama.
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Teaching is an Emotional Roller Coaster Ride |
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Contributed by Senor Guapo
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Sunday, 09 November 2008 |
Mrs. Guapo had the back problem a couple of weeks ago, and recently
she’s been having severe abdominal pain. Today we’re going to the
hospital today for an ultrasound test on her gall bladder. She thinks
these problems are symptoms of aging. She is 30 years old after all.
I told her to wait until she gets some hemorrhoids. Then she’ll feel
some real pain. At least that’s what I’ve heard.
Last night we
were in the middle of class when an abdominal pain episode attacked
Mrs. Guapo. She quietly asked me to take over. She sat in a chair.
She rebuked some students who were laughing at me (I’m somewhat
wacky). After a while she left to go lay down in the car. I continued
along the lesson plan that Mrs. Guapo had started. Like the last time
I tried to let the students do the work. Instead of me trying to
hammer information into their heads, through exercise and repetition
they learned.
At about the mid point break I finished that
lesson. The prior class we started teaching the names of the various
different body parts, but we ran out of time. I wanted closure so I
reopened that lesson. I drew the outline of a head on the board, and
then one by one I requested a student to add a part of the face.
“Marisol, draw the eyes.” “Armando, draw the mouth.” I thought the
end result might be a funny looking face, but it was horrible.
We
have a nice class. It’s a nice group of people. No one is arrogant or
difficult or angry. But the one thing we are missing is a class
clown. We don’t have a class clown. I’ve never seen a class without a
class clown. Usually no matter what group of people you have, someone
is going to want attention and use humor to try to get it thereby
emerging as the class clown. But we don’t have a class clown. So I
had to use Araceli.
Araceli has crazy eyes. She has that look
on her face like she’s mischievous. But she’s not. She’s very
mature. She’s very accepting of everyone. She doesn’t try to be
something that she’s not. Her sister has a medical problem so she
asked us to help fill out some forms. In the process we told her that
we like tamales so she turned us on to a woman who passes by our town
every other week selling tamales. They were pretty good.
So I
asked Araceli to stand up. She’s not the class clown, but she would
have to do. I used her body parts to reinforce to the class the names
of the body parts. Then I had everyone stand up, and we did the “head
- shoulders - knees - and -toes” routine. I didn’t sing the song.
Maybe next class if Mrs. Guapo can’t come I’ll ask one of the other
assistants to lead the “head - shoulders - knees - and - toes - knees -
and toes” song.
After that we reviewed describing the weather
and telling time. I intend to ask each student about the weather and
time every time I see them thereby continue to reinforce the lessons.
After
class I collected the books (they won’t permit the students to take the
books home) and put away the class materials. By the time I turned the
lights out, the students were gone. When I got to the car, Mrs. Guapo
told me that two of the students had passed by and told her that they
like the way I teach.
At my job they give out awards more
liberally than psychiatrists give out Ritalin. They’re in the form of
plaques. If you sit in a chair and breathe for eight hours a day, then
you’ll sooner or later get one of these. Some people hang them on
their office walls. I throw mine away. Joe Strummer would take a dump
on it before throwing it out, but I just throw them out sans dump in
the interest of hygiene and sanitation. Compliments from a couple of
students are much more valuable to me than a plaque. If I could hang
that on a wall, I would.
So I was flying high. The man is
back. I’m the wiz, and nobody beats me. Maybe Northwestern University
would give me an honorary doctorate in education because of my natural
teaching skills. Perhaps the Obama administration would be interested
in someone with such talent.
But then the next class, only half
the people showed up. As Mrs. Guapo taught I sulked in a chair. I put
on my Dave Hlubek signature mirrored sunglasses. When you have
attendance of 10 to 15 people for two months and then the next class
only half show up, then there has to be a reason. Mrs. Guapo insisted
that it had nothing to do with me and that she had heard nothing but
positive comments about my performance. Sure enough the next class we
had near full attendance again.
But the thought lingers in my mind.
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