Hispanics

The Republican And Conservative Attack On Single Mothers, Particularly Minority Mothers: Failure To See Their Sacrifices And Heroism!

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America is living through a very sad time, when we see Republicans and conservatives, including those on talk radio and Fox News Channel, constantly on the attack against single mothers, and particularly minority mothers, failing to see their sacrifices and heroism!

Comfortable middle class and upper class whites who have a stable family structure and adequate financial resources have no clue as to the life of those single mothers, whether white, African American, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American, or Native American.

Instead of realizing that it is men who helped to contribute to this problem of single motherhood, but that it is these single women who have devoted their lives to bringing up their children under dire circumstances, and that they should not be condemned, and denied basic government assistance to make the lives of their children better, we have the spectacle of ridicule, lack of respect, and lack of understanding just how complex and difficult being a single mother really is!

They need to be given the credit and dignity that any mother is given, who happens to be more fortunate in financial and personal life matters, as being poor is far more a challenge than the issue of how much materialism and greed can be promoted in those families which have no struggle on a daily basis!

Single mothers should not be subjected to racism or misogyny, and we have a lot of work to do in this nation to overcome the hate and the prejudice unfortunately visited by right wing forces which have no interest in improving the lives of women and children!

Lots Of Work To Do To Advance America Socially: No Time For A Respite!

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America has a lot to be proud of, and we stand out as a beacon for the world community in many ways, BUT there is much troubling evidence of problems arising, rearing their ugly head, and demonstrating how much work is yet necessary to advance America socially!

We live in a nation where the rights of women are being curbed, rather than advanced, including

Rape problems in the military
Rape problems on college campuses
Denial of a woman’s rights to her own body and reproductive decisions
Denial of equal pay at work for women, and equal opportunity for advancement and promotion

In addition, there are troubling problems for minorities, gays, and labor as follows:

Troubling racial profiling of African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, and Muslims in public places, and by police and law enforcement authorities
Endangered conditions for African American males, particularly young males, an endangered species
Discrimination continuing against gay men and lesbians
Active attack on labor rights to organize and bargain collectively

In theory, great strides have been made in the past on the rights and privileges of women, minorities, gays, and labor, but there has been an extreme assault on what supposedly had already been gained by these groups, on the part of right wing forces, represented by the Republican Party, corporations, and social conservatives!

So the battle for women’s rights, minority civil rights, gay rights, and labor rights continues, and there is no time for a respite, as the 2014 midterm Congressional elections and state government elections are just around the corner!

Economic Reality Grim For Most Americans, Whether Based On Race Or Education Level!

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Growing evidence shows that the effects of the Great Recession, and really the policies of Republican Presidents and Congresses since 1980, have created a grim reality for a vast majority of Americans—likelihood of poverty, deprivation, and lack of opportunity, even for college graduates in large numbers for a long period of years! And where one lives does, and will have a dramatic effect on the long term futures of millions of citizens!

A study shows that four out of five adults in America will struggle with joblessness, near poverty, or reliance on welfare for part of their lives! 76 percent of whites will experience such a situation by the age of 60!

15 percent of the American people, nearly 47 million of the population, are in poverty, with higher percentages of African Americans and Hispanic-Latinos, but in absolute numbers, whites are 41 percent or 19 million of the poor, double what African Americans are in numbers. Most of these poor whites live in Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and the heartland of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the Great Plains, areas of rural communities , and even in many suburbs, in areas where 60 percent of the poor are whites.

So working class whites, those without college degrees, are in a terrible state, unable to look forward to the accomplishment of the “American Dream”!

But the problem is that even those who have a college education are facing a horrible job market. Many are unemployed, while even more who are working, are underemployed, working part time, and also, many are working in jobs that do not require a college degree, so are wasting years trying to break in to the job market they planned for, but are unable to engage in, due to the Great Recession and its aftermath!

Additionally, it has been demonstrated that where one lives has a dramatic effect on climbing up the income ladder! Social mobility up the income ladder is MUCH harder in the Southeast and industrial Midwest, including such cities as Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis,. Raleigh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus!

At the same time, social mobility and rising up the income ladder is best in the Northeast and the West, including New York, Boston, large areas of California and Minnesota, and Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Salt Lake City.

It is extremely disturbing that earlier studies of social mobility demonstrate that a smaller percentage of people escape childhood poverty in America than in Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and Japan.

Affluent children tend to remain so, achieving a lot of success by as young as age 30, while children from poverty rarely see much improvement, and that is not just a race issue, as whites have the same results, based on how they were born, rich or poor!

The need to deal with social mobility and opportunity, for working class whites and minorities, are the agenda that Barack Obama is pursuing as he travels the nation, calling for an economic plan for the future, including improvements in education, infrastructure, new technologies, and environmental challenges to overcome climate change!

There is no more important agenda for the nation than the providing of economic opportunity, in a nation where the middle class has been decimated, from its high point, 40 years ago, in 1973!

60th Anniversary Of Castro Revolution In Cuba: What Is The Future?

Ronald 4 Comments

60 years ago on this day, Fidel Castro led a failed attempt to seize an army barracks, which is marked as the beginning of his revolutionary uprising against Fulgencio Batista, leading after five and a half years of struggle to his seizure of power in Havana on January 1, 1959.

Fidel Castro gave up power due to medical problems in 2006, after 47 plus years of leadership, but his brother Raul succeeded him, and the Castro dynasty is still in power in Cuba after 54 and a half years, and Fidel Castro will be 87 years of age nest month, and is reported in good health.

Fidel Castro, as evil a man as he is, will go down as the most significant Latin American government leader of the past century of history, with only Juan Peron of Argentina a weak second behind him.

The effect of Cuba on the international scene has been massive, considering the fact that Cuba never made a dent in world affairs before Castro, and we nearly had nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union 51 years ago, a year and a half after a failed American attempt to use Cuban exiles to overthrow him in the Bay of Pigs fiasco!

And our domestic politics has been profoundly affected by the loyalty of the few million Cuban Americans to the Republican Party, making them a distinct Hispanic group in their political behavior, particularly in Florida!

We have also seen three Cuban US Senators–Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas–who have a great impact in the US Senate, as well as a few in the House of Representatives. Menendez is the lone Cuban Democrat who has made it to a prominent position, Chairman of The Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The question is what will happen when Fidel and Raul Castro leave the scene, at least officially in 2018, according to the plans of Raul Castro to retire. How will Cuba evolve, and how will the United States react to change in Cuba? Will democracy develop in Cuba or come about by a new revolution, or will the Castro influence and Communism persist in Cuba?

This island, just 90 miles from the Florida Keys, will become the center of world politics again very soon, and what happens there will affect America domestically and in foreign affairs for the long term future, just as it has for the past six decades!

The Castro brothers have managed to survive in power through the terms of 11 Presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama! It is an amazing story just by that reality!

Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King Has Gone Too Far In His Depiction Of Hispanic-Latino Immigrants!

Ronald 24 Comments

Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King is well known as one of the wackiest, craziest, and most divisive members of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, sharing that distinction with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert, and in the recent past, former Florida Congressman Allen West and former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh!

King has depicted Hispanic and Latino immigrants as “dogs”, “livestock”, and as “drug dealers”, and he has also called for an electrified barbed wire fence between Mexico and the United States. He is against the DREAM Act, to allow the law abiding children of immigrants who came here illegally to be able to move toward eventual citizenship, including a requirement for military service or college education!

Speaker of the House John Boehner at least had the good sense to condemn King’s remarks as hateful, and Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, said it was inexcusable rhetoric.

But that is not enough, as to spew such hatred on the floor of Congress should lead to a censure of Steve King for incendiary behavior unbecoming a member of Congress. The Republican Party needs to repudiate such language in strong terms, and work to undermine any influence this nightmare member of their caucus has!

If not, the GOP is guaranteed to lose any opportunity to gain, even in the long run, the support of a substantial percentage of those of Hispanic or Latino origin!

The “Poverty Belt” And The Republican Party

Ronald 12 Comments

America has a “Poverty Belt”, recently outlined by the Centers for Disease Control, states that have higher rates of poverty (30 percent or more), and substantially lower life expectancy.

These states are, not surprisingly, the Confederate South of the Civil War years except for Virginia and Florida; along with Kentucky and Missouri, two states of the “Border” South which had slavery, but stayed loyal to the Union during the Civil War; and West Virginia and Oklahoma–therefore, a total of 13 states!

These 13 states have not only extreme poverty and lower life expectancy rates, but also high levels of poor education, higher crime rates, poor nutrition, higher unemployment, inadequate food and housing, and less access to quality health care.

And these states with the highest poverty percentages are dominated by the Republican Party, and won all of their electoral votes in 2012, and most have Republican state legislatures and Republican Governors, and elect mostly Republicans to the House of Representatives and US Senate.

Do Republicans, by their words and actions, give a damn about these horrific conditions in their states?

The answer, clearly, is NO, and no one can claim otherwise, as the reality on the ground proves this sad fact!

The question is WHY the voters of these 13 states constantly vote to send, to the state capitals and Washington, DC, individuals who show a callousness to their plight, and set out to make certain that conditions can never improve! What is in the psyche of these voters that they do not get the message that the GOP is not concerned about them, and instead works to limit the freedom and justice of African Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, women, the elderly, and the young?

And, instead of wishing to make the lives of working class or poor whites better, the intention instead is to promote ignorance and fear among them to keep power, and do nothing to improve the lot in life of the citizenry of their states!

What could be more despicable and outrageous than that reality?

Conservatives Call Barack Obama First Racist President: Look In The Mirror And At History, Right Wingers!

Ronald 88 Comments

What a preposterous statement by many people in the Right Wing of the Republican Party and the conservative movement, to call Barack Obama our first “racist” President, because of his detailed, courageous, principled statement about race yesterday before White House reporters!

What Obama said about young black men growing up in America is absolutely true, and despicable, and Obama made it clear that he had, personally, experienced the same racism, and all that talk show hosts can do is throw the appellation “racist” at the President, rather than admit the history of the country, and the reality of the profiling of blacks in 2013, along with Hispanics and Latinos as well!

And the Right Wing chooses to ignore history, probably affected by fake historian David Barton, who promotes a sanitized view of American history, and has had a dramatic effect on textbook companies, pressuring them to write myths, rather than facts, about American history!

The facts are as follows:

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor all owned and exploited slaves, and some of them had children with their slaves, what could be called rape situations!

Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren forcibly removed Native Americans, the infamous “Trail of Tears”, while in office; and William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor all gained their original fame by killing Native Americans, and bragging about it!

Andrew Johnson was probably the most outspoken racist President, and made it clear in working against the Freedmen’s Bureau continuation after the Civil War!

Ulysses S. Grant warred against Native Americans during his Presidency in a massive campaign to take away their lands!

Republican Presidents after Grant ignored violations of civil rights by Southerners, beginning with the fixed election of Rutherford B. Hayes on a promise to end military occupation of the South and let Democrats take care of their own states, and promoting racial segregation, Jim Crow laws!

Woodrow Wilson demonstrated strong racist tendencies and views during his administration, catering to the Southern Democratic heritage of his boyhood!

Many Presidents in their writings displayed racist thoughts, and some did so in speech at times, including Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan (who talked about welfare queens).

Only since Truman has it been fashionable to be FOR civil rights, but even then, Nixon and Ronald Reagan worked against civil rights any opportunity they were given!

So we have at least 18 Presidents who were racists, or displayed racist tendencies, toward African Americans and Native Americans in different forms!

So the concept that Barack Obama is a racist for speaking up on injustices toward people of his heritage is outrageous, ridiculous, and preposterous to the extreme!

Do you hear that?—Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and the rest of their ilk?

America At Crossroads On Race, Gender, Ethnicity, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Class

Ronald 10 Comments

After recent events in Florida on racial profiling; in Texas and other states on abortion restrictions; in Arizona and other states on legislation regarding undocumented immigration; the push for theocracy by the Religious Right; the move in many states to allow discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment; and the growing chasm between workers and management regarding labor rights and conditions, it is clear that America is at a crossroads on issues of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and class!

African Americans, women, Latinos and Hispanics, those for separation of church and state, gays and lesbians, and the middle class and the poor face constant attack on their basic rights and their quality of life, as the Right is moving to curb advancements that have been made over the past 60 years since the time of Dwight D. Eisenhower onward by the Supreme Court, Congressional action on civil rights and civil liberties, and courageous Presidents of both parties who have seen the need to lower the barriers on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and class!

We are at a crossroads in the constant struggle for American democracy and fair play, as even when progress is made, there is aggressive action to reverse the progress, trying to wipe out what has been accomplished!

The country is changing, but we have negative elements who are trying to return America to what it was many generations ago, and the fight for continued progress and advancement to a “more perfect Union” is a never ending one, and no one can give up their participation in the struggle, as that only advances the movement toward negativism, regression, and reversal!

Most Endangered Species In America: Young Black Males!

Ronald 1 Comment

No matter what the result of the George Zimmerman trial for the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, it is clear that the most endangered species in America are young black males between the ages of 14 and 35.

Hate crimes of whites against blacks are, according to one study, 28 times that of blacks against whites. According to FBI statistics, one out of five hate crimes are against whites, with the vast majority of the remaining 80 percent being against blacks, and to a lesser extent, Hispanics and Latinos.

When one realizes that the majority of crime is black on black crime in the city ghettos, and then add the fact that white crime against blacks is the above stated 28 times as much as blacks against whites, it is clear that any African American mother or father must live in fear that his son of high school or college age or the ten years beyond, is threatened with violence, often leading to death, whether in his own neighborhood, or out in society, because his presence and appearance makes many men and women nervous, and suspicious of his intentions, much like Trayvon Martin was profiled by George Zimmerman.

Add to that the reality that many businesses in shopping malls and elsewhere tend to profile young black men as potential criminals, who will steal if given the opportunity to do so.

So therefore, fear and insecurity is clearly the reality of life in America for people, who because of their darker appearance and the continued presence of stereotyping and profiling, makes their lives very difficult to live in a relaxed. confident manner. Even with the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, there is still too much distrust and suspicion regarding the issue of race in America!

George W. Bush And Immigration Reform: Is Bush The Last GOP President We Will Ever See?

Ronald 6 Comments

Former President George W. Bush, who has been very quiet, and stayed out of the public spotlight for four and a half years, has come out in full support of the Senate bill on immigration reform, a cause he lost in 2007, but feels deeply about, and he was able to gain 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, compared to Mitt Romney’s 29 percent in 2012.

Bush spoke of a “benevolent spirit”, of a “confident and successful nation” which embraces immigration, but the Republican Party of 2013 is very different than the “compassionate conservative” image that Bush cultivated, and he has little clout or respect among Republicans today.

So it is clear that unless the Tea Party Movement cancer is overcome, we are likely going to look back in the future, and say that George W. Bush was the last Republican President we would ever see take the oath of office as the occupant of the Oval Office!

A new moderate, centrist political party will eventually arise to replace an extremist, right wing party that fails to understand that the American people will not accept their mean spirit, their refusal to accept the demographic changes in America, their desire to make the rich wealthier and push the middle class into poverty, and denounce those who are poor, blaming them for their own degradation!

The American people want an optimistic spirit, a compassionate government, and on this issue, at least, former President George W. Bush; his brother Jeb Bush; Senator John McCain; former China Ambassador Jon Huntsman; and a small percentage of Republican Senators and others affiliated with the party understand this, and could be the basis of a new party which gets the message of the vast majority of the American people!