Un-Sweet Home Alabama

Bomb-damaged home of Arthur Shores, NAACP attorney, 

Birmingham, Alabama 1963, by Marion S. Trikosko

From the Blog

The Human Race & Other Sports

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Land of Cotton

All over Alabama the lamps are out. . . .The fields lie there, with nothing at work in them, neither man nor beast. — James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Alabama is back in the news. Not that it ever left. It’s just there are times when it seems it would be better if it did. The federal courts have once again stepped in to save it from itself, although how completely it is saved from its most recent folly is yet to be determined. By contrast, when the Courts met Roy Moore their success was complete.

In 1997 Roy was an Alabama circuit court judge. A great fan of the 10 Commandments, he hung them in his courtroom on a hand-carved wooden plaque in order to help him remember what they said. When a higher (though not celestial) court ordered him to remove the plaque, he refused. Siding with the judge, Fob James, the governor of Alabama at the time, said he would call out the national guard, if necessary, to prevent the removal of the plaque. The plaque remained.  In 2001 Roy was elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Within 6 months of his election as Chief Justice, Roy supervised the construction and installation of a 5,280-pound granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the central rotunda of the State Judicial building. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling ordering removal of the monument. When Roy refused to remove the monument the Alabama Court of the judiciary removed him. (His removal was not a great loss to Alabama jurisprudence. Prior to his removal he wrote a concurring opinion in a custody battle involving a lesbian mother in which he said that homosexuality is “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature’s God” and said that homosexuals in Alabama were “presumptively unfit to have custody of minor children.” After Maine approved gay marriage he said that the next logical process was for the law to allow unions between “two men and four women” or between a “sheep and a man.” Now the federal courts are once again called upon to save Alabama from itself although whether they will seize the opportunity will only be determined after further hearings in the Court of Appeals.

On September 29, 2011 the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, , a 76-page piece of legislation that is intended to protect Alabama from the scourge of illegal immigration, became effective. The Act has lots of catchy provisions designed to discourage illegal immigrants from settling in Alabama and encouraging those settled to leave the state. In the 76 pages it has a number of draconian provisions that leave no doubt in the mind of the reader that the illegal immigrant is not wanted in Alabama. Some of its provisions have now been prevented from taking effect until further court hearings.

Among provisions that have now been temporarily blocked is a prohibition against giving an illegal immigrant a ride to church (or any place else for that matter.) Section 13 of the Act makes it a crime to “transport or . . . conspire to transport in this state an alien. . . .”

Another provision that has been temporarily blocked is Section 8 that provides that an illegal alien “shall not be permitted to enroll in or attend any public postsecondary education institution.” The legislature wants to insure that illegal aliens will remain uneducated lest they prove themselves smarter than their masters in the legislature. Another blocked provision says K-12 schools must require each student to prove he or she is not an illegal immigrant. (In early October Bill Lawrence, the principal of Foley Elementary School where 20% of the student population that is Hispanic has not been attending regularly, assured his parent population that the information the school obtains will not be used to deport the family. It is only being used for statistical purposes. Hispanic families may be forgiven if they fail to find that assurance reassuring, notwithstanding the provisions of the Act.)

Of course there are many provisions of the Act that remain in force including Section 15 that says no “employer shall knowingly employ . . . an unauthorized alien to perform work within the State of Alabama.” Although that sounds harsh, the Act provides relief for the affluent. Subparagraph l says the section does not apply to “casual domestic labor performed within a household.” Thus, unlike Alabama farmers who are :unable”:http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/1022/Anti-illegal-immigration-bill-stokes-backlash-in-Alabama-fields/(page)/2 to find people willing to harvest their crops, the wealthy need not worry about the Act impacting their ability to get good household help.

Roy Moore (like other Alabamans before him) prepared us for House Bill 56. The Federal Court of Appeals by starting the process that resulted in his removal protected the state from the most egregious of his acts. Perhaps upon sober reflection and a full hearing, the Court of Appeals will throw out House Bill 56. Many immigrants, both legal and illegal, are not waiting to find out. They are leaving the state. One can’t blame them.

Texas DREAMers - In-State Tuition Petition

from University Leadership Initiative
ourdream2005@gmail.com

Help Us Preserve In-State Tuition

The law permitting certain immigrant students who are long term residents of the state to qualify for in-state tuition in Texas has received a lot of national attention since Governor Perry announced he was running for the President. As you know, most of this attention was negative. Many elected officials in Texas have already announced they will file bills to repeal this legislation next session. We cannot sit around idly while our opposition destroys good public policy that has benefitted students and Texas. Instead, we are launching a campaign to mobilize all of the supporters of this legislation, and particularly those who are registered to vote. If you are a registered voter in Texas who is not voting in the Republican Primary, please sign the petition to add a proposition supporting in-state tuition and the DREAM Act to the Democratic Party primary ballot.  You can download the petition here. Once you and your family and friends complete all blanks, please fax to 512-480-2500 or email to racuna@txdemocrats.org. Or you can mail it to ULI at  3106 Duval St. #310 Austin, TX, 78705.     We are trying to reach 35,000 signatures state-wide,  so each signature counts.  Our DEADLINE is Friday, November 18, 2011 Thank you for your continued support,  University Leadership Initiative NOTE: We are a non-partisan organization. However, we feel that this petition would best allow us to demonstrate that this legislation has broad support amongst United States citizens who are registered voters.

Controlling the Internet

A must read for anyone who wants to know about the "media in America," the role of the U.S. government, and how the media intersects with Race and Ethnicity.  This video is from  Democracy Now - Amy Goodman is interviewing Juan Gonzalez regarding his book,  News for All the People.

MTH

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Juan Gonzalez

After seven years of research, the groundbreaking new book, "News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media," examines how the media has played a pivotal role in perpetuating racist views in the United States. It recalls lives of the unsung pioneering black, Latino, Native American and Asian-American journalists who challenged the worst racial aspects of the white-owned media. It also tells the untold story of how the fight over who controls the internet is just the latest chapter in a centuries-old debate on the role of the media — and the technologies used to deliver it — in a democracy. MORE

Why do parents immigrate?

Op-Ed - Los Angeles Times

Immigration: For the sake of the children

You, me — any parent — would risk it all to cross the border to secure a better future for our families.

By Susan Straight

October 30, 2011

...parents will make any sacrifice for their children. Why do so many come across the border illegally? If you told me that one of my daughters would die young after stepping on a nail in a village without a doctor, or that my girls would have to leave school because they were needed to work and support the family, or that they would be in danger every day from drug cartels, I can promise you I would risk everything to give them a better life, especially if that life was available just across the border.

This fall, we are watching a different kind of migration, as undocumented immigrants flee Alabama in the wake of a draconian new law that involves schools, employers, landlords and police in a comprehensive immigration crackdown.

It's no wonder immigrant families are fleeing Alabama. But are they returning to their countries of origin? That's not likely — not as long as they can do better for their children in another state.

Alabama farmers and other employers are having difficulty filling jobs, and when they do, the new workers aren't as willing to work long hours doing difficult labor...more


____


more articles on immigration from the LA Times:

Immigration: Alabama's new state law has unintended consequences

Alabama's schools caught in immigration law crossfire

E-Verify: New law, new lawsuit?

Blowback: KFI's John and Ken on The Dream Act and The Times

Patt Morrison Asks: The brain, Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa

Reaction to Alabama's new immigration law

Revolting Intellectuals

London Guardian

Occupy: the intellectual high ground

Public intellectuals have often been prominent in protest politics, and the Occupy movement has attracted plenty of thinkers

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"Sartre: be brief, be clear", was the disconcerting message Jean-Paul Sartre found on a lectern before he addressed angry French students in 1968. When Sartre had earlier interrupted work on his giant Flaubert biography to offer support to those occupying the Sorbonne, there were no such embarrassments. But Danny Cohn-Bendit, the uprising's main spokesman, said he was neither inspiration nor mentor, and also dismissed as "a joke" claims that Herbert Marcuse, author of One-Dimensional Man, was their "intellectual leader" ("none of us had read him"). Revolts against fathers don't need fathers.

More than 40 years later, Occupy Wall Street and its spin-offs (including Occupy London) have been similarly backed and courted by intellectuals. Naomi Klein, Jeffrey Sachs, Cornel West and Slavoj Žižek are among those who have spoken to the New York or Boston protesters. Naomi Wolf was arrested while backing a related demo. Noam Chomsky delivered a public lecture in Boston. Writers, including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood, have signed the Occupy Writers online petition. There's the same sense as in 1968, though, that the protest is its own thing and gurus are nice accessories but not necessary; the witticism about Marcuse saying "they are my followers, so I must follow them" sometimes seems applicable. MORE

LA Times asks "What do you think" about the Alabama Law

Los Angeles Times - Opinion L.A.

Observations and provocations
from The Times' Opinion staff

« Previous Post | Opinion L.A. Home | Next Post »

Immigration: Alabama's new state law has unintended consequences

October 28, 2011 |  2:57 pm

 

14

7

Alabama’s controversial immigration law will undoubtedly be decided by the courts. A federal judge and appeals court have already weighed in, blocking parts of the law, including provisions that would allow school officials to ask students about their immigration status.


Whether the law is ultimately found to be unconstitutional has yet to be determined. A trial is pending.
In the meantime, at least one state court has already been forced to wrestle with one part of the new law. This week, a judge in Jefferson County Alabama has cast doubt on the constitutionality of the state law.


The case involved two immigrants who sued a used car dealer alleging the seller failed to disclose the real condition of the cars -- salvage vehicles. The dealer asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that the men are undocumented immigrants and under a new Alabama law any contract with those illegally in the country is prohibited from being enforced.


The judge refused to dismiss the case because the new Alabama law is at odds with the state constitution drafted in 1901. It bans state lawmakers from enacting laws that interfere with existing agreements.


It seems the Alabama law is already having all kinds of unintentional consequences.
What do you think? LINK

Twitter: @latimesopinion

Facebook: L.A. Times Opinion

Español: Tamaulipas Receives Deported Immigrants

La Jornada - Mexico D.F.
Podría cerrar el año con 150 mil deportados, muchos de ellos extranjeros

Tamaulipas, de expulsor a receptor de migrantes de EU

Tienen autoridades problemas para cubrir la demanda de techo y comida

Cientos de migrantes mexicanos y extranjeros son desterrados a diario del sueño americano e ingresados a México a través del Puente Internacional de Matamoros, TamaulipasFoto Julia Le Duc

Aspecto del albergue temporal Casa Juan Diego, en el municipio citadoFoto Julia Le Duc

Julia Antonieta Le Duc

Corresponsal

Periódico La Jornada
Domingo 30 de octubre de 2011, p. 27

Matamoros, Tamps., 29 de octubre. “A la hora del lonche, uno de los paisas gritó que venía la perrera (patrulla), y cuando quisimos correr ya estábamos rodeados por los greens (agentes de migración) que nos pedían los papeles”, refiere Nicolás Delgado Juárez, al recordar el último jueves de septiembre cuando lo capturaron durante una redada de indocumentados en la avenida Las Américas de Houston.

A los que no tenían papeles los llevaron detenidos, les tomaron nombres y huellas; a los dos días los regresaron caminando descalzos por el puente de Matamoros. A otros los mandan por Sonora o Baja California para que tarden más en volver.


Durante décadas, hombres, mujeres y niños de México y de Centroamérica buscaron cruzar la frontera por Tamaulipas y entrar a Estados Unidos. Ahora, el estado recibe decenas de miles de migrantes que vienen del norte, desterrados del sueño americano.


En el corredor fronterizo de Nuevo Laredo a Matamoros el panorama en las cercanías de los Puentes internacionales se repite: cientos de mexicanos y extranjeros abandonados a su suerte por agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza de Estados Unidos, que después de ficharlos los destierran a ciudades donde nadie los espera y donde las autoridades no tienen suficiente para darles techo y comida.


Nicolás, michoacano de 38 años y padre de cuatro hijos, dos de los cuales nacieron en Estados Unidos, añora los días en que ganaba siete dólares la hora por su trabajo de albañil. Ahora es uno más de los 90 mil migrantes expulsados este año por Tamaulipas.


Con ansia observa el reloj y espera que den las 10 horas para recibir un plato de salchichas guisadas en la Casa del Migrante de Matamoros. El jornalero, que emigró hace 13 años a Houston, núcleo económico de Texas, no dejó morir la esperanza y en la frontera cambió sus dólares por un refresco y una llamada a casa.


Apurado, habló con su mujer, de la que no tuvo oportunidad de despedirse; le pidió reunir y transferir vía Western Union los 2 mil 500 dólares que un pollero le cobraba por llevarlo hasta la Quineña, punto de revisión migratoria cercano a Houston.


“Dicen que es peligroso; peor será regresarme a La Piedad a morir de hambre. Ni pensar en mantener a mis hijos, ya la mujer pidió emprestado y en una semana más los manda. Aquí conecté a la persona que me va a guardar en lo que llega el dinero y que sea lo que Dios quiera”, dice.


En la colonia Ampliación Solidaridad se alza la Casa del Migrante. Es una construcción inaugurada en 2006, tiene dos habitaciones comunales con 60 camas, comedor y cocina, a todas luces insuficientes para recibir a 150 migrantes por día... MAS

Occupy Wall Street New Website Reaching CEOs

Occupy Wall Street has a new web site up that allows people to send "direct messages" to corporate CEOs.


 OccupytheBoardroom.org 


MTH

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Occupy the Boardroom: protesters get message to inboxes of CEOs -London Guardian

New website run in conjunction with Occupy Wall Street allows users to directly message heads of major corporations

• Karen McVeigh
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 28 October 2011 11.03 EDT

Thousands of Americans who were badly hit by the recession have been able to directly message the most powerful figures in the country's top financial institutions via a new website set up as part of the Occupy movement.


So far, almost 7000 people have sent messages via OccupytheBoardroom.org directly into the inboxes of figures like Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup and Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase.


To make sure the executives can't just ignore the emails, activists from Occupy Wall Street plan to print them off and hand-deliver them in a march on Friday.


Those who have sent messages include foreclosure victims, students unable to pay off loans, and ordinary hard working people affected by the recession and then by debts called in by banks...


...The site is a collaboration between Occupy Wall Street, New York Communities for Change and a coalition of community and labour groups. It has posted 200 names of CEOs and board members of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, with links allowing messages to be sent directly to their inboxes.


Olivier Leirer, of New York Communities for Change, said the idea was aimed at giving ordinary people a chance to tell their stories and have their voices heard...MORE

Alabama's Sneaky Attack on Plyler V. Doe

"The eventual target...is the 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe. The case concerned a Texas statute that withheld funds for the education of illegal immigrants and allowed districts to bar them from enrollment, as well as one Texas school district’s plan to charge illegal immigrants tuition."

October 27, 2011 - New York Times

Critics See ‘Chilling Effect’ in Alabama Immigration Law

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

ALABASTER, Ala. — The champions of Alabama’s far-reaching immigration law have said that it is intended to drive illegal immigrants from the state by making every aspect of their life difficult. But they have taken a very different tone when it comes to the part of the law concerning schools.


“No child will be denied an education based on unlawful status,” the state attorney general, Luther Strange, argued in a court filing.


The man who wrote the schools provision says the same thing, that it is not meant as a deterrent — at least not yet. It is, however, a first step in a larger and long-considered strategy to topple a 29-year-old Supreme Court ruling that all children in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, are guaranteed a public education.
The provision, which is known as Section 28, requires primary and secondary schools to record the immigration status of incoming students and their parents and pass that data on to the state.


Critics say it is a simple end in itself, an attempt to circumvent settled law and to scare immigrants away from school now, not at some point in the future. Weeks of erratic school attendance figures and a spike in withdrawals show that this has worked, they argue. And indeed, a federal appeals court on Oct. 14 blocked the provision pending an appeal by the Justice Department, though the court did not rule on the merits.


Michael M. Hethmon, general counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, who wrote the provision, insists that its goal is much more ambitious.


The eventual target, he said, is the 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe. The case concerned a Texas statute that withheld funds for the education of illegal immigrants and allowed districts to bar them from enrollment, as well as one Texas school district’s plan to charge illegal immigrants tuition.


The court ruled that this violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause, saying that the statute “imposes a lifetime hardship on a discrete class of children not accountable” for their immigration status. In the decision, the court also said that the state had not presented evidence showing it was substantially harmed by giving these children — as distinct from any other children — a free public education.


Over the ensuing decades, measures have been passed in defiance of this ruling, most notably California’s Proposition 187, but they have been repeatedly struck down in the courts. Mr. Hethmon said the problem with these challenges is that they have not taken the trouble to gather the evidence the court found missing in Plyler.
“The toughest question has been obtaining reliable — and I mean reliable for peer-reviewed research purposes — censuses of the number of illegal alien students enrolled in school districts,” he said. “That information could be compared with other sorts of performance or resource allocation issues.”


The Alabama law directs schools to ascertain the immigration status of incoming students, through a birth certificate, other official documents or an affidavit by the child’s parents (the law also directs schools to determine the immigration status of an enrolling child’s parents, but gave no mechanism by which to do so).


That information is then passed on to the State Board of Education not only to prepare an annual report with the data but also to “contract with reputable scholars and research institutions” to determine the costs, fiscal and otherwise, of educating illegal immigrants.


Because no one is actually barred from attending school and the data is not passed on to law enforcement, the provision passes constitutional muster, Mr. Hethmon said.


But it also potentially enables a fresh challenge to Plyler v. Doe, and the idea that schools are obligated to provide a free education to illegal immigrants.


Critics dismiss this as a ruse.
They say that the law instills such fear in immigrant families with schoolchildren, leading predictably to such erratic attendance figures, that it belies any claim that the state is seriously attempting an accurate measurement.
“This seems to be really a transparent attempt at a pretext to try to justify discriminatory law,” said Lucas Guttentag, a professor of immigration law at Yale Law School and senior counsel of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “The idea that they’re somehow going to collect this data and show anything that’s conceivably relevant is a fantasy.”


In Plyler v. Doe, Professor Guttentag said, the court found that the state’s actions were unconstitutional on a number of grounds. The state’s failure to show the impact of illegal immigration on schools was only a part of the decision, he said, and a nuanced one at that. The likelihood that the data collected by this law would lead to that decision’s being overturned, Professor Guttentag said, was extremely low...MORE

The U.S. considers itself the best in everything.  However, the truth is that we are way behind in health care (among other things).  

MTH

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BOOSTER SHOTS: Oddities, mussing and news from the health world

U.S. healthcare system lags other countries on quality, access - Los Angeles Times

• Comments

Noam N. Levey

October 18, 2011, 11:21 a.m.

Washington—

The U.S. healthcare system is lagging further and further behind other industrialized countries on major measures of quality, efficiency and access to care, according to a new report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, a leading health policy foundation.

That is having a profound effect on overall health in the U.S., the report found.

Americans die far more frequently than their counterparts in other countries as a result of preventable or treatable conditions, such as bacterial infections, screenable cancers, diabetes and complications from surgery.

In 2006-07, the U.S. recorded 96 preventable deaths per 100,000 people. By comparison, France, with the best performing healthcare system, recorded just 55 deaths per 100,000.

And while the U.S. improved between 1997-98 and 2006-07, other countries made more progress. Ireland and Great Britain, which had higher mortality rates than the U.S., now have lower rates.

“We are slipping behind,” said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Cathy Schoen, one of the report’s authors.

The poor outcomes reflect the widespread problems that millions of Americans have getting access to health insurance and healthcare, the authors found.

In 2010, 44% of adults in the U.S. ages 19-64 either did not have insurance at some point during the year or did not have adequate insurance to cover their needs, up from 35% in 2003.

And a third of adults did not get medical care, did not fill a prescription, or skipped a needed test or treatment because of cost.

In Great Britain, just 5% of adults reported such an access problem.

Despite the problems with access and quality, however, the U.S,. continues to spend far more than other industrialized nations  on healthcare, with per-capita spending on healthcare now topping $8,000 a year, more than twice what most other industrialized countries spend.

One bright spot in the report is evidence that Americans with some chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are better managing their diseases, which the authors credited to increased effort to highlight these issues.

Schoen also noted a “sea change” in hospital quality, which also reflects an intense campaign in recent years to measure quality and get hospitals to reduce events such as hospital-acquired infections.

The report’s authors concluded that the new healthcare law would likely have a major effect on many of the measurements, pushing up access to care as more people get insurance and improving outcomes as quality initiatives in the law begin to have an effect.

“We know the Affordable Care Act is going to make a difference,” Schoen said.

Noam.levey@latimes.com

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

DREAMer Rally, Washington D.C. Oct 7 9:45 am

from Matias Ramos:

ICE agents continue to disregard the directive to use their discretion and stop the deportations of people who have grown up in this country. 

Last week, ICE picked up 25-year-old Shamir Amirali Ali in a workplace raid in Florida last Wednesday. Although I don't know him personally, I know he is a kind young leader who has lived in this country for 18 years, and was involved in the DREAM Act fight as an organizer and phone banker. 

Shamir can be deported to Bangladesh as early as today because of a previous deportation order. He is currently being held at the Broward Detention Center in Florida. His lawyers have filed a deferred action request, but we have not heard back from ICE on whether it will be honored.

Tomorrow a group of community leaders, activists, and Dreamers will be delivering the more than 3,500 petitions that have been signed so far calling to stop his deportation. Please join us as we take a stand together. 

Rally to stop Shamir's deportation and call for relief for Dreamers.

Thursday, October 27th at 9:45am- Meet up at the entrance to the L'Enfant Plaza Metro stop (Exit: D St. between 6th & 7th St.s)
Directions: Take the Blue, Orange, Green, or Yellow line to the L'Enfant Plaza Metro stop. Exit the Metro toward D St. between 6th & 7th St.s.  

Please RSVP to this action HERE
Contact: If you have questions or need information, contact Matias Ramos at matias.ramos7@gmail.com 240-413-8264

If you are unable to attend, please support us by spreading far and wide this petition. Sign the petition for Shamir's immediate release and the cancellation of his deportation here: http://act.presente.org/sign/shamir_end

Stand with Shamir as we deliver his petition signatures to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano this Thursday!

--
Matias Ramos 

2011 Carol Jean and Edward F. Newman Fellow

Institute for Policy Studies | 1112 16th St NW Suite 600, Washington, DC 20009

Phone: 202-787-5379 | Twitter: matias7ramos

"The modern US is no country for old white men"

This opinion piece is clearly a stereotype. Yet still work reading.

MTH

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The cowboy in crisis, or male anxiety in American politics - from the London Guardian

The cowboy has been a Republican icon from Ronald Reagan to Rick Perry. But the modern US is no country for old white men

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• • Victoria Bekiempis
  • guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 October 2011 09.30 EDT
  • Article history

The stereotypical American male is a rugged individualist. He values family and faith, and does honest, manual work to provide for his loved ones and his community.


This American male relishes the great outdoors – an untamed, manly realm where he and other like-minded dudes appreciate natural beauty by shooting wild animals and angling over-fished rivers. Even his more cosmopolitan, white-collar counterparts – whom "true" American males dismiss as effete and over-educated – aspire to this aesthetic, and will pay large sums of money for jaunts to "dude ranches", high-end camping trips and garages full of tools they never use. This American male – ever a fan of plaid shirts, woodsy aftershave, rare steak and domestic beer – views red-blooded gunslingers such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood as role models, toward which "real men" should aspire.


This American male is also irrelevant.


Drastic demographic shifts over the last half century suggest that the archetypal American male is on the decline: manufacturing employment, long the realm of men, has slumped over the last 60 years.


"In 1970, men earned 60% of all college degrees. In 1980, the figure fell to 50%; by 2006, it was 43%. Women now surpass men in college degrees by almost three to two. […] In 1950, 5% of men at the prime working age were unemployed. As of last year, 20% were not working, the highest ever recorded," noted William J Bennett, former US secretary of education and author of The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood, in a recent op-ed article.


This is exacerbated by the fact that boys' academic performance has slipped, as schools have placed greater emphasis on verbal skills – an area where girls have traditionally excelled.


In her 2010 Atlantic article "The End of Men", author Hanna Rosin suggests that women might be better-suited than men for postindustrial society. The result: men, even insecure in their roles as basic breadwinners, increasingly feel out of place.


This trend, which underscores a broader identity crisis, sheds light on why "cowboy" politicians – from Ronald Reagan to George W Bush to Rick Perry – still play a role in American society. The GOP, especially Tea Partiers, attract men who are worried about their changing – and potentially waning – place in the United States. A 2009 article on Slate's XX Factor aptly identified Republicans as the "Party of Anxious Masculinity".


"If they actually made the reforms necessary to attract more female candidates, they'd alienate the 'God, guns, and gays' crowd that votes their masculine anxieties, and fears female liberation, gay rights and someone taking away their phallic symbols above all other things," wrote Amanda Marcotte. "Without the angry white male vote, the GOP has nothing."


It's no surprise, then, that this spooked machismo has returned to the 2012 election – with Texas Governor Rick Perry's candidacy. Though he's no longer the pollsters' frontrunner, Perry's biography evokes in almost kitsch detail a mythic world of cowboy Americana – and the traditional gender roles that characterise that way of life. Perry carries a hollow point-loaded .380 Ruger when he runs: he made news in 2010 when he shot a coyote that threatened his dog.


"The change we seek will never emanate out of Washington, DC," he says on his website. "It will come from the windswept prairies of Middle America, the farms and factories across this great land."


The type of change Perry calls for – and embodies as a caricature he-man Texan – isn't change at all, though. It's the same insecurity-driven talk that Arnold Schwarzenegger used on several occasions, when he implored his opponents and the public not to be "girlie men". It's the same phallocentric leadership Americans saw when George W Bush landed on an aircraft carrier – iconic in an crotch-hugging flight suit – boasting "mission accomplished" in Iraq.


Whether Perry can ever match the electoral success of Reagan or Bush is uncertain, but cowboy politicians will continue to play a role in US politics as long as they can continue to pander to – and exploit – American males' very real uncertainties. LINK TO ARTICLE

DREAMer Conference Nov 11-16

Dreamactivist.org Hosts National Youth Convening in Alabama – Nov 11th to 16th

Hate has never left Alabama. It reared its ugly head as the state went through the painful process of desegregation and mandatory enforcement of then recently enacted civil rights policies. It threatened to dampen the spirit of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as he was unjustly jailed in Birmingham. That hate has been passed down a generation, and now lives in the heads and hands of nativists and anti-immigrant legislators in the state, who secured the passage of HB 56, openly drawing a new bull’s-eye on the immigrant community of Alabama.

DreamActivist.org Hosts National Youth Convening in Alabama: Help Us Get There
Hate, however, is not Alabama’s only wound. Its deceiving and more-accepted cousin complacency is what continues to foster an environment that allows such hate to continue to thrive. Complacency now plagues the Democratic Party, who purports to politically fight for the rights and advancement of the immigrant community. Yet that which they claim as victories – President Clinton’s passage of the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, President Obama’s record-setting million+ deportations in 3 years, and DHS Secretary Napolitano’s insistence on undocumented youth being low-priority for deportations – these ‘victories’ have torn apart immigrant communities across the United States, instilled in their hearts a deep fear of becoming victims of injustice, and continue to separate families like that of Ramon Aguirre, deported less than a week ago.

Enough of the Hate – It’s Time to Take the Fight to Alabama
As undocumented immigrants we need to take a stand against hate and complacency. We have seen injustice leak out of Arizona, infect the political process in D.C., and spread to Georgia, North and South Carolina and into other states. In the words of MLK, injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere. Each time, resistance has traveled to the heart of the wound, and together we have seen victories, but the time to resist once again has never been clearer.