Mammen and Williams for School Board

Many people have asked me in the past few weeks how they can support my race for Minneapolis School Board during the August 10th primary. Well I don't have a primary. I'm running in the newly created 5th school board district, which covers the south eastern corner of the city, and I have only one opponent, which means we will not be in tomorrows ballot. Neither will be the candidates from the 1st and 3rd district.

So I tell people if they want to support me tomorrow to vote for Richard Mammen and T Willians for the two at large seats up for election. This year the school board is growing from 7 at large board seats to 8 seats, five of them at large and three from districts on the Eastern side of the city. Two of the 5 at large seats are up for re-election and three of the four incumbents up for re-election decided not to run. In two years three more district seats on the western side of the city will be up for election and one at large seat, when the board grows to 9 seats, six of them district and three at large. Confusing? You betcha. Makes for great conversation during door knocking.

Bottom line is that we will have on January 2011 only one other board member, Lydia Lee, that will have been on the board for more than two years. T Williams would be a second.

MPS has gone through a lot of turmoil in the past few years. But the current board has done much heavy lifting and finally brought some stability to the district. MPS now has a new Superintendent, a strategic plan that is in the middle of implementation, and enrollment seems to be finally stabilizing after steep drops in the past decade.

More than ever MPS needs some continuity. We need T Williams institutional knowledge, his wisdom, his sound intellect and his tireless commitment to provide an adequate education to ALL Minneapolis Kids. He deserves to be re-elected. We need Richard Mammen's extensive experience on youth issues, his strong commitment to equity and his extensive knowledge on how to deal with complex bureaucracies.

Mammen and Williams share my sense of urgency for Minneapolis kids. The three of us understand that the next board needs to be the results board and that we can dramatically improve achievement, improve communication with our stakeholders, bring stability to the district, and improve the relationship between the MPS administration and our front line staff as quickly as possible.

The three of us know that MPS needs results fast. Chanda Smith Baker, Mohamud Noor and Rebecca Gagnon would make excellent school board members. And Hussein Samatar and Jenny Arneson will make great school board members from districts 3 and 1.

But tomorrow I'm voting for Richard Mammen and T Williams for at large seats.

Why voting for MAK so important

Unfortunately not enough people are probably paying attention, but tomorrow's August 10Th primary will signal an important turning point for the future of Minnesota. That's why I'm voting for Margaret Anderson Kelliher for governor.

I strongly believe that MAK has the best chance to beat Tom Emmer. Never thought that Minnesota Republicans could come up with a more anti-immigrant governor than Tim "let's take away citizenship from children born in the US" Pawlenty. But Tom Emmer thinks that the Arizona SB 1070 law is a good start, and that we should turn local police into immigration agents. He also happens to think that somehow gay marriage will somehow threaten everyone elses marriage and that the minimum wage for restaurant servers is too high. I've had it with Pawlenty-Emmer intolerance and their out of touch extremist agenda.

I spent some time interviewing MAK on my radio show and visiting Latino owned businesses on Lake Street with her. I've met a lot of politicians in the past who felt uncomfortable with immigrant issues or awkward in the company of Latinos. Margaret is not one of them. She relates well with Latinos, looks comfortable in our company and when confronted with issues important to Latinos such as immigration, education and jobs, she does not hesitate or look confused.

Margaret as governor will be a leader nationally for comprehensive immigration reform, she will veto Arizona type laws, she will fight to adequately fund public education instead of Pawlenty's policy of using schools as a line of credit. She is the most credible DFL candidate on balancing the budget and creating jobs. And she is the most electable.

Yes I will support Entenza and Dayton if they win. Better than Emmer. And Horner doesn't seem to have a chance. But I've talked to enough immigration lawyers concerned about Daytons immigration positions as a US Senator to hesitate. Also concerned that Dayton didn't seem to think reaching out to Latinos was important during the primary race. Both MAK and Entenza reached out to Latinos in the past few months but Dayton was nowhere to bee seen on Lake Street or the Wes Side of St Paul. And Republicans will have a field day with Daytons controversial past.

Entenza would be good on immigration. He has done an OK job reaching out to Latinos. But his obsession with having the state opt out of No Child left Behind seems irresponsible. It would deny Minnesota of tens if millions of much needed dollars that our schools desperately need. I dislike NCLB as much as he does and would drastically reform it, but opting out? No.

I'll support whoever DFL'ers vote for tomorrow. Even Dayton. Eventually. But would much rather like to vote for MAK on November 2nd.

Anti-Immigrant Anti-American Hysteria

I've been recently saddened by the overwhelming amount of attention that mainstream media is paying to anti-immigrant hysteria coming from a right wing minority. Anti-immigrant hysteria that goes against some of the most fundamental values of inclusion that our nation has always fought for. Most Americans support immigrants, and believe in comprehensive immigration reform. But you wouldn't guess this looking at all the recent mainstream media coverage.

I'm also saddened that the Republican Party has been hijacked by right wing extremists that hate immigrants. Yes. Hate immigrants. Most Americans that oppose comprehensive immigration reform or favor SB 1070 Arizona type laws, are not anti-immigrant or racist. They mostly have national and economic security and public safety concerns. They are misinformed, since comprehensive immigration reform would improve national and economic security and have very little impact, if any, on the public safety of most Americans (it would of course improve the public safety of many undocumented immigrants). But most Americans are not racist or anti-immigrant.

But lets not fool ourselves. English only, Arizona SB 1070 laws are often written and facts to back those laws are often provided by anti-immigrant racist groups. We saw this in Arizona and we also saw this in Lino Lakes, when we discovered who was behind writing and funding SB 1070and Lino Lakes English only laws. We then saw gutless, clueless mostly Republican public officials that are not necessarily racist or anti-immigrant, go against traditional conservative libertarian philosophy and advocate for these laws.

Why do they do this? Because Republicans lost during the Bush Presidency the trust of most Americans after almost bankrupting our country with misguided and very damaging economic, fiscal and foreign policy. They once again feel that the only way they have of re-gaining power is to blame Obama for economic problems caused by an incompetent Bush Presidency and the congress that enabled it, by providing false facts about immigrants to brainwash those in the political middle, and by catering to a small but highly active and motivated anti-immigrant fringe. They will also provide misinformation to scare people in the political middle and the right wing fringe into believing that gay marriage will somehow destroy their families.

Yes this strategy will destroy the future of the Republican party. Generation X and Y, GLBT, Latino and African American voters will reject for decades to come what they see as outdated and immoral political rhetoric. But the Republican Party seems so desperate to win short term elections that they will risk it all. Several younger Republican strategists over the past years have told me repeatedly: "We don't believe in this anti-gay, anti-immigrant rhetoric. It goes against our conservative-libertarian values. But we've got to use it to win".

So once more Latinos, the GLBT community and the 5Th of the US population that is currently either unemployed, underemployed and who's pay or benefits have been cut in this recession will once more be victimized by irresponsible Republican campaigns. Once more Republicans will win some seats in the short term.

More than ever we need voters to punish Republicans catering to short sighted policies. More than ever we must praise conservatives that reject the politics of fear. Democrats are not off the hook. They need to be brave and stand for their convictions. They need to present a clear vision of job creation, hope, inclusiveness and a bright future to counter the rhetoric of fear, negativity, division the worst of our past.

We can no longer stay on the sidelines. We need to act NOW to save our nation by sending a clear message that Anti-Immigrant, Anti-American rhetoric will be soundly defeated.

Law enforcement anti-piracy operation confused by some for immigration raid

There was an anti-piracy law enforcement operation this afternoon in Minneapolis by federal customs agents. We sent La Prensa de Minnesota reporters to the scene at a mall on Lake Street and fourth Avenue in South Minneapolis after getting flooded with calls at our LCN media offices from people worried that there was an immigration raid going on.

We later confirmed that there was no immigration raid. This customs (part of ICE) law enforcement operation was looking for pirated products apparently being sold at businesses located at the Lake Street mall. This operation was part of a larger investigation and there probably be more law enforcement operations of this type, before it's over.

Our reporters did see a woman in handcuffs, when they went to the location of the operation. We got confirmation from a spokesman for ICE that this was a customs anti-piracy operation and that they had no immigration related purpose for the operation. We also got confirmation that 6 women and 4 men, that were working at the businesses where pirated products were allegedly being sold, were detained. No confirmation on whether they were employees or business owners. The people detained apparently are suspected of be undocumented, and may face immigration procedures.

We had Rigo Castro, our on air personality, explain on the air at our radio station La Invasora that this is NOT an immigration raid, that the operation at Plaza Lake is over, and that it's safe to go back to this location.

We need to remind people in our community to be careful when spreading rumors about immigration raids. Ninety five percent of calls we get about immigration raids in Minnesota, turn out to be false. Many were confused when they saw ICE in the back of jackets worn by the federal agents involved with the anti-piracy operation.

The truth is ICE has other areas of law enforcement they are involved with, including piracy and human trafficking among others. Rumors like this can send unnecessary panic to the community, as these rumors appear to be spread like wild fire. Please remember that there were several very small Latino owned business, barely surviving this recession, and that were not related to the piracy operation, that were seriously hurt today because of the panic this news is causing. Let's be sensitive to them. Apparently nobody that was not related to the piracy investigation was at risk.


I'll keep folks informed as things develop, and we'll have something in La Prensa this week and on the radio station La Invasora 1400 1470 as things develop.

Interesting CID/Gallup poll in showing the popularity numbers for 20 Presidents in the Americas http://bit.ly/5bMgpG in November 2009. I did a quick analysis and divided the 20 Presidents in three groups. There might some controversy on which president is in which category, but I think I'm at least pretty close.

One category is Center right Presidents. I have the Presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Honduras and Canada in that category. Then I have the Center left category where I have El Salvador, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, USA, Dominican Republic, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica. Last the Bolivariano or Left category where I have Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Argentina. There might be some controversy on Argentina, but they have demonstrated to be one of Chavez strongest allies.

Interesting conclusion: Center right parties have an average popularity approval rating of 53.4%. Center Left 59.3% and the Bolivarianos 39.4%.

It seems that the center left is not only emerging as the ideology of choice in the Americas, with ten countries, but also the most popular. It also seems that the Center left countries (with the Exception of USA) are also having the most economic growth in the Americas. It is also apparent that the Chavez block is not very popular.

Caveats: Funes in El Salvador and Martinelli in Panama were just recently elected and haven't had much to be judged on. Yes Michelleti is not the legitimate President of Honduras, but he is running the country. Note: The last poll I saw for Zelaya, by the same polling company had Zelaya at 46%. He woul've been in the Bolivariano category.

In these times where Democracy in Latin America is historically at it's strongest, with the rare Honduras exception, has Latin America finally found it's ideological way?

New American Media editorial published by hundreds of ethnic media across the country this week

Link to La Prensa de Minnesota moving editorial on the need for comprehensive immigration reform, produced in association with New American Media.

Editor’s Note: This editorial was produced in association with New America Media (http//www.newamericamedia.org), a national association of ethnic media, and was published by ethnic media across the country this week to bring attention to the urgency of immigration reform.

http//www.laprensademn.com/news.php?nid=1830 in English

http://www.laprensademn.com/news.php?nid=1803 en Espanol.

I also read the editorial in my talk show Cara a Cara and received very emotional responses in calls to the show.

Cara a Cara program tomorrow 2pm CST and thoughts about Honduras

Tomorrow we'll have a special program for Cara a Cara. We will have Juan Vazquez, CEO of http://www.lacochera.net/ as our guest, and we will discuss the election of Senator elect Al Franken, now that the Minnesota Supreme court ruled in his favor. Will Democrats now have the 60 votes necessary to pass comprehensive immigration reform? Latinos voted in record numbers for Obama and Democrats. We are told that there are not enough votes to pass comprehensive immigration reform in congress yet. What would be the excuse for Democrats this time? Not enough votes for Health Care reform or Immigration refrom? What are they there for then?

We will also discuss the military cue situation in Honduras. Who is right here? Why is Latin America once more at the brink of war and why is Hugo Chavez behind the incident again? (remember the Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuala incident over the Colombian armed forces crossing into Ecuadorian territory while chasing FARC terrorists?) Program will be in Minnesota La Invasora AM 1400 and 1470 and http://www.lainvasora1400.com/ at 2pm CST.

Some thoughts on Honduras. President Zelaya put himself above the law, the constitution, the electoral court, the Supreme court, congress and his own party. But who wins here? Alavaro Vargas Llosa a center right political analyst recently said in an opinion piece in the New York Times http://http//bit.ly/zNvea that the winner is Hugo Chavez.

Chavez, with his imperialist dreams for Latin America, somehow convinced Mel Zelaya, a wealthy Honduran Oligarch, who was elected four years ago as a right of center candidate, to join the Bolivarian socialist revolution. All the sudden out of the blue Zelaya became a socialist. And signed a deal with generous oil subsidies for Honduras.

Zelaya is unpopular as is Chavez in Honduras. His term was almost over and the Honduran constitution only allows for one term as president. He then decided to have a non binding referendum to ask Hondurans what they would think about changing the constitution to allow his reelection, and also make changes top the constitution to make it more Bolivarian (and acceptable to Chavez).

The electoral court, the Supreme court and the congress all declared the referendum illegal, based on it violating procedures to amend the constitution. Zalaya decided to ignore the other branches of government and hold the referendum. He ordered the military to prepare the polling places. The military refused to disobey congress and the Supreme Court. Zelaya then fired the Defense Minister. The Supreme court declared the firing illegal.

What should've happened then, is that Zelaya should been prosecuted in the courts for breaking the law, and then if found guilty, given the appropriate punishment. He was unpopular and probably would've had to finish his term at the end of 2009.

Instead Roberto Micheletti the new "President" because he was next in the line of succession, the Honduran military and their supporters fell into Zelayas trap. They military fell into the old habit of conducting a military cue, exiling Zelaya to Costa Rica, and then making Micheletti President. They then started to repress the media, protests, sometimes violently and isolating themselves internationally. Every country in the Hemisphere including the US, and in Europe and the UN have all declared the Cue illegal. Obama correctly and skillfully opposed the cue, which put a dent in the often Chavez conspiracy theory that the CIA is behind everything.

Now Zelaya is an international hero. If the military continues to repress it's people, Zelaya will be a local hero too. And Chavez gets one more satellite for his growing empire.

The military in Honduras was duped and they fell for it. Micheletti should resign as soon as possible, Zelaya should then be allowed to return as President and given the opportunity to step down when his term is over, or change the constitution by legal means, or be prosecuted for breaking the law.

But it might be too late. Latin America is slowly marching back into it's old horrible warmonger days. The old extreme ways of the left and right, once more put the great majority in the middle at great risk.

Minneapolis School District Latino parents frustrated with district policy

Enclosed is a post I made to the E-Democracy Minneapolis Issues email list today. It has been adapted slightly. The issues are local, but they are relevant in Many urban school districts today.

I know that both sides, the Minneapolis School district and Latino parents, have some very good points, and both sides are lead by very good people. I'm friends with people on both sides. But there still seems to be a lack of understanding of why Latino parents are so frustrated with the Minneapolis School District (MPS) , and how frustrated they are, to the point that they will leave the district at the same rate that African American parents did before, unless something changes soon.

Of course we all know how devastating to MPS loosing more students could be. More cuts, more layoffs, more closed schools. Most board members, if not all, are trying very hard to understand this frustration, and I think are trying to address the issues presented by Latino parents. But unfortunately they don't seem to be able to get through to the parents. On the other hand I think some Latino parents don't have all the information (we'll attempt in La Prensa de Minnesota soon to provide that info in Spanish) and they might've been provided some misinformation.

I've talked to and LISTENED to enough public officials to understand that it's not the same to be a school or education activist than to govern. Once you govern you have the responsibility of doing the right thing, while having to listen to many different and conflicting special interests, and you have the obligation to balance budgets. That's not easy.

Although I tend to agree with Caty's sentiment that we should all work to a solution to our schools that benefits all kids instead of each single group, the reality is that there are some issues that only affect some groups and not others. We all want a better economy, an affordable and quality health care system, we want to own our homes, and we want our kids to get an adequate education so that they will have a better life than ours. Those are universal.

But most African American, Latino, Native and Asian people know what it's like to be treated as inferiors because of the color of their skin, and are going to be more sensitive to this issue. Immigrants struggle with learning English at exactly the same rate as Scandinavian and Eastern European immigrants to Minnesota did at the beginning of the twentieth century. Latino parents will push for programs that will teach their kids English, because they are more affected by this. Other kids in MPS don't have this challenge.

After LISTENING, to Burroughs parents, I think this is how many of them think: Contrary to what the KKK whining ranters in the Star Tribune comments section say, Latino parents desperately want their kids to learn English as quickly as possible so they have a real chance at the American dream. These immigrant parents are much more American in spirit than the anonymous Star Tribune cowards. They have risked it all, some of them their lives, to give their kids a better life in the US. That's true love for America. They work too many hours and don't have the time to learn English adequately, like Swedish and German immigrants did before them, but will do anything to see their
kids learn English.

Some found what they needed in Burroughs. You know how hard it was for them to find Burroughs? How much they risked to find it? But they did, and know they feel it's being taken away. That's the way some white parents at Burroughs feel. They didn't risk as much to get there, but they found the right school for their kids. And now they feel that's being taken away. Anybody would be frustrated beyond belief over this.

Senator Patricia Torres Ray eloquently stated in a recent letter: "Latino parents are opposed to this change, arguing that the district is creating ghettos by assigning all ELL kids to the 4 worst schools in the district" I have to say I have to agree with that statement. What parent would feel good about that?

But here's the other side of the story. A district that's lost too many kids and had to lay off too many teachers. A district that has made a true commitment to provide all of their kids a better education. Too many parents and kids at MPS schools don't have the type of school that Burroughs is. Too many kids and parents have had their schools closed. Too many parents and kids don't feel safe in their MPS school. Too many kids are two years behind in reading and math. Too many kids are not graduating from High School. And it's just about everybody's fault at MPS: Parents, teachers, principals, administrators, board members, voters, even if they all point fingers at each other.

But MPS is finally doing something about it. The reality is that all the kids currently enrolled at Burroughs Native Language Program (can some one explain this name to me? I think kids are learning English not native languages, but I digress) will continue in the program until they move on to middle school. Also the demand for the program is going down every year at Burrows. Why?

I just got a letter form MPS board member Chris Stewart that said: "In the 2007-2008 school year only 15 Latino families selected the program, while a minimum of 26 are
needed. For 2008-2009 there were 10 Latino families that selected NLL at Burroughs. When eight of them were contacted only two opted to remain at Burroughs while six chose Windom." If this is true, what are we arguing about here?

It also seems that a number of African American parents that live close to Burroughs want the programs offered at Burroughs. Shoudn't they have a right to choose what's best for their kids too?

MPS needs to do more and more, with less and less money. Tough to do. I don't have too many answers here, but I hope I presented both sides. I will continue to listen. I hope both MPS and Latino parents will truly listen to each other. Because all of our kids educations in Minneapolis are at stake
here.

I also wanted to address Jay Clark's comment about Chris Stewart not being at the meeting. Jay is a good guy, who has worked tirelessly to help the Latino community. And I thank him for that. But his implying that only Tom Madden, Pam Costain, Lydia Lee, and Carla Bates, Patricia Torres Ray and Senator Linda Berglin where at the meeting, so they care but Chris Stewart doesn't care because he wasn't there, is simply not true. I recently disagreed with Chris on this forum, over the way he seemed to have approached this issue and about integration.

But I know Chris well enough to know he does care about the Latino community and has been a strong defender of the NLL program. We might disagree on how to get there. But Chris is one of the hardest workers on the MPS board and contrary to his occational media image, he spends almost all his board time, quietly and effectively working to improve education for all kids. I think that attempts by some to divide Latinos and African Americans to get whatever their goals are for MPS is not going to work. We have the same problems. Low test scores and low graduation rates. The only difference is some Latino kids need a little bit more help learning English.

Interview with Alberto Monserrate about the Recession in Minneapolis

Here's an interview I gave last April some of you might find Interesting.

http://www.examiner.com/x-5611-Minneapolis-Tech-Culture-Examiner~y2009m4d27-Interview-with-Alberto-Monserrate-about-the-Recession-in-Minneapolis