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Categories: Controversy, Education, Immigration, Latino Topics
12-Year-Olds Are Parasites, Don’t Be So Naive!
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Some of my (personal) Facebook friends were astounded by the disgusting response to the bi-racial family Cheerios commercial. I think they’re a wee bit sheltered. Here’s a copy of my rant, which I also posted with this MLK graphic.
I feel like this: If you are astounded that people were asses about the mixed race Cheerios commercial, then you may be a little naive. There are some sick fucks in our world, and we (the activists) ARE STILL FIGHTING the good fight against them. Do people think everything really ended when MLK got his own holiday? A report came out that CHILDREN were housed in adult immigrant detention centers, and you know what the commenters said? “good” because they are “illegal” children, so who cares if they are out in danger or kept without due process with adult offenders? Commenters used the word PARASITE to describe 12 year old children who made no decision about where they lived or what border they crossed. There are people who think like this, and these people VOTE and these people CALL THEIR SENATORS and if it disgusts you, then DO SOMETHING about it.
Categories: (Pop) Culture, Controversy, Facebook Fury, Immigration, Race/Ethnicity
Sissy Jupe Math in Immigration Reform Markup
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Today in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform markup sessions in the senate, the amendment attempting to give equal rights to LGBT couples was withdrawn, often with heavy hearts from Senate Democrats (well, supposedly).
Chairman Leahy withdraws Leahy 7 with a heavy heart in one of the most heartfelt speeches I’ve ever seen, practically in tears. #cirmarkup
— Anthony Martinez (@heyitsanthony) May 21, 2013
One tweep I follow mentioned something about sacrificing 30,000 for 11 million, and how that weighs on you. I don’t even have to think of the 11 million. There are maybe 3-4 in my mind right now whose stories mess up any percents or scales that I might attempt to use.
Anytime you sacrifice the few for the many- a political concept and framework that we all have to work with (and within) i.e. a kind of ‘collectivism’- I am reminded of this passage in Dickens’ Hard Times, in which Sissy is attempting to answer math questions from the facts-only teacher. She relates the incident to Louisa:
Mr. M’Choakumchild said he would try me again. And he said, This schoolroom is an immense town, and in it there are a million of inhabitants, and only five-and-twenty are starved to death in the streets, in the course of a year. What is your remark on that proportion? And my remark was – for I couldn’t think of a better one – that I thought it must be just as hard upon those who were starved, whether the others were a million, or a million million. And that was wrong, too.’
‘Of course it was.’
‘Then Mr. M’Choakumchild said he would try me once more. And he said, Here are the stutterings – ‘
‘Statistics,’ said Louisa.
‘Yes, Miss Louisa – they always remind me of stutterings, and that’s another of my mistakes – of accidents upon the sea. And I find (Mr. M’Choakumchild said) that in a given time a hundred thousand persons went to sea on long voyages, and only five hundred of them were drowned or burnt to death. What is the percentage? And I said, Miss;’ here Sissy fairly sobbed as confessing with extreme contrition to her greatest error; ‘I said it was nothing.’
‘Nothing, Sissy?’
‘Nothing, Miss – to the relations and friends of the people who were killed. I shall never learn,’ said Sissy. ‘And the worst of all is, that although my poor father wished me so much to learn, and although I am so anxious to learn, because he wished me to, I am afraid I don’t like it.’
I hear you, Sissy.
#CIR #cirmarkup LGBT – The % you save vs. the % you sacrifice feels like Sissy Jupe math in Dickens’ “Hard TImes”:kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfvie…
— AllenaTapia (@AllenaT) May 21, 2013
Categories: Controversy, Government, Immigration, Latino Topics, Literature/Books, Navel Gazing, Twitter Tirade
Immigration Proposal Outline Released- Details Available
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Advocates and activists were scrambling this morning after the Senate Gang of 8 released an outline of the long-awaited immigration bill proposal, after declaring last night that they would cancel their press conference in deference to the Boston tragedy. The bill itself has not been formally introduced, but , if Reid keeps his word, we should see SB 1 very soon.
From the standpoint of an advocate (and I’ve eyeballed the proposal “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013″ which is available at Scribd), it’s not too bad. There is a road to citizenship. There is a road to family re-unification. The stipulations and obstacles aren’t more difficult or more dire than expected.
I’ve submitted a comprehensive blog post to About.com Immigration with my thoughts, and I encourage you to check it out.
Today is a great, though exhausting day for me, personally. I marched in solidarity on immigration reform in 2006, but moreso, I’ve worked formally on this specific push for about two years for several different clients. Seeing this bill introduced is exciting.
The major to-do right now is to let the senate hear that we- their employers- are ready to push this bill forward, i.e. “let’s do it- what’s the next step?” In order to do that, please call congress TODAY! 866-563-5608
Categories: Controversy, Immigration, Latino Topics, Race/Ethnicity
Thoughts on “Agile” Parenting
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So, I found this TED talk on using “Agile” principles in parenting through LifeHacker- easily one of my absolute must-visit-daily sites. Apparently, Agile is a corporate principle/management system (which I’ve never heard of before).
I hate listening to TED talks (or pretty much watching any videos) because I know I can skim through print much faster and pick out the most salient points. Luckily, TED talks generally have a nice little script at the bottom of each page. Yay!
So here is the video and script, and here are my quickie thoughts on Agile parenting (very informal here, began as a Facebook post and got a little long):
- First: the example family– the mother stays at home with no career/work. I’m not making a value call on that. I work at home, and know the perks. But my point is how can the example family REALLY have so much “chaos” when the mother is home? I know that being at home (even working) eliminates 75% of the chaos for us. What’s going on there, example family?
- So, my interpretation of Agile for families is a) You have family meetings b) the kids have regular chores and c) the kids take on a lot of responsibility for themselves (feed selves, etc). Sorry, these are not new concepts.
- I don’t understand how there is “parental screaming” surrounding the morning prep-and-out-the-door process once you’re about a week into the school year? It’s all routine. there is NOTHING that is a surprise to the morning process after a week. Why is there screaming? I don’t get it.
- I LOVE LOVE LOVE the bedrock part. Several times a week you will hear in our house “That’s not what a Tapia does.” Or “You are a Tapia, you are better than that.” I think weaving this family identity (including family values) into your kids’ heads from an early age will help them to form and keep a positive identity once they start going through that stage (which, I’ve noticed, is around 7th grade).
- The comments within the TED page tend to focus on the over-structure of Agile for families. Let me tell you this- we are NOT a super structured family. I think that the part where the morning routine needs lists-and-checkoffs is overkill and part of that issue in the comments. It’s really not needed. I love lists (ask my husband), but for routine things, they are not necessary.
That’s my first reading. I’ve not had a chance to go through the script deeply as I’m eager to move on to other (paid) tasks, but that’s the gist.
What about you? What’s your gut say about Agile Parenting?
Categories: (Pop) Culture, Education, Family




















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