WE RETURN with a call for action! The DREAM Act is up for a vote. Despite the fact that as usual, politicians play cynical games of expediency with people’s lives, there is cause for enthusiasm and happiness. So get on that phone! Also featuring the vaunted political Beer Test.
HERE’S A FUN ONE that yanks back the curtain and gives you a glimpse of some “making of” moments. From bulbs blowing to flies buzzing to flubbed or forgotten lines, you can see that things don’t run as smooth as the final cut pretends.
THE LONG WAR. The Longest War the USA has been engaged in is not with Afghanistan. It is with Truth. It is against Truth. It is the war for White Supremacy, and it takes many shapes over time and yet never owns up to its own name: War. Waged by other means.
ARIZONA GOVERNOR JAN BREWER is desperately swinging back at the national boycotts and global condemnation demanding a repeal of Arizona’s SB 1070 (“Pro-Racial Profiling Law”). Last week, she commissioned a snarky frog-puppet video skit that promotes the widely condemned law by responding to all critics with an admonition to read the bill or shut up about it. This week News With Nezua—in the form of Zip and Zoe, puppet friends with their own Puppet Theater—responds.
FROM THE CONFERENCE IN MIAMI, I came away with two different sides of the same, rich, multi-layered story. I’ve written a little bit about one. Added to the other side, the yield is deeper and richer than it would be by looking at either aspect alone.
A SMALL BUT INSISTENT FACTION of this nation’s populace, have today, indeed “taken back the country.” Taken us back to revisit the spirit of our country’s ugliest moments with the passing of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona.
IN HIS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, President Obama speaks but “Thirty Eight Words” on Immigration Reform and judging from more than one source in the blogosphere, they weren’t extremely inspiring. Others were happy to hear immigration reform mentioned at all in the SOTU. But combined with the inaction so far on immigration reform, many activists and organizations are feeling daunted.
A DIFFERENT DIRECTION. It’s where we find the path headed home when we are far away from anything safe. It is where we turn when we want to find new ground, higher ground, better ground. It is the very choice that is often obscured from our vision until all the others vanish.
INTRODUCING Naco and Nico! And a new cartoon called Avenida Almasol, which takes place in a ‘hood where magical thoughts, connections, and adventures are always around the bend.
WHEN TERROR STRIKES the hearts of Right Wing punditry, the result too often is a demonization of communities of color. Be they Mexican or Arab or Muslim or Chinese or Japanese, it’s an age-old reflex. It’s time to think smarter, broader, and find the root causes of the nation’s troubles.
SENDING LOU DOBBS OFF with all the respect he has earned.
YOU CAN TELL THE DINOSAURS of our culture. They are the ones who continue to try and act out decrepit cultural values the rest of us banished long ago. Joe Arpaio is one.
IN THIS WEEK’S NEWS WITH NEZUA we cover Baby Carillo (snatched, returned, and snatched again); A wrong way onto the Highway Ramp of Deportation; Museum forays into the Immigration dialogue, and a moment of celebration at Joe Arpaio’s expense. Adelante!
ON ALL FRONTS, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION VEERS away from making any meaningful or cohesive change for the undocumented community. Just last night in his speech for health care reform he made sure the people of the US know that the health of millions of people in our country is not worth consideration. And in many other ways, the US Government sends the message that this is one group the USA can safely think of as the unwelcome and unworthy Other.
HOME FROM PITTSBURGH, after another multi-day, exhausting, energy-packed, hotel and airport stuffed trip has come to a close. Here I sit with memories of Chicken Santorini, Hula hoops, elevator assaults, dirty rivers, high priced liquor…and what did you expect?
House of Nezua
the XOLAGRAFIK theater!
