Magdaleno

Dear Friends…

 

I hope that ya all are doing well as the weather is changing in most of this country. . Miami is still warm…and with plenty of rain. But we still have plenty of sunlight and smiles….so come visit…

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

 

a.    air America

b.    st thomas university

c.    paul loeb

d.    soldiers say no to war

e.    invite leno

f.       stop the violence

g.    any one of us

h.    unfair

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AIR AMERICA

      Take a moment and listen

 

These are some of my favorite radio personalities on Air America: Stephanie Miller, Randi Rhodes, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz.  I hope that you will try them out.

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St. Thomas University pays a Living Wage to all Employees!!  Miami, Florida

 

SFIWJ proudly invites you to join us as we honor Monsignor Franklyn Casale for his leadership and setting the stage for a new and possible South Florida.  We invite you to share in fellowship and the breaking of bread at this free luncheon:

 

Date:                 Wednesday October 17th

Time:                 1:00 p.m.- 2:30 p.m.

Place:                Convocation Hall of St. Thomas University

 

We are honored to be located in a community with an institution such as St. Thomas University.  STU took a chance in straying from the most unfortunate norm of low-wage compensation; they took the first step in lifting working people out of poverty.   It is important that we recognize the significance of this action by Monsignor Casale and that we celebrate it on campus.

 

Please RSVP by Friday October 12th to jeansouffrant@sfiwj.org  or (305) 788-3713, we look forward to talking with you very soon!

 

South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice (SFIWJ)

Phone:     (786) 264-1708

Fax:          (786) 264-1859

Email:       interfaith@sfiwj.org

Website:  www.sfiwj.org

 

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WE SHOULD ALL READ THE THOUGHTS OF PAUL ROGAT LOEB  

 

He is a most thoughtful and insightful voice for our troubled times. Below you will see how to join his list of readers.

 

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org   To receive his articles directly email sympa@lists.onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb-articles 

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SOLDIERS SAY NO TO WAR…

 

This is a good web page to visit to get the latest news on soldiers who are resisting and not wanting to be a part of this war…

www.courage to resist.org

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INVITE LENO OR INTERFAITH WORKER JUSTICE TO SPEAK TO YOUR GROUP

 

As many of you know I get invited by many colleges, universities, foundations and conferences to talk about Immigration, Gangs, Nonviolence, Cesar E. Chavez, the Chicano Movement and the human rights movement. And I hope that you continue to find those opportunities for me to speak.

 

In addition we have a number of speakers form our Faith based movement that can talk about worker issues, the new sanctuary movement, organizing women faith leaders and human rights.

 

 

STOP THE VIOLENCE

 

 

Today our society is filled with violence, in the homes, the streets, in our wars, on death row, and in just about every sector of society…We must continue to protect the human rights of all while protecting a society from the most violent. In protecting society we must work to eliminate some of the roots of violence.  We must spend as much on peace as we do on war and we must invest in children while they are still innocent as we do when we want to punish them… This might be a reasonable start.

 

We must also learn how to forgive and to be forgiven…

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ANYONE OF US : WORDS FROM PRISON

Oct. 18^th at 7pm  Gusman Center for the Performing Arts.

            Tickets: 305-274-4772 or e-mail evtures@aol.com

 

This is a powerful evening of THEATRE filled with powerful and honest writing by women in prison that reveal the connection between their incarceration and their history of sexual abuse.

 

Eve Ensler creator of The Vagina Monologues will perform this piece with local artists, celebrities and community leaders. Amy Carol Webb will perform her original score and Leslie Neal is the Artistic Director.  I have been invited as a special guest of Amy and her family. I hope that some of you will attend.

 

I am also told that this show will be adapted locally as it moves through out the

country…

 

 

 

 

UNFAIR

This story won’t wash

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/opinion/epaper/2007/10/07/a1e_moffett_commentary_1007.html

By Dan Moffett

Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer

Sunday, October 07, 2007

By DAN MOFFETT

Why this guy?

Share This Story

And why this case?

“Don’t you have anything else to write about?”

That was the first response from the federal prosecutor last year when I asked him about. Government officials have been responding that way since – to reporters, to lawyers, to people who have called their offices.

“Why are you interested in this guy?”

Mr. Zapeta, you recall, is the 39-year-old dishwasher, the illegal immigrant from Guatemala who is going mano a mano with the U.S. government. In theory, this should be one of the great mismatches of all times. Mr. Zapeta is a barely literate Mayan, who grew up speaking Quiche in a dirt-floor hut in some village called Totonicapa that even Totonicapans would have trouble locating on a map.

And the U.S. government is, of course, the U.S. government, a force as mighty as humankind has seen.

This is a fight that the soft-spoken Mr. Zapeta did not choose. Were it up to him, he would be back in his village, not washing more dishes in Stuart. But his life took an unexpected turn toward all sorts of strange things back in September 2005, when he tried boarding a plane in Fort Lauderdale with his life savings.

Through frugality only a Guatemalan immigrant could understand, Mr. Zapeta managed to save $59,000 from 10 years of washing dishes. He worked for a half-dozen Stuart restaurants, often two or three jobs at a time, never earning more than $7.50 an hour.

Two years ago, he stuffed the cash in a black duffel bag and headed for the airport. He told his family that he was coming home; they would use the money to start a business. But at the gate, Customs agents searched his bag, saw the $59,000 and confiscated it – all of it. They accused him of smuggling drug money. The law requires flyers to declare amounts of cash greater than $10,000, and Mr. Zapeta didn’t fill out the form. He didn’t know there was one.

Now, Mr. Zapeta is fighting the government to get his money back.

West Palm Beach lawyer Robert Gershman [PHONE-WPB 561-684-8898] took the case and has stopped counting the hours he has put into it. He tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a settlement that would require Mr. Zapeta to pay a reasonable fine but not lose all his savings. In January, Mr. Gershman argued the case to U.S. District Judge James Cohn. The judge ruled that Mr. Zapeta could keep $10,000 – the amount that needed no boarding declaration – but would have to surrender the rest.

Mr. Zapeta said no. He said it was his money. “I earned it.”

Mr. Gershman filed an appeal. Meanwhile, Mr. Zapeta’s story found its way to CNN, Univision and Telemundo. People started sending checks – $10, $20, $50 with notes of support – to Mr. Gershman’s office to make up for the dishwasher’s lost money. The trust fund now holds about $10,000.

In recent weeks, the government has turned up the pressure. Prosecutors, who refuse to comment publicly on the case, have told Mr. Zapeta’s attorneys that they might have the IRS also confiscate that $10,000 in donations, to cover back taxes. Last month, Mr. Zapeta appeared before an immigration judge, who signed an order allowing him to stay in the country legally until the end of January. Then he must voluntarily leave, with or without his money, or be deported.

Before the hearing, a federal prosecutor asked Marisol Zequeira, Mr. Zapeta’s immigration lawyer in Stuart: Why this guy?

“They don’t seem to understand,” Ms. Zequeira said. “This is so inherently wrong. It is an egregious injustice for the government to do this. For some reason, they don’t get it.”

Why should Americans care what happens to Mr. Zapeta, this one illegal immigrant out of all the millions? Why do lawyers argue his cause for free? Why does CNN send a limousine to carry him to a TV station, and why do people he’ll never know send checks to his defense fund?

Because what is happening to Mr. Zapeta and his life savings is a reflection of the nation’s hypocritical immigration policy. We have no problem taking an illegal immigrant’s work as long as we can ignore that he’s here. We have to care about Mr. Zapeta because he won’t let us ignore him.

He reminds us how businesses and the consumers they serve depend on illegal immigrants to do the work Americans won’t. He reminds us that the system is broken and Congress won’t fix it.

We should care about Mr. Zapeta because he is the prototype of the guest worker President Bush says the nation needs: He came, he did his job, he stayed out of trouble, he tried to go back home. We should care about him because of all the restaurant diners who ate off clean plates because he was here. Were any of our sons and daughters interested in washing those plates?

We should care about Mr. Zapeta because U.S. justice is based on the belief that punishment should fit the crime. Because the nation was founded on the principle that all people should be treated fairly. Because we believe that hard work should be rewarded.

 

Justice doesn’t always arrive

 

For many in this world of ours Justice is just an elusive concept that has not been realized. Our job is to help deliver justice to everyone … even those with whom we might disagree… if all receive justice then we are all safe…

 

My best

 

leno

 

 

LENO’S TRAVELS

 

Seattle  OCT. 19-22

MEDC dinner

Path Foundation

 

Colorado OCT. 24-27

Dead Man Walking (the Opera)

 

Chicago OCT. 29- NOV. 2

Northwestern Law School

            Gangs and the law

 

LA/ San Francisco Nov. 9-16

NSM Conference        LA

Tides Foundation        SF

 

 

Dear Friends…

I want you to know that we must all stay tuned to the news… a lot is happening and  there is evidence that many are working hard to expose and change the direction of this country.

 

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWW

a.      general betrayus

b.      senator will not go away

c.       no gays in iran

d.      burma

e.       black water

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GENERAL BETRAYUS  vs GENERAL WEST FOR MORE LAND

During the Vietnam War  General Westmorland’s name was changed to WEST FOR MORE LAND ….this helped people get an idea of just what was going on in Vietnam. History will prove that Genera Petrayus/Betrayus  was nothing more than a puppet of this administration.

Folks want us to think that because he is a general that he is some how automtacilly honorable and that we should trust him and others in uniform. History has shown that we can not trust these generals  and many in our government.  They lie and continue to lie and expect us to trust them…

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THE SENATOR THAT WON’T GO AWAY

Did he quit or not or will he ever quit

            And who gives a flying fish

 

Idaho Senator Larry Craig claimed to be innocent of CRUISING at a bath room in the Minneapolis airport.. first he quit but now it is rumored that he wants to fight for his job…Many republicans who had thrown him under the bus are now running to get their buses going again so that they might throw him under the bus and run him over with their hipocracy

Meanwhile Craig is trying to get his conviction overturned.. and wants to stay in the Senate… this makes it all even the most interesting ..and the court yesterday REFUSED TO OVERTURN HIS CONVICTION…

Recently I have flown to several cities and have avoided taking a wide stance while in a stall in a bath room at an airport… and I have  made sure that I am not tapping my feet

When Bill Clinton was in trouble Craig referred to Clinton in a national television interview as being a VERY BAD BAD BOY … and at the very least Craig is a VERY BAD BAD BOY…

Are you a bad bad boy or girl ???

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NO GAYS IN IRAN

Just heard that there were no gays in Iran… and also heard that the moral right wing Christian base of the republican party does not tolerate or have any gays.  Thus the Vice President’s daughter is not gay and did not have a baby…lots of denial about gays……

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BURMA/MYANMAR

 

This would be a good time for all of us to call our elected officials and ask them to take a strong stand in behalf of human rights.  Since august 8^th , 1988 this military junta has killed and terrorized those who would protect the rights of others. We can not let them suppress this latest call for justice.. If you have a Chinese Embassy or consulate then plan a demonstration there. China is the major trading partner of Burma.

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BLACK WATER

GET YOUR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS SHIRT NOW

You can get an immigrants rights shirt with leno speaking at a demonstration for only $15.00 and this costs includes shipping.. There are women’s shirts with scoop necks also available… click on to the attachment and you can see the shirt

My best

leno