Dear Sisters and Brothers

Tonight is the first debate and McCain has not decided if he will show up or not. I think that it is important to have these debates after all it was McCain that wanted 10 town hall meetings. And we need to know what McCain and Obama can offer during this time of financial crisis..

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.       wall street

b.      sarah what does she know

c.       mcdonalds

WALL STREET     

            What the financial fudge?????

Some months ago (about 9) I was talking to the Board and Staff of a Foundation when I suggested that this economy and the affects on our communities was the most important issue of our time and that they should concentrate on this above all other issues. I don’t know if they understood what I was trying to say but it was something that I felt in my bones. . while I am not an economist I have repeated that message in many of my subsequent Ahora blogs and mailings.

And if you had been reading my blog you would have read that I was worried about my bank Washington Mutual having serious trouble. Well I woke up this morning to hear how serious the problems were at my bank and how it had been sold.. This weekend I will check on my 10 pesos that I have in savings there..right now there is no safer place than under my mattress.

I am tired of the bailouts and very little being done for the average family. No one is bailing us out … no one’s taking on our debts.. these big fat wall street entities are being saved and their corporate leaders get to have their cake and eat it too. They get the company saved and as they leave they get these huge financial parachutes. How can we allow people who have failed to get these huge amounts or our money while the other 95% of America is struggling to make ends meet.

This is a socialized bail out for those who were the super capitalist. But when we need something for the poor the same folks argue that it is socialism and contrary to a free market system.

It seems that they will sell our mortgage and credit debit to the government for about 10-40% of the value of the loans.  Well if that’s the case let me buy back my debts and then I and others can get out of some our indebtedness. Or they can lower my debit to the amount that the government paid for them.

All us need a quick education on the economics of our time because we are not out of the woods yet and there are more shoes to fall.  Right now these folks are leaving the country broke for the next president.

We need to spend some money and time to organize the voice of the consumers…

——————————————————————————————————–

A Question for Sarah Palin

            WHAT DOES SHE KNOW

AND WHEN DID SHE LEARN IT????

———————————————————————-

The McDonalds

       A mini event

           

 

Last week Obama was here at the University of Miami and caused a great stir of passions amongst many of the youth..and many women..It was the first major WOMEN’S RALLY.

 

So Sunday I was at the drive through at the neighborhood  Mcdonalds and was in the process of paying the young man … who saw my Obama sticker on my steering wheel…  He asked if had been to the Obama event… when I said no but that I had seen Obama at other events.

 

The young man talked about how Obama can draw such enthusiastic crowds and that McCain can not do that.and he was smiling all the while.. he also mentioned what a good speaker Obama was..

 

I then handed him an Obama

Bumper sticker that said SI SE PUEDE …YES WE CAN…

I normally keep a some bumper stickers, buttons and shirts in my car.

 

He was most happy and surprised to get some thing from the Obama campaign.

 

There are more supporters out there and we must wear our buttons and shirts so that they know that our movement is growing …

 

 

GREAT QUOTE

 

If you would not be forgotten

When you are dead and rotten

Either write things worth reading

Or do things worth the writing

- Ben Franklin

My best

leno

Dear Sisters and Brothers

 

Today I heard of another bank  Lehman Brothers failing… and heard that Bank of America had taken over the once super powerful Merrill Lynch… and also heard that my bank Washington Mutual might be in trouble… And now the great Insurance company AIG is in on the brink of failure….This economy of ours continues to destroy the livelihoods of so many hard working individuals…

And George Bush and his administration brought us this disaster…

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.      country first

b.      Darfur

c.       Women where are you

d.      I was a muslim

e.       Death penalty focus

f.        Dreaming late at night

 

COUNTRY FIRST

            But the truth is that McCain puts his Campaign first

McCain has been preaching that the puts country first. And goes one to talk about what a great patriot he is…

Well … there is just one problem … no in fact there are many…. But the biggest one is that he put his presidential election efforts first and country last. On a normal day would McCain not chose a person to be second in command who had no grasp of world politics, nor did not understand the national challenges economically.

Why Would he chose a person who can not face the media in a open give and take press conference. How would this person be able to lead .. .how would they be able to make a decision on a moments notice that would affect our public safety.. some say she might be the manchurian candidate. .

Some  might say that George Bush did okay and he was pretty dumb.… well the truth here is that having an shallow person in the presidency has cost us economically, politically, and given us more enemies than we have ever had.  And now To get some one with even less knowledge would be unforgivable. It would be criminal…

I don’t know if McCain’s Age might be a factor on his longevity but we should at least have a peek at his health records… Same goes  for Obama…. I know a lot individuals who are much older than McCain who have very active and productive lives. But in Life anything can happen that’s why you want a strong, knowledgeable and wise person available to assume the presidency should something happen to the president. A good patriot would not do some thing as irresponsible as McCains VP selection.

I am sure that long time republican insiders are embarrassed and will say so after they are defeated this fall and John McCain will be so shunned by his party that he will soon be on his way to Obama to ask for forgiveness.

The first major decision by a presidential candidate is their choice of Vice Presidential running mate. In this case McCain gets a failing grade

 

DARFUR

            Barbara Grover

 

I first met Barbara when I was starting my work with Homies Unidos… she is a great human rights activists and a dreamer… Her upcoming show in Los Angeles will give us another special window into this human rights tragedy.  If you are in the area attend ..if not contact her to get her show to your area.. Barbara Grover [barbgrover@earthlink.net]

Check out the pdf below.

 

——————————————————————————————–

Women, Where Are You?

April Mellody

Posted September 14, 2008 | 06:05 AM (EST)

BIO Become a Fan

Get Email Alerts Bloggers’ Index

 

With all that is at stake in this election, is anyone else shocked and awed by the amount of attention the “lipstick on a pig” comment has received? Where is the outrage? Specifically, where is the outrage from women? Are we going to sit idly by and allow the press to portray us as hyper-sensitive chumps more concerned with voting for our “own” than for the serious issues that confront us as a nation? Are we really going to allow the McCain campaign to use us as pawns in this game? Surely, we’ve come too far for that. The truth is most women know something about lipstick. Sadly, most of us also know something about pigs. Let’s call this what it is.

Lipstick is: Saying that you are going to change the ways of Washington and throw out the lobbyists.

Here’s the pig: Hiring a former bank industry lobbyist as your campaign manager and employing a team of Karl Rove cronies to use the same dirty tactics of lies and distortions as campaign strategy.

More lipstick: Saying that our lack of energy independence “has been thirty years in the making and caused by the failure of politicians in Washington.”

More pig: Spending 26 of the past 30 years in Congress voting again and again and again (including two votes in this past year alone) against investments in renewable energy while proposing a $4 billion tax break for the oil industry.

Lipstick: Choosing a female running mate to help tap into the “18 million cracks” left by women who voted for Hillary.

Pig: Voting against a measure aimed at helping women achieve pay equity. Voting repeatedly against funding to fight and prevent domestic violence. Voting against extending insurance coverage to pregnant women and infants. Voting against $214 million for breast cancer research.

Lipstick: Using all of the imagery, rhetoric and running mates you can summon to portray yourself as a friend to the middle class.

Pig: Proposing a tax package which ignores 101 million Americans including 37 million seniors while offering $2 trillion over the next decade in tax breaks for corporations.

The bottom line is that the “lipstick” controversy was a cynical attempt by the McCain camp to use the gender card to distract voters from the real issues at hand — issues that McCain is counting on voters to ignore. Women are the only ones who can call them out on it. We need speak up and demand that the candidates focus on the issues that really matter to us and to the nation.

The truth is no amount of lipstick can cover up the fact that we are amidst one of the most serious economic debacles since the fallout of the S&L crisis and John McCain is one of the Keating Five. No cosmetics will make up for the fact that Senator McCain has openly admitted that he does not know enough about the economy. No ruby-red will disguise the truth that thousands of lives have been lost, our military has been strained by a two-front war, we haven’t found bin Laden and our world standing has plummeted on the failed policies of John McCain and George Bush. No paint will cover the fact that John McCain’s campaign is teeming with lobbyists and Washington insiders intent on returning us to the same cynical politics of deception and personal destruction while perpetuating the same bad policies of George W. Bush.

If it is one thing women know, it is lipstick can only do so much.

 

I WAS A MUSLIM FOR ALMOST A MONTH

And so was Paul Fernandez

We were in High school and it was our senior year and our Teacher Mr. Gerald Bryning who was teaching us world affairs or a class on civics which was always colored by his own racial and extreme bias…

The Civil Rights movement had yet to come to Las Animas… Yet our teacher GB started talking for weeks about the BLACK MUSLIMS and Malcolm X… well ..we didn’t know anything about muslims or Malcolm so we started listening in earnest to the news and reading every thing we could

In conclusion Paul said LEONARD (that’s what they called me in them days ) MALCOLM  X IS SAYING WHAT WE FEEL ABOUT RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION … ONLY THING IS HE IS BLACK BUT HE’S TALKING ABOUT US …

YEP YOU’RE RIGHT ..I responded…

WELL WHY DON’T WE BECOME MUSLIMS … JUST TO IRRATE BRYNING Paul suggested…

OKAY … BUT WHAT IS A MUSLIM?

Paul told me about their not eating pork and praying to the east.. and stuff like that ..

So the by the next Monday we had Muslim names and our prayer rugs…

So in the middle of Brynings class we pulled out our prayer rugs and proceeded to kneal to the east and bow our bodies..

WHAT ARE YOU DOING … Bryning shouted at us … the class was looking at Paul and me  in amazement.

WE ARE PRAYING ….WE ARE MUSLIMS  Paul Responded…

NO YOU ARE YOUNG CATHOLICS BOYS .. YOURE CATHOLIC..

NOPE ..WE CONVERTED AND ARE MUSLIMS I explained as I knelt there.. HE NOW IS MALCOLM FERNANDEZ AND I MOHHAMED AVILA…

WHAT ??? YOU ARENT MUSLIMS GET UP FROM THERE…

We waited a moment and acted like we were praying ..we didn’t know what muslims say so we just mumbled stuff.. .we were tempted to make the sign of the cross as we got up … but we caught ourselves just in time…

Well Paul and I continued to be Muslims for several weeks… and we continued learning about Malcolm X…. we were finding out just what a powerful voice he was for justice…

Given todays hysteria about Arabic and Muslim names.. I just might have to change my name again and if it do it might be Leno HUSSEIN ALI … so I just might have to dust off my prayer rug… and probably call Paul and tell him we got to do our Muslim thing again and again until the world understands the power of diverse  people  united…..

———————————————————————————————————

Death Penalty Focus
870 Market St. Ste. 859 San Francisco, CA 94102
Tel. 415.243.0143 – Fax 415.243.0994 -  www.deathpenalty.org

Dear friend,

Now is the time for action.

Each time a person is wrongfully convicted in California, the true perpetrator remains free to commit more crimes, and victims are denied justice. Even for the lucky few among the wrongfully convicted who are proven innocent, exoneration does not erase the injustice they experienced.  And when it comes to wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, wrongful executions can never be undone.

Arthur Carmona, just 16 years old when he was wrongfully convicted, spent nearly three years behind bars for crimes he did not commit. He became an advocate for the wrongfully convicted, working to pass legislation to prevent such mistakes. Tragically, Arthur was killed this year. But you can help carry on his work by urging the governor to sign AB 2937, the Arthur Carmona Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted Act.

In fact, there are two bills awaiting Gov. Schwarzenegger’s signature that would help prevent wrongful convictions and help the wrongfully convicted re-build their lives:

AB 2937 (Solorio, D-Santa Ana), the Arthur Carmona Justice for the Wrongfully Convicted Act, would ensure wrongfully convicted people have the same access to resources that ex-offenders have. It would also mandate that criminal records relating to a wrongful conviction be sealed and would adjust the amount of compensation for wrongful conviction to reflect federal standards; and

SB 1589 (Romero, D-Los Angeles) would require the corroboration of testimony by jailhouse informants. Uncorroborated testimony by such informants is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases.

Urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign AB 2937 and SB 1589.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION! 

With your help, these reforms will reduce the mistakes made by our criminal justice system and begin to heal the wounds caused by those mistakes.

Please take just 30 seconds to send a letter. You could help save an innocent life.

Thank you.

Mike Farrell

DREAMING LATE AT NIGHT

Lately I have been having the most vivid dreams… some are fun and most enjoyable but sometimes I have to do some problem solving … last night my dreams  took me to the UNITED FARM WORKERS headquarters about 50 years from now … it was like being in a wonderful city ..with so many offices and shops… I had a plane to catch and could not find the building where I had left my brief case… so I did a lot of walking last night ..does that count for exercise??

Dreaming my best

leno

Dear Sisters and Brothers

This Ahora is primarily about my visit to Colorado which took place last week. This journey back to the future will let you know about where I grew up and some of my thoughts about this interesting part of Colorado.

As a part of my visit I talked as often as I could about Obama and handed out shirts, hats and bumper stickers to all who believed in this change.

In the recent days I have seen the McCain Campaign reach new lows as it has run ads that are outright lies. And then the media talks about it as if it were some how true. The media should not be afraid and call it what it is… LIES… and to think that McCain has brought on to his team the people who created ads in 2000 which were brutal and mean spirited and destroyed his campaign that year.

Then there is poor Sara Palin who has yet to been confronted by a real press event. . Yet they say the media is attacking her… well they should demand that she hold press conferences to answer questions. We do not know all the truth about her but we know enough to know that she is no Hilary Clinton nor is she a defender of women.

We have a few more weeks to register voters and then get them to vote. We also have time to volunteer at one of the campaign offices. I am signing up with the Coral Gables office in Florida. We should give as much money as we can afford to the Obama campaign they need it to buy ads and to keep staff working in the field.

Also plan to work full time the last four days of the campaign… take Monday the 3^rd and Tuesday the 4^th off as vacation and give some time to protect our country and get Obama and others elected.\

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.   visiting Colorado

b.   celebrate with CIW

 

 

VISITING COLORADO

Visiting the Arkansas Valley in Eastern Colorado is like going back to a twilight zone … lots of memories and lots of disappointments. And some great re-connections.  But I still can’t believe that I survived and still have many fond memories. This part of Colorado is not filled with mountains and ski resorts but is part of the great plains of America.

First after the funeral of my aunt in Pueblo last Friday, I met with Juan Espinosa a long time friend and now an editor for the Pueblo Chieftain. In our early years he was a movement photographer and movement newspaper editor and now he was doing main stream reporting. We talked about the old times and he offered to share some of his pictures for my book

That night I drove east towards Las Animas 90 miles away… going through Fowler and Rocky Ford (home of the best melons) before I stopped in La Junta 21 miles from my home town. I had worked the agricultural fields between Rocky Ford and Las Animas as a young man. I even had far a brief time a high school sweet heart in Rocky Ford.  That night I would sleep in a Motel managed by a man from India… before all hotels, motels were run by white folks so it was interesting seeing this change. I needed a good motel night of sleep and rest for my body and mind which were overloaded from the travel, lack of sleep and all the emotions of my aunt’s funeral.

Prior to leaving the Arkansas Valley in 1963, after graduation, I was beaten by gangs in Rocky Ford, La junta and Lamar… While I had left violence and fighting by my junior year in high school my old enemies were still out to prove they could give me a whipping; which they did in a span of two weeks. Not fun getting your butt kicked …  I knew then that it was time to leave and seek my fortune else where.

PRISONS the industry of detention

Who is profiting from crime

In my home town of 3,500 there are now three prisons… across Colorado and the country you will find prisons sprouting up like wild weeds.  We have greater percentage of citizens per capita in prisons than almost all governments in this world of ours. We think that we have such a great country yet we don’t know how to deal with our cities social issues… When in doubt we jail them.. And this solves nothing..

Across America private business is making a huge profit building prisons and then housing our citizens with little or no oversight from the public. This is also the case for immigration detention centers.

 

Where has all the water gone?

            Gone to cities far away

            When will we ever learn???

 

The fields around my home town no longer grow vegetables and there are no farm workers moving up and down those fields. I ran into only one Mexican Immigrant who was working on a Dairy Farm. I gave him a ride to town. I was out checking out the farm lands where I had worked and found this worker walking down the highway and gave him a lift and grilled him about work in the area.

Later at my class reunion a class mate Bobby Denton a rancher told me that almost every one had sold their land and water rights to a company that would in turn sell those water rights to cities far away. Hmmm? Trading water as if it were oil. Could be that my home town can become a desert. Once you direct the water away the water table recedes further downward causing the top soil to dry up and free to blow away with the first wind. We just might find ourselves facing the dust storms that I saw as a child.

We are on a critical road world wide regarding this issue of water. We and our plants can not live with out water and soon it will be much more expensive than oil.

Sand pit now a public pond.

Several young people drowned in that pond when I was growing up in Las        Animas.

There is a golf course and a club house (where we had our class reunion) built next to what was a sand pit or a place where they had dredged up sand for construction projects. This hole filled with water now is a public pond with picnic tables decorating its lips..

I was ten years old when I was there by fluke with some white guys ..The white guys were swimming and I was just wading on the edge of the pond since I did not know how to swim. .I happened to accidently use the restroom on an older boys clothes which changed my life forever.. I didn’t notice the clothes there in the bushes and I was in a hurry to do my business.. So I lowered my underwear and did my business… Marvin Gleeson whose clothes I soiled was a wild older boy. And he become very enraged when he discovered what I had done to his clothes ….he  slapped me around then took me out to the middle of the pond to drown … as he dragged me out there he called me every racist name he could think of. He was a little slow in the head so he had to repeat himself often has he took me to center of this pond….I didn’t know how to swim and I was sure that I was going to die an early death. No one would investigate …after all it was just a Mexican …

There he left me in the middle of the pond going under and taking in a lot of water… just when I thought I was going under for the last time I felt a hand grasping my hair and pulling me to the surface,,, was it the hand of God? Nope it was Butch Hedgecoke a neighbor with whom I had gone to the pond… he was about 4 years older than me and had a good mind in those days.. He told me to stop struggling and he swam hard for what seemed for ever … I gasped for air and spit up water and then finally we were on the shore…

There I was a skinny kid in my under wear crying and shivering wanting to go home. Meanwhile Marvin was complaining that Butch should have left me there to drown.

Butch would not let me get dressed nor go home. He insisted that I would have to learn how to swim so that no one could ever drown me. He forced me back into the water and showed me how to dog paddle and kick… after about an hour I learned and while I was still having nightmares of almost drowning.. I was somehow filled with an internal glow knowing that I could now swim…

Later as Butch and I walked the 6 blocks to our neighborhood he laughed as he recalled my taking a dump on Marvin’s clothes…and at last I saw the humor in the event that almost got me killed.

 

St. Mary’s Church

            Looking for God.

I decided on Saturday afternoon to check out the church that I went to as a child. Growing up the church was segregated … the white folks sat on the left side and the Mexicans on the other side. It was confession time this late afternoon and folks were lining up to give their confessions prior to the Saturday evening mass.  In a wild fleeting moment I thought about giving the old local priest my confession… I wondered if he would understand the magnitude of my sins and if he could handle such a variety of creative actions with so much vivid detail…. I smiled and kept my sins intact.

One sign of the aging population was that they had built a ramp for easy access and added restrooms at the back of the church.

I sat on the left side of the church … I had never sat on that side of the church … Today folks were mixed on both sides.  This change began in 1968 when Father Horn a young priest challenged by me brought this segregation issue up during high mass. He also began including Mexicans on all the church committees. Nonetheless it felt weird sitting on the left side of the church.

 

THE CLASS REUNION

            Getting together for memories…

 

 

We had many present but we also had many who had passed away .. The pictures of the deceased class mates and deceased spouses were there with candles next to them ..There they were on a beautifully decorated table near the entrance to the hall. I immediately checked out the table to make sure my picture was not there. It’s not good to show up for a high school reunion if you are dead. Or if they think you have died.

Only four Mexican Americans showed up and one even brought his spouse, few of my classmates have ever met my spouse and I had to remind folks that someone had married me.

The three Latinos sat together… and I was separated from them by good friends ( Jerry White and his wife Carolyn) who took my chair and kept me from sitting with the other brown faced folks… no one seemed to notice that we were all at one end of the tables set up in a square. During the jokes and stories no one brought up anything about us and only I seemed to notice. It was all about the in-crowd of white students. In the end I told a story just so others would know that we too had interesting lives. Later I was able to sign and give classmates copies of my book LOOKING FOR MY WINGS. Since then others have emailed requesting a copy.

Paul Fernandez my best high school friend refused to go as my date… saying those folks were and are racist and they don’t talk to him during the rest of the year so why should he go and smile at them for this reunion.. Well not all were racists I argued and mentioned that there would be several Chicanos there and we could all sit together..Paul got angry because I threatened to hit him with a base ball bat and drag him to the reunion (he knew I was joking but did not appreciate the pressure)..See ya later he said storming out of my mother’s home.. Now my sister Dee Dee’s… I think Paul would have shot me in the leg before I could tie him up and take him to the reunion.. I did catch up with him later Saturday night after the formal dinner and had a good visit. Paul and I had escaped this world and its racism by using drugs/alcohol when we were young.. And Paul was still escaping in the same fashion. I must say in Paul’s defense that he was and is smarter and better read than most that I have run into.

Racism is alive and well in this world of ours. The pain that we cause others is not easily forgotten and leaves many scars that affect how we live and dream.

The reunion was a good event and good to see folks that even though I was not close  to a lot of them during my youth … I have learned to appreciate them and some of their perspectives…and now many realize that we and our rural society was not as kind or gracious to everyone.

Some who were also discriminated against were some of those who were poor whites who were never accepted by our high school in-groups.

 

THE TOWN IS DYING

Even though there is a new DQ or Dairy Queen that looks very nice and fancy, there are more buildings that are boarded up… The liquor stores and the bars seem to be making good money and today there are more than three places to get Mexican food. But the town is dying… and I don’t know if these three prisons will be enough to keep it alive.

I was told that from grades 1-12 that there are only 450 students in the whole system…When I was growing up there we had two grades schools, one junior high and one high school and we must have had about 1,000 students in the entire system. In high school alone we had 350.  Now the population is older, having fewer kids and people continue to move away.

CELEBRATING A VICTORY OVER BURGER KING

                CIW got a double whopper of justice

Come join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Sunday, September 14th, at 5 pm to celebrate not only the Burger King Victory, but the agreement reached this week with Whole Foods. You have been a vital part of these achievements and have a reason to celebrate…

It will be held at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami.

Across this country many of you have marched, written letters and have raised your voices for these farm workers. While many of you can not be with us in Miami …you will be remembered and your spirits will get our respect and love that will be carried by the winds in four directions.

I was lucky to have gone to a number of the demonstrations and was MC at the last two rallies outside of the Burger King headquarters. And happy to be reminded that we can make a difference.

Please remember that we should always DREAM THE IMMPOSSIBLE and then work like crazy to make it a reality…

SI SE PUEDE

leno

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers

This Ahora is primarily about my visit to Colorado which took place last week. This journey back to the future will let you know about where I grew up and some of my thoughts about this interesting part of Colorado.

As a part of my visit I talked as often as I could about Obama and handed out shirts, hats and bumper stickers to all who believed in this change.

In the recent days I have seen the McCain Campaign reach new lows as it has run ads that are outright lies. And then the media talks about it as if it were some how true. The media should not be afraid and call it what it is… LIES… and to think that McCain has brought on to his team the people who created ads in 2000 which were brutal and mean spirited and destroyed his campaign that year.

Then there is poor Sara Palin who has yet to been confronted by a real press event. . Yet they say the media is attacking her… well they should demand that she hold press conferences to answer questions. We do not know all the truth about her but we know enough to know that she is no Hilary Clinton nor is she a defender of women.

We have a few more weeks to register voters and then get them to vote. We also have time to volunteer at one of the campaign offices. I am signing up with the Coral Gables office in Florida. We should give as much money as we can afford to the Obama campaign they need it to buy ads and to keep staff working in the field.

Also plan to work full time the last four days of the campaign… take Monday the 3^rd and Tuesday the 4^th off as vacation and give some time to protect our country and get Obama and others elected.\

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.   visiting Colorado

b.   celebrate with CIW

 

 

VISITING COLORADO

Visiting the Arkansas Valley in Eastern Colorado is like going back to a twilight zone … lots of memories and lots of disappointments. And some great re-connections.  But I still can’t believe that I survived and still have many fond memories. This part of Colorado is not filled with mountains and ski resorts but is part of the great plains of America.

First after the funeral of my aunt in Pueblo last Friday, I met with Juan Espinosa a long time friend and now an editor for the Pueblo Chieftain. In our early years he was a movement photographer and movement newspaper editor and now he was doing main stream reporting. We talked about the old times and he offered to share some of his pictures for my book

That night I drove east towards Las Animas 90 miles away… going through Fowler and Rocky Ford (home of the best melons) before I stopped in La Junta 21 miles from my home town. I had worked the agricultural fields between Rocky Ford and Las Animas as a young man. I even had far a brief time a high school sweet heart in Rocky Ford.  That night I would sleep in a Motel managed by a man from India… before all hotels, motels were run by white folks so it was interesting seeing this change. I needed a good motel night of sleep and rest for my body and mind which were overloaded from the travel, lack of sleep and all the emotions of my aunt’s funeral.

Prior to leaving the Arkansas Valley in 1963, after graduation, I was beaten by gangs in Rocky Ford, La junta and Lamar… While I had left violence and fighting by my junior year in high school my old enemies were still out to prove they could give me a whipping; which they did in a span of two weeks. Not fun getting your butt kicked …  I knew then that it was time to leave and seek my fortune else where.

PRISONS the industry of detention

Who is profiting from crime

In my home town of 3,500 there are now three prisons… across Colorado and the country you will find prisons sprouting up like wild weeds.  We have greater percentage of citizens per capita in prisons than almost all governments in this world of ours. We think that we have such a great country yet we don’t know how to deal with our cities social issues… When in doubt we jail them.. And this solves nothing..

Across America private business is making a huge profit building prisons and then housing our citizens with little or no oversight from the public. This is also the case for immigration detention centers.

 

Where has all the water gone?

            Gone to cities far away

            When will we ever learn???

 

The fields around my home town no longer grow vegetables and there are no farm workers moving up and down those fields. I ran into only one Mexican Immigrant who was working on a Dairy Farm. I gave him a ride to town. I was out checking out the farm lands where I had worked and found this worker walking down the highway and gave him a lift and grilled him about work in the area.

Later at my class reunion a class mate Bobby Denton a rancher told me that almost every one had sold their land and water rights to a company that would in turn sell those water rights to cities far away. Hmmm? Trading water as if it were oil. Could be that my home town can become a desert. Once you direct the water away the water table recedes further downward causing the top soil to dry up and free to blow away with the first wind. We just might find ourselves facing the dust storms that I saw as a child.

We are on a critical road world wide regarding this issue of water. We and our plants can not live with out water and soon it will be much more expensive than oil.

Sand pit now a public pond.

Several young people drowned in that pond when I was growing up in Las        Animas.

There is a golf course and a club house (where we had our class reunion) built next to what was a sand pit or a place where they had dredged up sand for construction projects. This hole filled with water now is a public pond with picnic tables decorating its lips..

I was ten years old when I was there by fluke with some white guys ..The white guys were swimming and I was just wading on the edge of the pond since I did not know how to swim. .I happened to accidently use the restroom on an older boys clothes which changed my life forever.. I didn’t notice the clothes there in the bushes and I was in a hurry to do my business.. So I lowered my underwear and did my business… Marvin Gleeson whose clothes I soiled was a wild older boy. And he become very enraged when he discovered what I had done to his clothes ….he  slapped me around then took me out to the middle of the pond to drown … as he dragged me out there he called me every racist name he could think of. He was a little slow in the head so he had to repeat himself often has he took me to center of this pond….I didn’t know how to swim and I was sure that I was going to die an early death. No one would investigate …after all it was just a Mexican …

There he left me in the middle of the pond going under and taking in a lot of water… just when I thought I was going under for the last time I felt a hand grasping my hair and pulling me to the surface,,, was it the hand of God? Nope it was Butch Hedgecoke a neighbor with whom I had gone to the pond… he was about 4 years older than me and had a good mind in those days.. He told me to stop struggling and he swam hard for what seemed for ever … I gasped for air and spit up water and then finally we were on the shore…

There I was a skinny kid in my under wear crying and shivering wanting to go home. Meanwhile Marvin was complaining that Butch should have left me there to drown.

Butch would not let me get dressed nor go home. He insisted that I would have to learn how to swim so that no one could ever drown me. He forced me back into the water and showed me how to dog paddle and kick… after about an hour I learned and while I was still having nightmares of almost drowning.. I was somehow filled with an internal glow knowing that I could now swim…

Later as Butch and I walked the 6 blocks to our neighborhood he laughed as he recalled my taking a dump on Marvin’s clothes…and at last I saw the humor in the event that almost got me killed.

 

St. Mary’s Church

            Looking for God.

I decided on Saturday afternoon to check out the church that I went to as a child. Growing up the church was segregated … the white folks sat on the left side and the Mexicans on the other side. It was confession time this late afternoon and folks were lining up to give their confessions prior to the Saturday evening mass.  In a wild fleeting moment I thought about giving the old local priest my confession… I wondered if he would understand the magnitude of my sins and if he could handle such a variety of creative actions with so much vivid detail…. I smiled and kept my sins intact.

One sign of the aging population was that they had built a ramp for easy access and added restrooms at the back of the church.

I sat on the left side of the church … I had never sat on that side of the church … Today folks were mixed on both sides.  This change began in 1968 when Father Horn a young priest challenged by me brought this segregation issue up during high mass. He also began including Mexicans on all the church committees. Nonetheless it felt weird sitting on the left side of the church.

 

THE CLASS REUNION

            Getting together for memories…

 

 

We had many present but we also had many who had passed away .. The pictures of the deceased class mates and deceased spouses were there with candles next to them ..There they were on a beautifully decorated table near the entrance to the hall. I immediately checked out the table to make sure my picture was not there. It’s not good to show up for a high school reunion if you are dead. Or if they think you have died.

Only four Mexican Americans showed up and one even brought his spouse, few of my classmates have ever met my spouse and I had to remind folks that someone had married me.

The three Latinos sat together… and I was separated from them by good friends ( Jerry White and his wife Carolyn) who took my chair and kept me from sitting with the other brown faced folks… no one seemed to notice that we were all at one end of the tables set up in a square. During the jokes and stories no one brought up anything about us and only I seemed to notice. It was all about the in-crowd of white students. In the end I told a story just so others would know that we too had interesting lives. Later I was able to sign and give classmates copies of my book LOOKING FOR MY WINGS. Since then others have emailed requesting a copy.

Paul Fernandez my best high school friend refused to go as my date… saying those folks were and are racist and they don’t talk to him during the rest of the year so why should he go and smile at them for this reunion.. Well not all were racists I argued and mentioned that there would be several Chicanos there and we could all sit together..Paul got angry because I threatened to hit him with a base ball bat and drag him to the reunion (he knew I was joking but did not appreciate the pressure)..See ya later he said storming out of my mother’s home.. Now my sister Dee Dee’s… I think Paul would have shot me in the leg before I could tie him up and take him to the reunion.. I did catch up with him later Saturday night after the formal dinner and had a good visit. Paul and I had escaped this world and its racism by using drugs/alcohol when we were young.. And Paul was still escaping in the same fashion. I must say in Paul’s defense that he was and is smarter and better read than most that I have run into.

Racism is alive and well in this world of ours. The pain that we cause others is not easily forgotten and leaves many scars that affect how we live and dream.

The reunion was a good event and good to see folks that even though I was not close  to a lot of them during my youth … I have learned to appreciate them and some of their perspectives…and now many realize that we and our rural society was not as kind or gracious to everyone.

Some who were also discriminated against were some of those who were poor whites who were never accepted by our high school in-groups.

 

THE TOWN IS DYING

Even though there is a new DQ or Dairy Queen that looks very nice and fancy, there are more buildings that are boarded up… The liquor stores and the bars seem to be making good money and today there are more than three places to get Mexican food. But the town is dying… and I don’t know if these three prisons will be enough to keep it alive.

I was told that from grades 1-12 that there are only 450 students in the whole system…When I was growing up there we had two grades schools, one junior high and one high school and we must have had about 1,000 students in the entire system. In high school alone we had 350.  Now the population is older, having fewer kids and people continue to move away.

CELEBRATING A VICTORY OVER BURGER KING

                CIW got a double whopper of justice

Come join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Sunday, September 14th, at 5 pm to celebrate not only the Burger King Victory, but the agreement reached this week with Whole Foods. You have been a vital part of these achievements and have a reason to celebrate…

It will be held at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Miami.

Across this country many of you have marched, written letters and have raised your voices for these farm workers. While many of you can not be with us in Miami …you will be remembered and your spirits will get our respect and love that will be carried by the winds in four directions.

I was lucky to have gone to a number of the demonstrations and was MC at the last two rallies outside of the Burger King headquarters. And happy to be reminded that we can make a difference.

Please remember that we should always DREAM THE IMMPOSSIBLE and then work like crazy to make it a reality…

SI SE PUEDE

leno

 

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS

Today is Saturday Sept. 5^th when I write this Ahora…. I am in Pueblo, Colorado… on my way to Las Animas … for my High School Class Reunion… on my way to this reunion I found out that my Aunt Chole/Sally had died in Pueblo.  So today we prayed and celebrated her life… we had so many stories and music at the burial site that they had to kick us out saying that we were holding up another burial…everyone wanted to share some of their history and love for my aunt.

It was a great celebration of my Aunt’s life… other elder family members were there and I wondered how soon we might be at their services… I reconnected with many cousins and nieces… including a second cousin who just got out of prison and I talked to him about how difficult adjustment must be… and let him know he could call me…I think he appreciated me understanding the difficulties of getting out of prison and adjusting to society …Seems that he and my nephew were in the same prison for a while and members of rival gangs.

I was also able to give out copies of my book to many of my family that had not gotten one… We have many writers in my family and a second cousin Marcy gave me her book and I will soon dig into it..  We all weave our stories and our dreams and need to share them. My sister Tencha the playwright has one of her plays which includes my aunt Chole being produced soon off Broadway in New York.

Four of my sisters attended this service and it was good to see them..Good to see their smiles and remember how wonderful they all are ..

By the time we ended the service we were laughing singing and celebrating the life of Aunt Sally/Chole … just the kind of party she would of enjoyed… for many I think it was the first real festive celebration at a grave site that they had experienced.

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.      the little pig

b.      the conventions

c.       i-phone

d.      the economics..

 

THE LITTLE PIG

            A FRENCH BULL DOG

We baby sat a young puppy that was a French Bull Dog.. First of all they have large cute ears and faces… I couldn’t remember the name of this puppy so we just called him the little pig .(looked like a piglet)  This puppy hopped, jumped and ran all over the house even jumping into the shower to join any one who seemed to washing up.  He was cute and wonderful… made me laugh and we all have to laugh on occasion…

THE CONVENTIONS…

            And a woman on one of the tickets.

I was not able to go to either one.. but had I the money and time I would have gone to both to see the festivals..

It was not much of a festival for all those journalists and demonstrators that were arrested. Police at these events can get heavy handed. From a distance it seemed that the police were worse at the Republican convention…

The Democratic Convention was most interesting and with many good speakers and amazing work by the Clintons… the Mile High Stadium was out of this world and will give a big boost to the many supporters. Obama is a great leader and am happy about what Biden has to offer or OBIDEN as some call him.

This will be remembered as the most interesting of conventions. The part I guess that touched my heart the most was common people who got up and talked about their real life situations.

The Republicans went (in football terms) for the long ball …throwing a Hail Mary pass called Sarah Palin. A woman on the second part of the ticket…  a special gift for the far far right. The conservatives pushed Palin on McCain and she has yet to be properly vetted. I fear that more about her will come out in the weeks ahead that will make their party uncomfortable.

The Republicans have many well credentialed women who would have made a good VP pick. Instead they have insulted their own party and women thinking that Sarah who votes against women, pregnant teens, and handicapped children will some how win the hearts of women and moderates..

This VP candidate does change the table for Democrats and they must be wise in their approach to this Third quarter of the game.

THE i- PHONE

Got one but don’t know what to do

I finally got ATT to accept my records and to give me an upgrade to an i-phone. It still costs a lot more than the $55 Dollar phone I bought two years ago. I went from the cheapest model to top of the line… Now I gots to figure out how to operate it.. .

The Economics of Our Time

 

Many families continue to suffer as they continue to have trouble feeding their families and hold on to their homes. Little by little jobs are disappearing off of the market…our country is suffering and we need to do something to turn this around before we drive even more families into the poor house.

Today there are more Prime rate mortgages than Subprime going under. People are defaulting on their loans… and there are more shoes to be dropped. Today a major bank in Nevada just went under and there are more to come..

 

NEED YOUR PICTURES

Please send me photos of you and me and particular events that we have shared. I would like to have them in my collection plus I am looking for some other images for the book I am working on. It would be much appreciated.

I send my best

leno