Category: Uncategorized

“I happen to still believe in the open records law in Texas,” says Mayor Will Lowrance of Hillsboro, 55 miles south of Dallas. He’s referring to the Governor’s steadfast refusal to disclose “proprietary” documents related to planned construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The Mayor says he’d like to see the documents before making an informed decision on the mega-highway-railroad-real-bad-news-for-racoons plan.

Meanwhile, “Grandma” Carole Keeton Strayhorn is also dogging the Gov at mega-highway hearings, criticizing him “for his ‘secret contract with a foreign company’ — the U.S.-Spanish consortium that the state has approved to build and operate the $184 billion corridor, which would parallel Interstate 35. The Perry administration is now battling an attorney general’s ruling to fully disclose the contract.”

Which reminds us that we also would like to see some documentation from the Governor’s office: plans for Operation Jump Start. We agree wiith the Mayor: citizens ought to be able to watch their democracy at work, the better to tinker with it as they see fit.
If the Governor is going to tell everybody that Operation Jump Start is on schedule, and if the Governor is going to retain formal command of the troops, then doesn’t it follow that the Governor should show us the schedule we’re on? Instead, he says he doesn’t have one.

We were just about to give up on higher principles during the coming campaign season. Thanks, Mayor. Thanks, Grandma.

See AP story: “Corridor could be roadblock for Perry: Plan nettles more than just farmers, but aide dismisses campaign risk” posted at WFAA com.

Also: “Strayhorn becoming a regular at highway public hearings.” Tuesday, July 25, 2006. By Noelene Clark. Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer.

Dear Friends:

We wish to thank Univision, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the American GI Forum for a successful press conference held in San Antonio, Texas. Our deepest gratitude goes to Rosa Rosales, Rolando P. Garza, Joe Ortiz, Sam Alvarado and all of our suporters who continue to work for the freedom of
Ramsey Muniz. Below are writings received from Ramsey. Please distribute.–Irma L. Muniz

July 9, 2006

“The Mexican problem is not really a problem incumbent only to Mexico; it is a universal problem. It is the problem of hunger, the problem that the disinherited of all the world have to resolve under the penalty of living with their bodies bent down under the yoke of the master class. To deny solidarity to the Mexican workingmen who are struggling to conquer their economic freedom is to stand against the labor cause in general because the cause of the wage-slave against his master has no frontiers.

It is not a national problem, but a universal conflict. It is the cause of all the disinherited of the world over, of everyone who has to work with his hands and his brains to bring his family a loaf of bread.”

Ricardo Flores Magon
1914. Mexicano Revolutionary

Around one hundred years ago, nuestra gente, nuestra raza, and our sisters and brothers from the Holy Land of Mexico who journeyed across the borders of Aztlan, find ourselves in the same struggle that Flores-Magon spoke and wrote about during the 1910 Mexican Revolution. It is not only an immigration
problem on behalf of America, but it is the all embracing quality that is absolutely necessary for us to embrace as the consciousness of a mission pertaining to life, equality, justice, spirituality, and in becoming one once again. It is our moral and conscious duty to provide the necessary element for our sisters and brothers to become part of us here in Aztlan. In
reality, we of the 21st Century are simply fulfilling the
prophecies of our ancient Mexicano past, which has not passed at all. It is a Mexicano spiritual mission that cannot come from human resolve. It can only come as the emanation of a super Mexicano personal soul – the organ of a higher destiny – a divinity.

And that super personal Mexicano soul is called “Mexicayotl” (me-shee-ka-yotl). In our ancient Mexicano spiritual/cultural lives, Mexicayotl was the Nahuatl organ of a higher destiny for the future of our people. It was to become a divinity with the essence of Nahuatl power. It is a power to be embraced and
shared by all of us, not only here in Aztlan, but with our sisters and brothers from our Holy Land of Mexico. This same consciousness which is spiritual in nature is the same that Ricardo Flores Magon, Zapata, Villa, Chavez, Hidalgo, Juarez, and Marcos shared with all Mexicanos/Mexicanas who seek justice, liberation and land in their lives. Mexicayotl is spiritual in origin and nature simply because of its suffering, sacrifices,
and the eventual task of becoming free once again.

“As I embrace our ancient Mexicano indigenous spirituality, I’m transformed by a passion I have discovered from our past. Now I perceive it in my own Mexicano soul. During this mode of confinement and darkness, chained and shackled of my soul, I have been given access to a great and profound secret. Now I know the imprisonment, suffering, sadness, sorrow, grief, and sacrifices of my ancient ancestors, and it has become my own.”

Ramsey Muniz – Tezcatlipoca
7/9/06

The time has come for us Mexicanos, Chicanos, Hispanics, Latinos, and Mexican Americans to reunite as a people, as a race, and as a nation. As long as we think that we are different, we will continue to be divided, defeated, and conquered once again in the 21st Century. It is my present mission and spiritual
destiny to share with all Mexicanos in the prison system of America that in reality “todos somos uno.” At times I can feel the ill feelings and hatred in the hearts of many, due to past experiences and teachings. But once we are able to communicate as we did in our past, the present and future will become the prophecy that I have fulfilled for our ancient spiritual ancestors.
At times I can feel, dream, and see that we are at the peak of becoming one once again. The elements of self-hatred, jealousy, envy and prejudice are gradually becoming a thing of an American past.

It is our duty as Mexicanos here in Aztlan and America to open communications spiritually, culturally, and politically with our Holy Land of Mexico. The cold Berlin wall they speak about structuring is for the purpose of dividing us once again as a people. Every congressional bill or law proposed against our people
is anti-spiritual, anti-raza, anti-cultural, anti-heroic, and anti-Mexicayotl. But since the past can never destroy the future, only attempt to thwart it, there lies the possibility that Aztlan and all Mexicanos in America will follow many decades of degradation, chaos, imprisonment in vast numbers, darkness, stultification, miseria, and wasting away. What can we do? Que vamos hacer? The answer once again, as we have done in our past, is the power of
spiritual/cultural/political mobilization. Why do I share the existence of this topic on this night of 7/10/06? Because the spirits of our ancient ancestors have become my own, and the motivation of our power struggle in our age of absolute politics lies in our spiritual/cultural divinity.

In conclusion, many will agree and disagree with my writings on the forthcoming of our Mexicano spiritual/cultural mobilization throughout Aztlan and in our Holy Land of Mexico. Many will think that
because I’m confined in this mode of darkness that I am unable to personally witness the injustices and oppression of our people in the so-called free world. The spirits, the prophecies, and the messages
of our ancient spiritual ancestors have become a part of my life. I have been chosen and destined to write, to share and to embrace with all Mexicanos the forthcoming “spiritual/cultural mobilization” into
the 21st Century, “armados con Mexicayotl.” I have accepted Aztlan’s world mission of justice, liberation and land. Mi gente, mi raza, solamente por medio de Mexicayotl realizaremos el llenamiento de la mision Mundial de Aztlan.

In exile,
Tezcatlipoca
(Ramsey Muniz)

“Infinite pain: For the pain of imprisonment is the harshest, most devastating pain, murdering the mind, searing the soul, leaving marks that will never be erased.”

http://www.freeramsey.com

To report increasing diversity requires two percentages: last year’s ‘percentage’ of minority enrollment vs. this year’s. To compare last year’s ‘total number’ of minority to this year’s total may prove an increase in minority enrollment, but it does not prove an increase in ‘diversity,’ because growth in white enrollments must be factored in. Yet some reporters and editors persist in the fallacy of reporting ‘increasing diversity’ in terms of growth in minority enrollment.

Name that fallacy? How about the fallacy of standalone diversity?
Not only do raw numbers of minority enrollment fail to track diversity, but diversity percentages on campus fail to supply their own significance. The significance of a diversity percentage on campus has to be assessed in terms of the off-campus ratios. This is because the whole question of diversity arises in the context of civil rights and de-segregation.

“Together, African-Americans and Hispanics represent about 55 percent of Texas’ 15-to-34 population, but only approximately 36 percent of the students in Texas higher education,” says a July report from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (Closing the Gaps). These are the sorts of numbers that should accompany every report on campus diversity. There is a target we are trying to achieve through diversity.

At Texas A&M, this year’s numbers illustrate the fallacy of reporting increases in minority enrollments as simple facts of ‘increasing diversity’. Although total numbers of first-time Black and Hispanic students increased, there was no increase in the percentage of diversity.

The failure to increase on-campus Black and Hispanic diversity past a combined 17.6 percent is significant in light of what the Coordinating Board says above. With 36 percent of college aged minorities enrolled across the state, A&M fails to produce half-a-loaf in terms of the relevant talent pool.

But the significance of the flat-diversity curve is further dramatized by the fact that ‘minorities’ make up most of the college-age population. They are not ‘minorities’ at all.

Under “Read More” please find our updated chart of first time enrollment by gender and ethnicity at Texas A&M University.

CHART BELOW
Enrollment Ratios 2000-2004
for Texas A&M University

Race/Ethnicity & Gender

CHART BELOW
Enrollment Ratios 2005-2009
for Texas A&M University

Race/Ethnicity & Gender

Note: Between 1994 and 1998, the ratio of:

–Black first time students fell steadily from 4.8% to 2.7%

–Hispanic first-time students

peaked at 14.7% then fell to 9.1%

–White first-time students increased steadily from 76.3% to

82.0%

Source: OPIR/ip/Profile98(p.8)

Note: without ratios to overall population, the raw numbers of minority enrollments have little civil rights significance.–gm

Report Shows Laredo “Superjail” Unnecessary, Group Calls For No Action Alternative

Report Also Questions Impact of Superjail on Region’s Economy

LAREDO, TX – On July 24, 2006 Grassroots Leadership released “Ground Zero: The Laredo Superjail and the No Action Alternative,” a new report showing that the controversial 2,800 bed US Marshals Service detention center near Laredo is largely unnecessary. Analyzing US Marshals data, the report confirms that spikes in detention levels in the Laredo region are largely due to disproportionately increased prosecution of non-violent immigrants, and could be avoided with a shift in prosecutorial emphasis.
“This report concludes the USMS prison expansion in or near the Laredo area is unnecessary, and the best course of action is the no action alternative,” said Nicholas Hudson, the report’s author. “The data analyzed in this report indicates immigration-related detention is disproportionately represented compared to every other type of offense in the Texas South USMS district.”

The report also questions the assertion of the draft EIS that the region’s economy would benefit from the construction and operation of the detention center.

“The most authoritative evidence indicates the Laredo superjail would have no positive economic impacts on any of the proposed sites,” said Bob Libal, field organizer for Grassroots Leadership. “The region could experience detrimental economic impacts.”

KEY FINDINGS

⇒ A dramatic increase in prosecution for low-level immigration charges is primarily responsible for the increased levels of USMS detention in Texas south. In 2003, 53% of USMS detainees in Texas South were held on immigration charges. By 2004, almost two-thirds (62%) of the individuals detained in Texas South by the US Marshals were there on immigration-related charges.

⇒ Many of these detainees are held on “illegal entry” charges, and serve an average of 30 day sentences before being deported. Detainees on immigration charges made up 90% of the detention growth in the Texas South USMS region. http://www.stoppcoalition.org/