Category: Uncategorized

December 25, 2005

Dear Friends:

On behalf of Ramsey – "Tezcatlipoca" Irma "Citlalmina"
and our families, we thank you for the love and support that
you have given us. Know that I will travel to
Springfield, Missouri again to be with my husband from
December 29 through January 1.

We also thank you for bringing forth the spiritual/cultural
movement of the 21st century. This movement is one that
pertains to the masses of our people and is to be taken
seriously. Life is serious, and as you well know I have
learned the significance of this. Below is Ramsey’s message.
I know that these words are for his people whom he loves.
He states the following:

"The pain that I feel for my people is so great and I’m unable
to cry as a Mexicano. I would like to cry, but I have no more tears.

We must take the time and thank God for giving us life once more. I’m
convinced now that He has a mission not only for us, but for those
around us. Citlalmina, I cannot find the words to share with you that
my heart, my love, my spirituality is like never before in my life.
Every night it is a new vision and/or dream that He brings to my life
for me to share with you and those close to our hearts.

He has shared with me that one day soon we will be totally free
from the chains and shackles of the oppressor. He took my life and gave
it back to us. Now it is our destiny to bring life, love, liberation,
and justice in the same way that our beloved brother, Jesus did on this
day of His birth."

Amor,
Tezcatlipoca

******************

www.freeramsey.com

Email from Irma Muniz (Dec. 21, 2005)

By Greg Moses

Whip lashed by serial collisions of imperial power, dissident movements
in the USA brace for the next shocking thing. We have been hijacked
into a crashing invasion of Iraq, slammed around by evasive maneuvers
in New Orleans, and now along the borderlands of the Southwest USA,
signs warn that a highway of accommodation is about to end, dumping us
head-on into deserts of aggression upon Latin American peoples.

Into each new crisis, empire roars forward, pumping high
octane into its five-piston engine. Whether stirring borderland
provocations at home, fighting wars of aggression abroad, or exploiting
crises of colonized communities anywhere, the five pistons of empire
always work the same. Full article posted at Peacefile

In order for the wealthier districts to pursue higher local tax rates,
they had to argue that the existing tax cap left them no ‘meaningful
discretion’ beyond funding educational basics.  Here the Supreme
Court agreed that the trial judge had made the right assessment; the
richer districts in Texas needed more money:

Meaningful discretion cannot be quantified; it is an
admittedly imprecise standard. But we think its application in this
case is not a close question. The district court found that the
plaintiffs= Afocus districts@ for which evidence was offered Alack
>meaningful discretion= in setting their local property tax rates.@
Contrary to the dissent=s assertion, this finding was supported by
evidence other than conclusory opinions of district superintendents.
The district court detailed evidence showing 108 how the districts are
struggling to maintain accreditation with increasing standards, a
demographically diverse and changing student population, and fewer
qualified teachers, while cutting budgets even further. The district
court found that due to inadequate funding: 52.8% of the newly hired
teachers in 2002 were not certified, up from 14.1% in 1996; more
teachers were being required to teach outside their areas of expertise;
and attrition and turnover were growing. The court cited the higher
costs of educating economically disadvantaged students and students
with limited English proficiency, noting that 90% of the growth in the
student population has come from low-income families. And as set out in
more detail above, the district court noted the increased curriculum,
testing, and accreditation standards, and the increased costs of
meeting them. These are facts, not opinions. The State defendants point
to evidence of some discretionary spending on programs not essential to
accreditation, but there is also evidence that such programs are
important to keeping students in school.

In a series of articles criticizing Texas government for switching its
statistical source for civil rights reporting in employment, the Texas
Civil Rights Review complained that the Bureau of Labor Statistics
provides poor numbers for civil rights purposes because of the way it
disperses Hispanic populations by race categories. For that
reason we complained that Texas government made a bad choice by taking
up BLS statistics instead of more relevant numbers generated by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Well, we could have done a better job of citing the problem with BLS
statistics had we quoted the BLS itself. In a May 2002 report
on "The role of foreign-born workers in the U. S. economy", author
Abraham T. Mosisa explains why he will not adopt the usual BLS model in
his statistical analysis of Hispanic employment:

In this article, contrary to the customary BLS practice of counting
Hispanics (an ethnic group) as part of the race category to which they
belong, Hispanics are not included in the estimates for whites, blacks,
and Asians, but, instead, are shown separately. This was done
because currently Hispanics constitute a large proportion of the
foreign born, and they have distinctive characteristics, which will be
outlined further throughout this article. Hence, if they were included
in the estimates for the major race group, clear-cut comparisons of employment characteristics among the groups would be difficult to make.

Thank you Mr. Mosisa. In civil rights work, clear cut comparisons are crucial.–gm