"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

I'm not a terrorist

“Pregunta del Dia” by Esther J. Cepeda

“Pregunta del Dia” translates from Spanish into Question of the Day and today’s was delivered at 12:15 am this morning at the McDonald’s inside Chicago Union Station by a seemingly stone-cold-sober Cubs fan catching a snack before boarding a Metra train out to the ‘burbs.

After the blond-haired, blue-eyed young man let loose a string of vile expletives to his eating companions, then caught my icy glare for polluting our communal space with his negativity, he retaliated against my silent protest of his rude behavior by asking me the following:

Q. Do you have fun blowing up buildings, you ------- terrorist? Huh? You heard me, you ------- ---- terrorist!

A. How to reply?

My mouth dropped open and I smiled, 100% sure he was kidding. His mocking face followed by another string of even worse garbage set me straight.

I tried to lighten the mood with the platitude: “Would you talk like that in front of your mother?” Things devolved from there and after he reiterated today’s “pregunta,” with various vivid details added, my loud indignation had attracted one of Chicago’s finest who directed him and his posse to leave the station.

Let me back up. Twenty-four hours prior to the incident, I had decided to write for Friday about the ridiculous accusations made about Food Network star Rachel Ray’s Dunkin’ Donuts commercial being taken off the air. Conservative Filipina columnist Michelle Malkin, and other bloggers, said Rachel’s scarf looked like a keffiyeh reminiscent of those that some Middle Easterners wear. Malkin has dropped bombs like this on America’s dark-haired sweetheart over the last week: “many readers have e-mailed about, Dunkin Donuts’ spokeswoman Rachel Ray’s clueless sporting of a jihadi chic keffiyeh in a recent DD ad campaign. I’m hoping her hate couture choice was spurred more by ignorance than ideology.” Apparently Rachel would be a lot sweeter if her costume designer was less flamboyant.

Early Thursday I’d started my day at the Chicago Google offices munching on bagels with some of the smartest innovators in the world and brightest young business people in town at the Executives Club of Chicago’s New Leaders general meeting.

A few hours later I lunched at a fancy downtown restaurant with the leader of a multi-million dollar business. Later I hopped into a cab – the driver had greeted me warmly in a language I didn’t understand because he mistook me for a fellow Indian – on my way to a lecture at the Arts and Business Council of Chicago’s “Rise of the Cultural Consumer” program at the Alliance Française where I learned about the bright future of our society. I topped the night off with not one, but two, fancy parties with some of Chicago’s most influential young professionals. Shortly after midnight I was attacked because I quietly resisted someone’s foul language with a disapproving look.

For the first time in my Cinderella-story-book life, I was simply one of so many others who are looked at with suspicion because of the color of their hair, eyes, and skin. I was shamed in front of an instantly-alarmed crowd at a major Midwestern transportation hub by a dangerous federally-defined insult.

Informing my fellow midnight-snacker that I was born in the United States as I gathered my things – and as the policewoman started getting heavy on him – probably went unheard. Besides, I was too busy scurrying away to cry out of sight to enunciate properly.

Here’s my answer again: On behalf of myself, of good-lookin’-and-good-cookin’ multi-millionairess Rachel Ray, and on behalf of every other person in this country with dark hair, dark eyes, but no dark intentions: I am not a terrorist.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Dangerous optimism: JAMA study not as happy for Hispanics

“600 Words” by Esther J. Cepeda

Let’s just face it: we’re fat. Ok, maybe not you, specifically, dear reader, but we Americans are tipping the scales.

The latest world ranking put our affluent girths at numbers five for men and eight for women, not surprising for the home of the super-size value meal. The statistics are astounding: the Endocrine Society of America and the Centers for Disease Control estimated from 2004 Census numbers that obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually and costs the U.S. nearly $122.9 billion bucks. And, just one mortality statistic for you just to put it in context: the number one killer of women? Heart disease – obesity’s good pal.

But there is, seemingly, a light at the end of the tunnel. The Journal of the American Medical Association just published a report called High Body Mass Index for Age Among US Children and Adolescents, 2003-2006 which posits that maybe the incidence of childhood obesity in kids ages 2-19 has leveled off. Possibly.

In terms of longitudinal studies, data collected from the 1960’s to 2006 is a small data set, and the authors didn’t make any firm proclamations. But after accounting for ambiguities such as the difference in what was considered obese then and today, researchers found that obesity rates in kids have held steady at 32 percent since 1999.

This is progress, this is good news! This proves that with education and advocacy lives can be changed…for some. For others the numbers are not as celebratory. Let us be happy that Hispanic and African American children are experiencing the possible plateau at the same rates as the rest of the population but in truth, compared to white kids, they’re still not doing very well.

The most recent data show that 14.5 percent of white girls ages 12 to 19 are obese compared to 20 percent of Mexican American girls and 28 percent of African American girls. Mexican American boys are also heavier than Caucasian boys. Any school teacher in America could accurately recite those statistics without reading the study but just by looking at their classrooms: Hispanic kids are fatter than other kids.

My colorblind side, of course, believes that no child should suffer from the kind of over-malnutrition that leads to Type-2 diabetes, increased risk of heart-attacks and general ill-health regardless of race or ethnicity. But my brown eyes see dark-skinned ticking time bombs and I wonder what the shape of our young Latino adults will be in 2050 when we make up 29 percent of the population.

And why should it matter to anyone who’s not Hispanic?

“Because the Latino is the backbone of the American economy,” Dr. Elena Rios, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Health Association told me yesterday. “We are fast becoming the biggest group [of employees] and the youngest. [The concern] is not just about helping ‘our community’ understand, it’s important that everybody understand that if we don’t control this we’re going to see more diabetics, more amputations, more blindness and lower employee productivity.”

“If we ignore this, it’s going to have a direct impact on the general economic health of America,” Elena said, “it’s going to be worse for Hispanics and for all the small business, hotels, factories, and every industry that relies on productive and healthy Hispanics.”

This is not an “immigration issue” so don’t bother emailing me to question the legality of these workers. The facts are that by 2050 most of the Latinos you know will be U.S.-born and as American as mami and apple flan. So let’s turn our attention to both.

“Food is an important part of the Latino culture,” Dr. Elena said sort of rolling her eyes, “we do believe in celebration and we have strong family values so our celebrations end up being every Sunday at dinner, but that’s why we need to communicate about how to eat right and eat better.”

“We can’t stop the good efforts to target the Hispanic population, and we have to do better at helping the non-Hispanic health providers share this knowledge with the communities they serve,” Elena said, “there is no magic bullet. It’s a social change, a transformation in society. It’s just like what happened with smoking it took us thirty years for knowledge and research studies to trickle down to everyday life.”

So bottom line: less obese kids is great all around but even less Hispanic and African American kids obese will be that much better. JAMA’s statistics aren’t cause for a sigh of relief and a turn to other matters. As Karen Carpenter and Dr. Rios said: “We’ve only just begun.” But we’re on our way, and already seeing the positive progress.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Scary South Americans!

Pregunta del Dia by Esther J. Cepeda

Bum bah dum-dum, bum ba-dee! Bum bah dum-dum, bum ba-dee-Dee-DEE!!

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from a loyal, albeit bitter, Westchester, IL reader who preferred to remain nameless:

Q. Did you see that Indiana Jones movie, just about a buncha white men looting our culture?

A. Whoa, Nelly! (No, not really "Nelly," though that is a popular name in Latin America.) Take a chill pill, will ya – not everything is about "da man" trying to keep us down.

Monday morning I sat in an audience of predominantly white movie-goers practically vibrating with glee that the long-awaited summer blockbuster chose to highlight my beautiful ancestral South America.

There were jungles, maps of Peru (darned close to Ecuador), mentions of Quechua – a native tongue my own father has referenced many times in passing conversation about his youth in Quito – and gorgeous pyramids, waterfalls, and indigenous women in their traditional multi-colored ponchos and felt bowler hats.

Ok, so the only people of color in the movie where those baddish, scary-exotic loin-clothed Indians oddly reminiscent of Jack Black’s toothy sidekick "Esqueleto" in Nacho Libre. But aside from a drop-dead-gorgeous Cate Blanchett the real star of the movie is its location.

Ok, ok, so the Peruvian town was actually a backlot in California and the jungle was in reality in Hawaii, details – mere quibbles! I felt the director’s and producer’s love, and in this time where anyone brown is either looked at with suspicion because they might throw an election or scam someone out of their social security debt – ahem, I mean, benefits – we need all the Latin American lovin’ we can get.

As for the tall tale of the crystal skull, the official Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull web site has a nice, long explanation of its’ origins and whether there might be any truth to it. Better still, read Benjamin Radford’s column on livescience.com, there he describes the real-life quartz Skull of Doom "supposedly found in the 1920s at a lost Mayan ruin in Central America by an explorer named F. A. Mitchell-Hedges…rumored to have the power to kill." His florid description ends with a less-than-mystical forgery theory, but hey, where’s your benefit of the doubt?

I won’t take any mind-altering substances and peer into the misty corridors of "my people’s" collective knowledge for the truth – you can do that yourself – but I don’t need to. Not only do "I want to believe," but what I know for a fact is that South America truly is lush, gorgeous, and full of nice monkeys. There really are glittering water falls, ancient mysteries, and is to this day home to women who wear the colorful ponchos and bowlers everyday. And I’m eternally grateful to Doctor Jones for pointing it out.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Latin America: forever on the back burner

"600 words" by Esther J. Cepeda

It was going to happen: finally, a robust discussion about the United States’ foreign policy toward Latin America because the "rock star" was going to bring it up. Yep, it was to be an important day in turning the nation’s attention south until someone had to stick her big fat foot - conservative pump and all - into her mouth. Again.

Capitalizing on the occasion of Cuban Independence Day week, Barack Obama seized his moment in the Miami sun Friday to deliver a speech titled "Renewing U.S. Leadership in the Americas." He spoke of the promise of hard-working immigrants, of "taking pride in a vibrant and diverse democracy," of challenging the visions of leftist dictator-wannabes by actually acknowledging those south of the border as more than just U.S.-bound welfare cases or drug dealers.

‘Bama ripped George Bush’s record of completely neglecting Latin America and threw McCain under the same bus: "It is time for us to recognize that the future security and prosperity of the United States is fundamentally tied to the future of the Americas. If we don’t turn away from the policies of the past, then we won’t be able to shape the future.  The Bush Administration has offered no clear vision for this future, and neither has John McCain."

He covered dealing with FARC rebels in Colombia, bringing libertad to Cuba, finding a way to keep China from buying up everything south of the equator and keeping Iran from propping up Venezuela’s instability with its oil money.

Did you hear about it? No, because on the same day Hillary Clinton bumbled into offending supporters and detractors alike by saying something stupid that had a weird racial tinge. Again.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Hillary brought up Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 assassination simultaneously recalling the sore subjects of Barack Obama’s peril on the campaign trail and the frail health of Senator Edward Kennedy who, let’s not forget, completely punked her out by throwing the full weight of his political machine behind Barack several months ago.

The media, of course, were off to the races. McCain’s flack’s silly exhortation that "Senator Obama’s reckless judgement, and his pandering on trade will set back relations between the U.S. and Latin America for decades!" took a back seat to the latest Hillary kerfuffle.

Will anything short of Colombia taking Jessica Simpson hostage while symbolically dumping several plane-loads of pure cocaine into Boston Harbor get the United States to

pay attention to the almost thirty countries who could be our greatest allies, trade partners, and friends?

Frankly I don’t much care what other stupidity any of the candidates manage to croak out in the next few months. I, like so many others, have disconnected from it all but they’re missing opportunities to engage voters in open, constructive national dialogues.

Instead of talking about, much less to, our neighbors to the south – though I guess we will when Rio steals that 2016 Olympics bid from Chicago – our relationship with Latin America remains nonexistent, and it ain’t because they’re boring!

Argentina just elected its first female president who happened to be married to the immediate outgoing president, Ecuador’s leftist president studied at the University of Illinois, the president of Bolivia used to be a coca plant farmer. There are a million non-presidential but interesting telenovela-style points of interest but they seem to be forever off the American map of "things that matter."

News flash: our "American" way of life squarely rests on the prosperity and health of everyone of our continental neighbors. It matters.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Coming attractions

The link on the left takes you to my upcoming events:

Esther J. Cepeda is deeply committed to opening minds and broadening horizons through aggressive thought leadership and the dissemination of positive, analytical ideas.

That means she gives speeches/Q&A, moderates roundtable discussions/panels, shows up ready to rumble or rumba, take your pick.

Esther can rattle off statistics on population and migration patterns, speak passionately on topics as diverse as sports, culture, education, news, politics, economics and business, and, yes, if pressed she'll give you her take on immigration/diversity/all that jazz (oh yeah, don't get her started on that, she can belt out every song from the musical Chicago...don't ask unless you reallllly want to hear it).

The fun part is that you never know what's gonna come out of her mouth!

These people feel reasonably comfortable:

• May 28, 2008 Perspectives  South Loop Middle school annual graduation  (not open to public)

• June 5-7, 2008 ColumbiaUniversity Next Generation Project American Assembly: U.S. GLobal Policy and the future of international relations @ the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (not open to public)

• June 10-11, 2008 Making Media Connections Conference "Ethnic Media & Beyond" According to recent reports, the ethnic news sector has audiences that are growing rather than shrinking. Learn how your organization can reach out to these audiences. Dee Daniels, Noir Woman News; Ray Hanania, Chicago Arab American Journalist Association; Glen Reedus, Chicago Daily Defender. Moderator: Esther Cepeda, 600words.com. (Register right this moment)

• June 18, 2008 "1,001 Afternoons in Chicago" - "an innovative collaboration between Accessible Contemporary Music and "The Moving Architects" based on the stories of legendary Chicago newspaperman Ben Hecht. During the 1920's Hecht, a writer at the time for the Daily News, challenged himself to write a short story each day and publish it in the paper. He succeeded and the result has been compiled and published as 1,001 Afternoons in Chicago. This collaborative piece explores 12 of the stories through music, motion and visual imagery. The Evanston performance will be preceded by a panel discussion featuring the Chicago Tribune's Rick Kogan and Neil Steinberg from the Chicago Sun-Times. The panel will be moderated by Esther J. Cepeda, "600 Words" columnist."

• July 26, 2008, UNITY 08 Journalism Convention "Bloggers of Color: The Top Five Reasons Why the Blogosphere is NOT Diverse and What You Can Do About It!" Bloggers have forced the mainstream media to investigate stories of interest to communities of color like the "Jena Six," "Genarlow Wilson" and "Shaquanda Cotton." Bloggers were instrumental to forcing retailer Abercrombie and Fitch to ditch their racial anti-Asian t-shirts. Bloggers helped the Latino community organize their pro-immigration rallies. Yet bloggers of color are woefully under-represented in the blogosphere. Bloggers are regularly invited onto radio and TV shows to provide an "alternative" voice on breaking news stories. However, many of these prominent bloggers are overwhelmingly white and male..." read more and register now.

Contact Esther if you want her to come spread her magic at your gig. Her rates are reasonable, but its extra if you DON'T want her to sing. (Not a wise choice...she's pretty darned good.)

John Lennon was no William Shatner

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s is a rumination from myself (I can do that y’know)

Q. Is Star Trek "God" and is William Shatner "Jesus?"

A. Yes you read that correctly, and no, I did not mean is Captain James T. Kirk "Jesus."

Allow me to set the dots and then I’ll connect them for you.

No, I’m not a heretic, it’s just that coincidences (events that coincide i.e., correspond exactly) this week have led me to wonder.

Not only did William Shatner, hereby referred to only as SHATNER, appear to me in the form of a direct mail piece sprung on me late at night in a tired stupor and as a four-color animatron as I purchased on-line, but so did "Star Trek"(which I hated, hated, hated as a child because it was boring to me and seemed to be always on TV on my lonely Saturday afternoons). This flowed from the mouths of two people I admire greatly within 24-hours of each other.

Thursday morning – at the top of the world – on the 66th floor of the Sears Tower in Chicago, John W. Rowe, 62, chairman and chief executive officer of Exelon Corporation at a meeting of the Executives Club of Chicago, talked about reducing carbon emissions by 2020 and invoked a Star Trek episode in which some-thing-or-other tried to eradicate the carbon-based life forms.

Friday morning Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times columnist, wrote about ex-Gov. George Ryan mis-quoting Lincoln by actually quoting someone who was playing Abraham Lincoln in an episode of…you guessed it.

The other obvious contender for such mythical status is "Star Wars" and its’ "force," (another pop-culture phenomenon I know nothing about) which is openly practiced as a multi-lingual, multi-cultural religion in some corners of the world, but: 1) Darth Vader doesn’t actually walk among us (James Earl Jones isn’t nearly that tall or intimidating) like SHATNER. And 2) SHATNER is, well…SHATNER!

How a show that accurately predicted the future -- today's realities -- and how Shatner can become one man-character-god, infused into my life in a billion different ways (my freshman AP biology teacher made our final "A nature example of the Prime Directive." I had no idea whatsoever what that even meant. I can’t believe I slid out with a "C.") is beyond comprehension. John Lennon once got himself in hot water for comparing his fame to Jesus. SHATNER has legions doing it for him (Oh yeah, just Google it).

I surrender. I have no answer to whether SHATNER is "the savior" but I’m going to paint him as the Virgin Guadalupe on black velvet just in case.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Still separate, still unequal but still hopeful

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

In overturning of Brown vs. Board of Education – the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed children would not be forced to attend schools based solely on race – Chief Justice John Roberts said Louisville and Seattle school districts’ voluntary public school integration plans failed to justify their desire to integrate schools by assigning certain students to schools based on race.

Last June 28, 2007, the country groaned at this so-called "huge step backwards," the assumption being that race discrimination was the numero uno culprit in the staggering failure and drop-out rates among minority students.

At the time I argued that the flip meant nothing in a society where scores of kids were failing miserably because of the color-blind blight of poverty.

It’s almost a year later and not only are kids still being left behind, we’ve recently learned the numbers are surely worse than we’d imagined. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is floating a plan to make the formula for calculating the number of drop-outs uniform across states so districts can no longer cheat down their annual reporting.

And the left-behinds? Big surprise – none of them are Carnegies. According to Census data analyzed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty, back in 2006 – before the economic downturn – 17.4 percent of kids under 18 lived in poverty. That’s thirteen million kiddies living in real, actual poverty in the United States, and yes, over half of them were black or Hispanic – but why discriminate? A poor kid with a lop-sided shot at a decent life is just that, regardless of race.

But discrimination comes in many forms and to change how we educate tomorrow’s multi-hued leaders we must start with how every one of us sees them today.

"The challenges of race are not behind us and, in fact, are compounding with poverty," Matthew L. Kramer, self-professed affluent white kid and President of the hugely successful Teach for America – a national corps of new-to-education brainiac teachers dedicated to eliminating educational inequity – told me this week.

Matthew says the success his 17,000 teachers have experienced in reaching nearly 3 million low-income children since 1990 comes from being focused on solving the problems kids come to school with each day, "but because 90% are either African American or Latino, their particular challenges of poverty and race are fundamentally intertwined – both are factors in their lives."

The difference between the educational philosophy of his corps and the teachers getting pumped out of traditional education programs? It’s all in how they look at their charges.

"Our experience is that even though the majority come to school with these challenges, our teachers have the ability to motivate kids to work harder than they’ve ever been expected to work – and the kids perform! The evidence is overwhelmingly clear, we may not be post-race but it’s not credible to say these kids can’t learn, whether the issue is race or poverty."

Matthew rhapsodized about tangible successes like a phenomenal youth symphony orchestra comprised of low-income charter school students – "It’s hard to see the KIPP orchestra and not start crying" – and evangelized his belief that it is possible to keep poor or minority children from being left behind. And that opportunity is not solely in teachers’ hands.

"It is not legitimate to say is this unfixable and people don’t want to maintain that view. There are many successes out there but I think we’re stuck until many, many more people have seen them with their own eyes," Matthew said. "It’s hard to change our minds but it is only a matter of time at this point before [people] come into more examples of successes."

Until that happens, as you drive past, ask yourself if you can believe the gaggle of kids clustered on the street corner can achieve despite the odds stacked against them. Then tell yourself "yes."

If as a society we start to believe in the promise of today’s left-behinds, they’ll start to believe in themselves. And if we demand that everyone who has a stake in their education – you and me included – expect nothing less than success, we will get it.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Voices of reason

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from several different readers who keep asking:

Q. Can you believe these gas prices?! It’s highway robbery.

A. Yes I can. No it’s not. Gas prices are not that bad. Heck, I remember whining about it in 1997 when it bumped up to $1.25 – I stopped complaining long ago.

In summer of 2003 I took average gas price data from 1970 to 2003 and adjusted it for inflation and found that compared to cars, chicken wings, and other items in a basket of goods, gas was still really cheap. (Don’t ask why, I’m weird like that and I love statistics.)

Fast forward five years to the week before Memorial Day weekend 2008 and people are gnashing their teeth and weeping about gas prices. Though I keep telling people that not only is the rise in gas prices not that bad – it’s a natural market correction that’s going a long way toward weaning us off our dependence on a non-renewable resource – no one ever believes me.

So thank you, Energy Tribune. Robert Bryce, this publication’s managing editor just wrote a lovely piece on slate.com about the reality of today’s gas prices, which he says are dirt cheap compared to prices in many other countries. I quote:

"When measured on an inflation-adjusted basis, the current price of gasoline is only slightly higher — about 20 percent — than it was in 1922. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 1922, gasoline cost the current-day equivalent of $3.11."

"Today, gasoline is selling for about $3.77 per gallon. Given the ever-increasing global demand for oil products — during the first three months of this year, China’s oil consumption jumped 16.5 percent — and the increasing costs associated with finding, producing and refining crude oil, it makes sense that today’s motorists are paying more for their motor fuel than their grandparents and great-grandparents did."

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks Bob!

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Loving Lorena

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Like Roosevelt Hicks longing for the same respect in business he finally got on the links of Pittsburgh in August Wilson’s play Radio Golf, I longed to roam the back nine.

Not as a pro, nah, just good enough to go out on a Saturday with rich white people and not make a fool of myself.

To me, like to many others, getting out on the green was the ultimate symbol of "making it." Never mind the satisfaction waltzing into private clubs previously closed off to women and minorities – the passage of time mostly took care of that – to me, gaining access to the venue of big money deals and long-lasting partnerships was the important part. I knew the very fabric of American business was forged out in the sun somewhere between the fifth and the twelfth hole, and I wanted in.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Immediately after Tiger made golf accessible to just about anyone – heck if a "Cablinasian" could become a golf rock star, what would stop me from donning the silly shorts? – and I’d finally bought a set of golf clubs, fate stepped in. I shattered my wrist, and summer of 2004 passed without me making it to the driving range.

Leave it to me to be a Juana-come-lately.

It’s not enough that one of the top golfers in the world is a tiny woman who, as a child, fell and broke both wrists but somehow emerged with magical carpals. Not enough that this young Lorena Ochoa – all of 26 and just won the Sybase Classic for the third straight year on Sunday – is an international superstar and a national hero in Mexico. Yes, that country where the only white ball that gets around grass is made of leather and aimed at a net, and the only multi-millionaires golf.

Nope, my moment has passed because golf is on the outs.

In towns all over America dilapidated golf courses are being turned over to suburban mommies and their energetic broods who need a place to kick soccer balls between snacks. And just in time. After all, modern man is too devoted to family to spend endless hours perfecting his double-cross on an ocean of chemically treated, water-hogging, ecologically abominable turf. What sort of monster leaves his (or her) family at home and drives his SUV out to the suburbs to walk on sublime eco-terror? And in these economic times, who can afford it?

Not me and not a lot of people. According to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association the total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million. The number who play 25 times a year or more fell about a third to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, and those tee-ing up eight or more times a year is slipping as well. In my neck of the woods angry words and white, dimpled insults are being driven home as park districts struggle to placate residents fighting over what to do with thirsty, decaying golf courses.

It all adds up to me not discovering whether my wrist’s metal plate would help my fade. Never will I get to know my bogeys from my birdies, or my shambles from my scrambles. Seal a big money deal while swinging through the sweet spot? Not meant to be.

Farewell to my fairway fantasies, the great game shall never be mine. I guess I’ll just have to live out my golf glory on TV through the great Lorena. Not the same as mulligan-ing with money men, but it’ll do.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Zeh fuwah guwah

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from R.L., a Stickney reader who, in response to another recent column, asked:

Q. "Are you a vegetarian?"

A. Me a veggie? It only takes two words to make this girl happy: cheesey-beef.

But even if that weren’t the case, and I believed firmly in the right of animals to take precedence over humans in the food chain, I wouldn’t try to ram my ideology down your throat. Which brings me to Chicago’s now defunct ban on foie gras in the city.

For the uninitiated, foie gras is the fattened liver of goose or duck, otherwise known as what Julia Child talked me through the preparation of in her distinctive voice on so many lonely childhood Saturday afternoons. Its sale had been banned in Chicago in 2006 and was quietly rescinded last Wednesday.

I got no beef with the foie gras even if some consider the force feeding of these animals cruelly inhumane. This usually comes from people eating eggs and wearing leather shoes, or who routinely make their children sit at the table until ALL the asparagus has been consumed. If that’s not cruel feeding, I don’t know what is.

Nevertheless, I’m thrilled the menu item I’d never dream of ordering is now legal again because the ban made us all look like a bunch of backwater rubes. Chicago is trying for the 2016 Olympics, partially to gain recognition in the world as a place that has more to offer than Michael Jordan and Al Capone memorabilia. Now we won’t even have to imagine the snickers from the rich tourists: "Zeh Chicagoers don’t allow zeh fuwah guwah? Sacrebleu!"

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Pay to play

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from R.T., a Cary, IL reader who asks

Q. "Do YOU think DePaul [University, in Chicago] should keep the Minutemen from having their speaker there Monday?"

A. He’s referring to a speech to be delivered Monday May 19 on the campus of DePaul University – the largest private University in Illinois, one of the largest private universities in this country and the largest Catholic university in the U.S., according to Wikipedia.

Let me quote from the Father Jose Landaverde and the "Comite de Marzo," a pro-illegal immigrant rights group, from their press release asking for people to join them in a 24-hour "Prayer Vigil to Stop the Hate & Racism."

"Cris Simcox who is the Minuteman Militia Corps. Leader has been invited to speak by a conservative group at DePaul University on May 19th, 2008.  Simcox is well known for his anti immigrant sentiment against Mexicans.   Simcox travels the country recruiting members and has had growing involvement in his group of racist border vigilantes.  White supremacist groups have openly recruited members for the Minuteman patrols groups like neo-Nazis from the National Alliance & Aryan Nations.  Simcox as of today refuses to acknowledge that vigilante border patrols are a haven for violent racist.  Many groups have asked the university to cancel Simcox's invitation but DePaul University refuses & say that they must allow all groups on campus exercise the right to freedom of speech."

DePaul is…absolutely 100% correct. They have allowed their students to freely exercise their right to freedom of speech in protesting Simcox, been open with the media, and offered these same freedoms to campus speakers – and campus protesters – who were similarly controversial.

But today the DePaul Conservative Alliance, which invited Simcox, is upset. DePaul is making that group pay $2,500 for security officers to make sure things don’t get out of hand between Minutemen supporters and praying protesters.

And again DePaul is…absolutely 100% correct. The Conservative Alliance knew their choice in speaker would draw opposition and went ahead with plans for a hoppin’ event. Fair enough. They should have known that the University routinely asks student groups to pay for the cost of ensuring the safety of large crowds at any on-campus event, instead they’re hurtin’ for money and blaming the protestors for their presence at the speech.

"Basically, I am paying to ensure a protest happens at my event," Nicholas Hahn, the president of the university’s Conservative Alliance told a Chicago Tribune reporter.

No, that would be your speaker fee. Nevertheless, it’s an easy fix. Just pass the hat around at the event, Conservative Alliance, your peeps will be glad to help out. It’s your right to be there and have your speaker say whatever he wants, but as with most things in life: you play, you pay.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

No vote, no voice if you're poor, scatterbrained

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

If you’re happy to break one law, then you’ll surely break another, right? You’ve jaywalked so you’re a good candidate for committing an armed robbery.

That’s the exact logic being used to defend the ridiculous scheme to limit voters in Missouri and approximately 20 other states across the country by requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.

That state’s proposed constitutional amendment, which if passed could go into effect as early as August, could keep approximately 240,000 unregistered Missouri-dwelling U.S. citizens from voting in the most interesting Presidential election of the last several decades.

Why? Fear the estimated "12 million" illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. who were bold enough to break federal immigration laws but are too terrified of getting deported to seek medical care or report crime might get it in their minds to commit voter fraud by giving a municipal system all their contact information for a shot at electing a president from a pool of candidates too terrified to broach the subject of immigration.

Already the elderly, the disabled, those who can’t afford – or choose to not to – drive and haven’t gotten around to sitting at their secretary of state facility for most of a day to get an official photo identification card, have been denied their right to vote in seven states. By decree of the U.S. Supreme Court, no less, who upheld Indiana’s photo-ID requirement law on April 28th.

The argument: according to the Justice Department, of forty voters indicted for registration fraud or illegal voting between 2002 and 2005, twenty-one were non-citizens. Also, anyone could easily forge an electric or phone utility bill or paychecks, which are just some of the many forms of ID currently used to register voters.

If you buy into that, then why not note the reported tens of thousands of native-born Missourians who were kicked off Medicaid in 2006 because they couldn’t find their birth certificates to argue that more U.S.-born people will be screwed out of their voting rights than impostors? It’s better to deny suffrage to people who live on the margins of society – or are simply prone to misplacing things – than take a chance on "illegal Irma" blackening the ovals?

On the other side of the conspiracy theory coin are rumors that the Republicans are masterminding a scheme to keep the ethnic minorities – assumed to lean Democratic – from voting them out of office in droves as they vote the country’s first African American into the "White" House.

How about the theory that photo ID voting restrictions are designed to counteract the backlog of 930,000 citizenship applications that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently promised to process by September 30th because about nine thousand almost-new Americans sued USCIS in order to get them to do things "the right way." The letter of the law demands the decision to grant citizenship be made within 120 days of interviewing the applicant, after all.

I’ll give the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume the people who make these laws up aren’t malevolent but instead simply ignorant.

Is it too much of a stretch to imagine that the well-to-do bureaucrats who propose laws simply can’t imagine a world in which you don’t have mommy or daddy drive you to the DMV on your sixteenth birthday for a driver’s license? Is it really too hard to imagine people of certain means not having a clue how hard it is to navigate replacing a lost birth certificate when you don’t read well or have a disability?

No harder, I guess, than imagining legislators so stupid they actually believe droves of illegal aliens are going to throw the next election.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Colorblind killings

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from Larry, a faithful reader who asks:

Q. "I was just wondering what your opinion is on the two young Hispanic gentlemen that were killed in a car accident that was caused by a white Chicago Police Officer.  I believe that he is about to get off scott free."

A. Larry is referring to Chicago Police Officer John Ardelean, who the Illinois State’s Attorney’s office just determined cannot be tried criminally for the deaths of Miguel Flores and Erick Lagunas in a car crash Thanksgiving 2007. The officer had been off-duty at the time.

Officer Ardelean had been up on two counts of aggravated DUI, but because he refused a Breathalyzer test for 7 hours after the crash and didn’t do so until his supervisor insisted, there is no evidence to prove in court he actually was drunk at the time he killed.

That’s not to say he wasn’t. Nevermind that he knew better than to drink and drive. He clearly used his knowledge of the law to avoid a conclusive test until his boss made him take it. This is the part when the conspiracy theorists make it all about Latinos being disposable in this society, their lives and deaths less important than others’, etc.

Nope, had the two victims been white or Asian or Martian, for that matter, Officer Ardelean would have still been in cover-your-ass mode. Human nature. It’s not as though in a purportedly drunken binge he was looking for two minorities to mow down.

That, of course, is no excuse for his actions.

On the bright side there’s a new sheriff in town, Jody Weis, and this is exactly the sort of community-relationship mess he’s pledged to root out and boot out. He verified for local media that Ardelean is still under investigation and has been relieved of his duties.

Perhaps out of the glare of the TV cameras he went ballistic and made crystal clear to other cops that they aren’t going to slip quietly away if they’re caught driving drunk – or giving a checkered brother a free pass for seven hours until the buzz wears off before insisting on a test.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Prostitution's Hidden victims: boys

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

That "dirty old man" who pays cash to use women as disposable sex toys may have started out as a bewildered, ten-year-old boy.

Of the many shocking revelations meticulously documented in the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation’s report "Deconstructing the Demand for Prostitution" released late last week, the most heartbreaking and disturbing was that among men who frequently pay prostitutes for sex, many had their first sexual experience paid for by a close relative – at as tender an age as ten.

In 2006 and 2007, a team of twelve male and female project interviewers from CAASE and a group called Prostitution Research Education set out to look into the minds of Chicago men who pay for sex from the estimated 16,000 to 25,000 women in the city who sell their services. They advertised their study on Craigslist, Chicago After Dark, and the Chicago Reader, and eventually spoke for two hours each with 113 men ages 20-71.

Their "average" john was 39 years old, only slightly more likely African American than Caucasian, overwhelmingly college-educated and making over $40,000 a year, with a girlfriend or wife at home. A little over half of them bought sex from once a month to several times in one week, soliciting women on the internet, in person, and through escort services alike.

The average age of their first purchase was 21 with the jaw-dropping age of ten pulling down the average. These stark numbers – 29% of these guys’ first time ever was paid and 17% had that first experience on a dad’s dime – round out the tragedy.

"We have to do a lot better job of talking about exploitation and violence toward women just to counteract the overwhelming glamorization of prostitution in this country," study author Rachel Durchslag told me last week. "One thing we need to do is talk to young men about this issue. Moms and dads don’t want to talk to their sons about this but with one quarter of our participants reporting they had their first paid experience before the age of seventeen, it tells me we have to talk to dads about how to bond with their sons with some healthy masculinity instead of based on exploitation and domination."

Up until now, the conversation about the fallout of pay-to-play has been focused on the female part of the prostitution equation. The facts in this report, found on http://www.caase.org, point to the serious need to intervene in the lives of very young men today in order to make a difference in the lives of women and men – both those involved in prostitution transactions and those hurt by after-effects like sexually transmitted diseases, the pain of betrayal, and the inability to have healthy relationships – for generations to come.

That’s a tall order in a society where young boys and girls are constantly bombarded by images of ultra-sexual women, and pimp culture has become so mainstream you can buy pre-packaged costumes at your local Halloween supply store. The same society where parents scoff at the idea of their 8^{th-graders learning about condoms in health ed. classes.}

"Absolutely young women are growing up with unbelievable amounts of pressure to be sexual but that’s only half of the equation. Prostitution not only harms women in communities but harms men as well," Rachel said, citing the guilt, shame, and real remorse the men in the study expressed to their interviewers after having the opportunity – in many cases for the first time in their lives – to talk openly about their behavior and feelings out.

Calling all moms and dads: get over your embarrassment about the "sex talk." Your sons and daughters need you to have frank and open heart-to-heart conversations about sexual health and responsibility, today. Sexual victimization for either gender can happen early but it’s never too late to do everything possible to avoid it.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

We do all get along, mostly

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from R.M., a Chicago reader who emailed to "ha-ha."

Q. Did you hear about the brawl between the blacks and the Hispanics in L.A.? Aren’t you the one always talking about how there’s no problems between the two?

A. Yes. R.M. was referring to the Associated Press story from last Friday – at around noon 600 students at a high school in Los Angeles got into a huge fight, leaving several injured and three arrested. The fight had been planned between members of rival Hispanic and Black graffiti gangs.

The media loves to report on these things. I’m sure there is some poor Californian soul whose entire reporting job is to find blacks and Hispanics who hate each other. Why not keep a person in Boston to report on the tensions between the Irish and everyone else who lives there? Because it’s not really a story, that’s why.

First off, rival gangs hate each other regardless of skin color – that’s why they come up with convoluted dress and communication codes to transcend race and gender. Second, give it a rest – no monolithic group of any persuasion gets along in complete harmony with any other, that’s just human nature.

If the energy put into pointing out tensions between ethnic groups – a dialogue on Japanese-Chinese relations, anyone? – went into observing the millions of ways in which all of us get along and work together everyday, the world would be a better place.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Absolute Tejanos

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from J.B.A from Chicago who asks:

Q. Why do Mexican-Americans from Texas refer to themselves as Tejanos? And they say this with a tone of superiority. There is a compendium of family and friends who get very annoyed by this proclamation. Does this make me an Illinoisan?

A. Compendium?! I better get on this right away, let’s see…well, if you’ll refer to the most recent Absolute Vodka ad that ran in Mexico, it showed a map of "what would have been…" and shows Texas as part of Mexico, not the U.S. 

The ad caused a big furor and Absolut yanked it right away but I hope the creative genius got his props. Talk about your targeted marketing! He was aiming at that small contingent of Mexicans still ticked off that the U.S. "took" Texas from them and sort of still mean to get it back someday. Of course, these sorts aren’t gonna buy Absolut under any circumstance – they probably just stick to sucking maguey plants – but that’s beside the point.

At any rate, much like founding father Thomas Jefferson considered himself a Virginian first and an American second, so did Mexican Texans coin the term Tejanos. Yes, THEY were "here" before the rest of us and so have the moral superiority and artistic license to wear tacky-earthy jewelry and define a whole genre of "Mexican" food mostly favored by our Caucasian friends.

You are only an Illinoisan if you live outside the 6-county metropolitan area. Those inside, as you know, are Chicagoans – of course!

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Cynic’s guide to pink ribbons

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

I like breasts as much as the next guy – even more, maybe – they feed babies, provide shock absorption, and are pleasing to look at. No downside, right? Well, not unless they get cancer. Many have.

The race to their cure has become a global, multi-billion dollar philanthropic and cultural phenomenon – and that’s how I came to be annoyed by pink ribbons.

Don’t worry, I didn’t stay annoyed, but who could have blamed me when last week on one day alone I ran across “breast cancer awareness” batteries at the 7-Eleven, a “Think Pink” accessory pack for a kids’ portable video game at Circuit City, and a pink ribbon Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation street-sweeper!

“Come ON!” I thought, “How many ways can marketers make money off women’s breasts?!” That was followed immediately by my standard, “It’s not even the number one killer of women in the U.S.!” That would be heart disease, followed by cancers (lung!), strokes, lung disease in general, and Alzheimer’s disease, just FYI.

And it’s not even October yet, but aahhh, close to Mother’s Day.

But rather than remain peeved at the preponderance of pink in my life, I instead bowed to the temple of what will go down as one of the strongest consumer brands in history –one that actually saves real women’s lives – the Susan G. Komen For the Cure breast cancer awareness foundation, and its pink ribbons.

Google ‘em if you want, you know the story: 25 years, a promise between two sisters, the Y-Me Race for the cure, etc. I blew in a call to ask them if they felt their message was becoming diluted because of the marketing blitz, if people are getting tired of it all.

“We have tested, informally, in various ways and found that both men and women are still very open to the messages,” Caroline Wall, Manager for Cause Marketing Operations told me yesterday. “We’re trying to engage all different types of niches and consumer groups…whether it be Kitchen Aid mixers, or Major League Baseball, or Garth Brooks.”

I became interested in the success of the brand not realizing the power of the pink to pervade different cultures and languages. And not realizing how desperately that’s needed.

I was thinking along the lines of targets to sell products to, after all, the pink ribbon peddled 58 million green dollars – 20% of Komen’s revenue – in 2006, according to one Los Angeles Times article. And yes, there have been some unscrupulous logo users, which Komen actively roots out, and certainly no shortage of critics of the success of the campaign. But back to those “targets.”

“We don’t want to pigeon-hole anyone but there are opportunities to have an ‘in’ with a particular population, for instance, the African American and Latino communities through product placement,” she said, noting that black and Hispanic women get diagnosed way later than Caucasians.

The numbers: breast is the most common cancer in African American women and the second leading cause of cancer death among African American women. It’s the most commonly diagnosed and the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic/Latina women.

Consider my cynical mouth shut.

Mother’s day breast-health support buyer beware, yes you can look on their web site to make sure the pink products you want to purchase will fulfill Komen’s mission of funding research for a cure. Shop smart and find a balance but don’t automatically buy into the backlash.

“There are still over 200,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer every day in this country,” Caroline said, “and they would say they’re not tired of hearing about it."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Not even if you got ‘em

by Esther J. Cepeda

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into Question of the day and today’s comes from a loyal reader who lives out in cyberspace, J.O. who asks:

Q. You’re not a smoker, are you?

A. Let’s put it this way, J.O., I am not addicted to nicotine. And I don’t like the stinky smell. And the only time I buy cigarettes its to give to my friends…who share.

Smoking isn’t good for you but business gets done on a smoke break, and much like you wouldn’t have a business lunch with someone and then refuse to eat, well, let’s just say I don’t mind puffing every now and then.

That said, the pressure to do so has gone down significantly. The no-indoor-smoking laws have made for fewer opportunities to feel pressured to light up.

The Associated Press recently reported that a Massachusetts study has linked the indoor smoking bans to reduced smoking in teens age 12-17. “Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40% less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones,” according to an article in May’s issue of the archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

We can make a few assumptions and take it farther, will the number of pre-teens who never take up the habit skyrocket?  Will the number of smokers who quit and never take up the habit again rise and stay steady? Will the smoking ban craze catch on everywhere? Maybe.

While that may not be good news for smokers who have to brave the fierce elements, but its wonderful news for the cost burden on our health care system and group insurance premiums in the coming decades. A worthy trade, I think!

send your preguntas to questions@pregunta-del-dia.com 

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Feeling the Pain

"600 Words" by Esther J Cepeda

If you live in Chicago, or any other world-class city like New York or LA, you have a unique civic pride, a knowing that wherever your travels may take you – the South Pole, New Guinea, or Beijing – anyone you bump into will know where you’re from.

Rarely do you encounter someone in Guam who will respond to “I’m from Chicago” with “Oh, isn’t that where the schoolchildren get killed on their way to school?”

That doesn’t make it any less true.

The harsh reality is that thirty-four Chicago Public School children died violently in 2007, at least that many are gone so far this year, and we haven’t even begun to imagine how many more will be claimed by New Year’s eve.

The million dollar question is what to do about it. Everything has been put on the table: SWAT teams have been deployed, gun laws proposed, anti-violence curriculum put in schools, even trained ex-gang members have trickled into the streets to help “mediate” turf battles. But no silver bullet, if you’ll pardon the pun, has put a dent in the tensions roiling neighborhoods all over Chicago.

The politicians and the church leaders have had their say about what it will take to end the carnage. Look at “Letters to the Editor” pages in Chicago you’ll see the general public weighing in, mostly heaping blame on “careless parents.” They’ve all got good points, we’ve heard them all before.

Since innovative solutions are in order, I thought I’d ask for one from a different kind of expert. I called up Marco Marsen, aka the “Billion Dollar Problem Solver,” a marketing wiz for the likes of myriad successful corporations, “one of America’s top Out-of-the-Box thinkers,” and author of “Why We Haven't Won the Wars on Poverty, Drugs or Terror" to get a different take on things.

Now don’t get too excited, he didn’t have “an answer,” but did throw out the beginning of one. It goes a little something like this: we need to start caring.

“We’re all in this together,” he told me recently, while on tour for his new book The Lion’s Way. “But the people who live in poverty, the people who don’t have health care and have to choose between getting a tooth treated and paying the rent – they’ve been forgotten.”

“Whether you like it or not, the people who are pulling the triggers are the victims of all the failings of us as a society,” he says, “The feeling of ‘I don’t have any choices so I’m going to take matters into my own hands’ is what’s driving this.”

Marco thinks we Americans – who claim to live in the greatest country in the world –

consider those who lash out in our inequitable society a problem we have no part or responsibility in.

And he’s right. How many of us have thought: “‘I’m’ never part of the problem, so ‘I’ can never be part of the solution.”

We’re all worried about our wallets and the economy, but not overly concerned about who dies in the “bad parts of the city.” Its human nature: the gas tank bill is in your face, while dead children on the 6 o’clock news is sad, but doesn’t affect your life past the sound-byte. Unless you live in those “bad parts” of the city, that is.

The actual impact of what happens in those “bad parts” affects us as members of our society in immeasurable ways – spiritual, emotional, economic – that message just hasn’t hit home yet.

“I don’t blame people – why would anyone want to feel the pain?” Marco says, “But at the end of the day, we’re all in this together.”

From the Billion Dollar Problem Solver: not an “answer,” just the beginning of one: we need to start feeling the pain.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Five-o day mayo-nnaise

by Esther J. Cepeda

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into Question of the day and today’s comes from Enrique, a Norridge, IL reader who asks:

Q. Why do Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Mexicans care way more about September 16^th, the day of Mexico’s Independence.

A.  Enrique, most Americans think May 5^th is Mexican Independence day, but it’s just the commemoration of a short-lived win against the French at Puebla.

Why celebrate it at all? Because we Americans, above all, are party-lovin’ consumers. After New Year’s Eve we had to wait only until the Super Bowl for an alcohol/food binge. From there it was a short jump to Valentine’s Day for candy and champagne, and only a few weeks to St. Paddy’s day corned beef. How to fill the great gaping hole between the green beer and the Fourth of July barbecue?

You guessed it, buddy, Cinco. Besides, what better time to highlight all the “Latinized” consumer products available at a store near you? So when you go buy food for the feast and a case of Corona, the worst-selling beer in Mexico, to share with your non-Mexican friends, pick up some Jalapeno mayonnaise to slather on the homemade quesadillas Martha Stewart calls “Mexican Fondue with Chorizo and Chiles.” What could be more melting-pot-American than that?

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

“We’re on a mission from God”

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into “Question of the Day,” and today’s question is from a young woman who preferred to remain nameless:

Q. Why are you doing this?

A. Like Jake and Elwood Blues, I’m on a mission.

Set aside Spanish-language media, Major League Baseball, Jennifer Lopez, Ugly Betty and George Lopez.

Do you watch news on TV? Ever looked on the op-ed pages of major American newspapers? Or watched political shows Sunday morning? Or checked out the covers of best-selling books at Borders? Take note: there’s a whole lot of white, and a good amount of black. But the brown barely exists.

When the whole “Will Barack Obama capture the Latino vote?” issue was hot, how many Latino op-ed contributors did you read in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? How many Hispanics did you see opining on “Meet the Press” or “Real Time?”

There are 45.5 million of us, according to the newest U.S. Census data – 15% of the population, projected to be 30% by 2050 – but we’re still largely invisible in the mainstream media. Do you think “The View” could get away with not having a black woman (or two?), how about any other major network entertainment or news show? Not happenin’, but there seems to be no problem with the stunning lack of brown.

Any idea how the “last in, first out” hiring/firing policies at major American newsrooms are affecting the historically low number of Hi