"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Cut-off nose spites face: never keep kids out of school

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

There is such a thing as going too far to prove a point.

Take, for instance, the Reverend – and Illinois State Senator – James Meeks’ misguided idea to protest school funding disparity by pledging to keep "several thousand" Chicago Public School students from the first day of school September 2 – also known as the most important attendance day for calculating federal funding – to travel all the way north to tiny Winnetka and enroll the kids at Sunset Ridge Elementary.

It’s merely symbolic, of course. In the suburbs of Chicago, kids living outside district boundary lines aren’t allowed to register for classes – even families who live next door to houses sitting within boundary lines get no slack. But symbols have power and the ones I see have more potential to harm the students involved than to help.

It’s an understandably pained response to yet another community disappointment: Chicago public school officials postponed the opening of a new elementary school on the city's Southwest Side because there were 40 fewer students enrolled than the 100 kids they needed.

But let’s just say the good folks at Sunset Ridge welcomed the crowd with open arms. How would those kids feel spending hours every day getting bused 20-30 miles one-way clear across the city just to get to school?

And once there, is it possible that the superior instruction that comes with small class sizes and about twice the CPS resources will translate into higher achievement for the kids even though many of them carry the sort of social and familial baggage completely foreign to families who live in Winnetka?

Because don’t misunderstand: there are some people who would freak out, but they’re probably outnumbered by a load of well-heeled young North Shore parents with a do-gooder attitude who are wringing their hands because their children don’t have diversity in their classrooms. I know plenty of them and they probably wouldn’t mind this cultural exchange.

But let’s be real. It is never, never, never a good idea to use children as political pawns in that amounts to a publicity war which stands to have many casualties, not the least of whom are the kids themselves.

Unless this is a pure political publicity stunt – in which case I’d say he’s sick – Meeks’ heart is in the right place. He should absolutely be infuriated that his community’s kids are being left behind. And, sure, school funding in the state of Illinois – as in many other states – creates big-time haves and have-nots but no one has ever found a better alternative. Notably, Hawaii – one of the only school districts in the U.S. that does not use property tax funds – also happens to sport one of the worst report cards in the nation.

Yes, Meeks should be mad as hell and not take it anymore. Something dramatic needs to change; we need to start valuing the next generation and proving it by providing a baseline decent education. But his crusade should seek to do no more harm than what has already been done.

Meeks: do what you gotta do, but leave the kiddies out of it.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Granny get yer gun: Freddie and Fannie bailouts could put elderly at risk

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

All over the land people are scraping to get by.

Some are taking the bus so they don’t have to drive. Others are renting DVDs and defrosting pizza rather than having a night out. The lucky ones are, so far, only making small changes – Starbucks: rough times, Kraft Foods: posting profits on an uptick in sales of old reliable Maxwell House. Times are tough.

And even back when things were alright, senior citizens were generally not doing as well, the usual "joke" being that they got by on cat food. The gift of increased longevity often leaves our oldies-but-goodies struggling to keep up with rising property taxes or medicine costs on a fixed income.

Since the mid-nineties the elderly have been targeted for what are called "reverse mortgages" and I’m prognosticating that as a result of the new Housing Relief Bill’s changes, seniors will be next to get hit by fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Let’s recap: reverse mortgages are a special type of home loan that lets a homeowner convert a portion of the equity in his or her home into cash. That borrower doesn’t have to pay any of the money back until he or she no longer uses the home as their principal residence. And what kind of people have most or all of their mortgages paid off? You got it.

The new Housing Bill President Bush is expected to sign – the one the Senate and House approved last weekend to restore confidence in mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae – increases the FHA reverse mortgage loan limits to a whopping $625,500.

"Yes, but we put safeguards in place to protect people," U.S. Senator Dick Durbin told me over the phone Tuesday, "we are now requiring a homeowner to get third party counseling before signing, we capped the origination fees to $6,000 and no homeowner will be required to buy other financial products."

Just last May, Kiplinger’s Retirement Report published an article detailing that reverse mortgage abuse is on the rise, with a federally-insured type having risen to 107,558 from 6,640 in 2000, according to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

This is not to say that a great many of these loans weren’t on the up and up. When administered ethically, these RMs provide money for a decent retirement to seniors who might otherwise have to sell, move, and live out their golden years on the mythical Meow Mix.

The problem lies in the unscrupulous, and they are out there – don’t tell me that despite the news frenzy about the credit crunch you aren’t still getting sleazy come-ons from credit cards and mortgage brokers.

According to that same Kiplinger’s article, between August 2007 and March 2008 there was a 25 percent jump in lenders selling RMs. More and more brokers are being shut out of traditional and sub-prime mortgage markets and with droves of baby boomers becoming eligible at age 62, it might be open season on houses that were financed when Jimmy Carter was in office.

Back in 2004, in response to a mini-epidemic of reverse mortgage scams, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, like many other govs, signed a bill to "protect seniors from unscrupulous lenders who may use deception and fraud to strip seniors of nearly a lifetime’s worth of equity."

But you can’t legislate responsibility. It’s on you to watch out for grandparents, moms and dads in these times, yes even by being nosy to the point of rudeness to the sensibilities of people born well before Coca-Cola had invented Diet drinks.

"Big D" Durbin – 63 years young and also bombarded by "EZ refi" offers and credit card checks – is feeling pretty confident this housing bill tweak won’t get out of hand. He urges vigilance, "if it sounds too good to be true…" and non-profit org. assistance, but he’s realistic:

"There will be people desperate for cash. And there will still be people making bad decisions."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Affirmative Overreaction: Obama, McCain spar on quotas

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

You know that hugely famous book "Stuff White People Like"? Here’s a little play on that:

Stuff Most People Like:

Diversity. America is a melting pot, we’re all mutts and most of us believe there should be all breeds in all corners of the dog pound.

Equality. Most of us agree equal opportunity should be just that; equal access to education, work opportunities, health care and legal protections regardless of gender, religious affiliation, race/ethnicity, age, etc.

Stuff Most People Hate:

Affirmative Action.

The American Association for Affirmative Action defines it thusly: "an effort to develop a systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination [the purpose of which] is to give our nation a way to finally address the systemic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender, or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute."

Though most people would agree that it’s in the nation’s best interest "to create a more inclusive society that provides genuine equality of opportunity," as AAAA’s site quotes, I bet you’d find most people believe Affirmative Action does just the opposite.

On the occasion of Barack Obama having to answer to what – sickeningly – was described by most mainstream media outlets as "a gathering of minority journalists," at Sunday’s UNITY conference, criticizing McCain’s supposed flip-flop on the subject, the dreaded double-A term reared its ugly head.

Never mind the actual well-intentioned definition; for hordes of people – notably anyone who ever thought they missed out on any opportunity because they weren’t brown enough – Affirmative Action has come to symbolize the very antithesis of equality.

Among the disgruntled: college kids with average grades who believe they were passed over for aid or admission because they weren’t "needy" enough. Professionals who didn’t get the job promotion they’d been busting their tails for because the HR department decided management needed more "color." Anyone who just followed the rules their whole life then found themselves on an unlevel playing field because it had been leveled for someone else.

Sure Affirmative Action was absolutely necessary to open doors that otherwise would have stayed shut for any number of multi-hued people. And I won’t bore you with the extensive proof there are a whole lotta doors still dead-bolted shut just crying out for a battering ram.

I can absolutely empathize with any of the aforementioned who may have gotten screwed at some point because they weren’t "diverse" enough, but I can tell you about some people who hate Affirmative Action, too: those who stand to benefit from it the most.

It’s 2008 and a goofy-looking Illinoisan has American, French and German people swooning at the prospect of a young black man getting elected the next U.S. president.

That’s great! So why is a group of well-educated, well-heeled professionals that accurately reflect U.S. demographics still referred to as "a gathering of minority journalists?"

Even worse, why does any "minority" who worked just as hard – and in many cases even harder than – the next guy have to feel badly about being successful?

Because nine times out of ten people look at a black VP, Hispanic manager, or female CEO and say, "Oh, well, they’re only there because they needed a token." And believe me, there’s no solidarity, I’ve heard those sorts of comments – both directed at me or others – from every gender, race and ethnicity. Sour grapes are human nature.

I don’t like it that Obama goaded McCain for the easy headline; we could go back and forth about the benefits and detriments of Affirmative Action all day to no avail.

What I do like is that both McCain and Obama say equal opportunity shouldn’t be based on quotas. Now they need to cough up ideas for actually reaching equality without them.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Take me out to the ga-la: dining for a diabetes cure

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

"The Silent Assassin" has more than one meaning in Javier Vazquez' young life.

At 32, the Chicago White Sox number 33 – and former All-Star Yankee – was so-dubbed for his quiet manner and killer arm. This is a guy who, from 1998 to the present, compiled a career 114-113 record with 1,806 strikeouts and a 4.29 ERA in 321 games. According to Wikipedia, he's struck out more batters than any other Puerto Rican pitcher in history.

Aside from notoriety among die-hard Chicago baseball fans, though, Javier is not on par with other famous – or should I say "infamous" – local sports stars. This is a guy who keeps his head down; a nice quiet family guy who was just living his American Dream until another "silent assassin" in his life took up residence in his home.

"It was in spring training in 2006 when I first started with the White Sox that my daughter got sick," Javier told me last week. "She started throwing up, she threw up like four times and we were like 'wow, that's weird' so we took her to the ER at the hospital. The doctor immediately checked her glucose levels and her sugar level was really high.

That's how we found out. She went from like a perfectly normal child to sick in a matter of hours. It was pretty hard news."

Javier's daughter Kamilla was just two years old when she was diagnosed with Type 1 – known as "juvenile" – diabetes. What he and his wife Kamille didn't know that day at the hospital was that Type 1 diabetes, a disease in which the body can't convert the sugar in food into energy, is one of the most common chronic diseases in school-age children.

About 1 in every 400 to 600 kids in the U.S. has Type 1 diabetes. Each year more than 13,000 children are diagnosed with type 1, and about 75 percent of all newly diagnosed cases occur in kids younger than 18 years of age.

With zero family history of Type 1 Javier and Kamilla had no idea that though every race and ethnicity has prevalence of T1-diabetes, Latinos have a disproportionately high incidence of it, with Puerto Ricans having the highest rates of the disease, according to National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.

"Before it happened she was drinking a lot of water and going to the bathroom a lot, which are the main symptoms, but we didn't know," he said. "The doctor told us her pancreas just stopped working and that it was nothing we did – we didn't give her too much candy or sugar."

Kamilla will turn five in August and it's been a road filled with the typical milestones and joys, but the frustrations – you can imagine – have been a challenge, too.

"It was really tough at the beginning because she didn't know. She was only two years old and lucky for us we got her an insulin pump with a skin catheter so we didn't have to give her a shot," he said.

Javier and his wife Kamille also had to kick the usual parental vigilance way up.

"When we go out we always have to be prepared, we have to carry extra stuff just in case," he said. "When she goes to school we'll have to prepare when we go to a birthday party or whatever, we'll have to be aware of the amount of cake she eats. We'll just have to make sure we don't make any mistakes."

Not that the Vasquez' are complaining. They know full-well that despite their precious baby being saddled with a life-long disease, they've got it easy compared to so many others and they're doing something about it.

Monday August 4, the newly established Javier Vasquez Foundation is holding its first annual K's for Kids Gala – benefitting diabetes research at Children's Memorial Hospital – at the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago (email info@javiervazquezfoundation.org for details).

He and Kamille will leave Javier Jr., Kamilla – who's only just now starting to become aware that she's not completely well – and baby Kariana, home for an evening of schmoozing in hopes of finding a cure for this all-too-silent killer of a disease.

Buy a couple of tickets or make a donation, but don't lament that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Thankfully, diabetes doesn't run in his family but philanthropy does, and families living with children who have Type 1 diabetes will be better for it.

"Obviously we wanted to help other people," he said, recounting his previous charitable work with the foundation he set up for deaf kids in his native Puerto Rico. "My mom was always helping others and this is just the way for us to do the same."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Postville, Iowa's illegal immigrant raid: another American shame

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

I don’t abide by lawbreakers, let’s just start there. You won’t find any rhapsodizing on the benefits of mass illegal immigration on this page.

But let’s be clear: when it comes to breaking laws, two wrongs do not make a right.

Just take a look at Postville, Iowa where the largest-scale illegal immigrant round-up in history took place in May at the Agriprocessors, Inc. meatpacking plant, sending approximately 400 people into detention at Waterloo's National Cattle Congress Fairgrounds. It was described by a Spanish-language interpreter as a Dickensian violation of due process and civil liberties which, yes, apply even to those who break immigration laws.

According to Erik Camayd-Freixas, a seasoned Federal courts interpreter, assembly lines of frightened workers – who, it has since been reported, allegedly were helped by plant supervisors who secured their fake documents and encouraged them to reside in the U.S. – were essentially bullied and misled into pleading guilty to ID fraud.

Hundreds of barely-literate-in-Spanish illegal immigrant peasants who were enticed, aided, and abetted by this plant – which, it has since been reported, was already under investigation by federal and state agencies for hundreds of criminal charges that include sexual assault, abuse and child labor violations – unwittingly pleaded guilty to harsher crimes with harsher consequences.

What, did the federal government relocate Guantanamo Bay to Iowa?

So now instead of having shipped everyone back home, there are hundreds more illegal immigrants being housed and fed in U.S. detention centers while their U.S.-born children cower in limbo, suffering from post-traumatic-stress-disorder fear.

Groups ranging from Jewish social activists to the more standard church crowd have been pouring into the town with supplies of food, clothing and moral support for the families of the detained. The politicians are on their way as well, and they’ll be looking for more than just a good photo-op.

"We want to talk to people, we want to get a first-hand view of what’s happening there," U.S. Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez (Dist.4-IL) and Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ Immigration Task Force told me on the phone Tuesday. He along with Congressman Joe Baca (Dist. 43-CA), Congressman Albio Sires (Dist.13-NJ), and a busload of Chicago supporters will be up at 4am this Saturday on a road trip to see what 2008’s version of "American justice" looks like.

Gutierrez is rightfully up in arms about the common misunderstanding of identity theft legislation; a growing number of Americans now seem to think it’s ok to literally treat humans like criminal cattle in the name of protecting our borders and freedoms.

"True identity theft is two parts: when someone steals an ID and then uses it to commit some felonious act," he said. "150 of the social security numbers that were used" – and I’d add, allegedly also provided by Agriprocessors, Inc. management – "weren’t even valid numbers. Whose ID did they steal? And is that the correct use of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] resources – 900 agents and dozens of lawyers – for guarding against the threat of terrorism? Where are the terrorists?"

But what about the jobs these illegal immigrants are taking from U.S.-born citizens, I asked?

"If hundreds of Americans had flocked to Iowa and said ‘Yay! Now I can have a job!’ it would be different ," Gutierrez said. "No American should ever be denied a job – but where are they? The bigger question: is this the solution you have for the 12 million [illegal immigrants] here to work? Rounding people up in shackles in a cow pasture? Is this the reputation we want as a nation?"

Ok, obviously Gutierrez is pushing his agenda, but that doesn’t mean he’s not making an excellent point. I, for one, don’t want to be seen that way. It’s so easy for us to turn up our noses at human rights violations in Darfur or China and the citizens and politicians there who go on about their business, but are will our neighbor nations be able to look at us any differently?

The Congressional caravan plans to arm themselves with first-hand knowledge in order to testify before a panel that will be assembled to look into this mess, and I assume, to press for reforms for how to fairly and humanely deal with the demands of this shadow economy we’ve got going.

It’s a long-shot but maybe the spotlight will get our ace presidential candidates to cough up actual solutions – rather than the pandering platitudes we’ve heard so far – to the illegal immigration problem.

Short of that, Gutierrez will be happy to just wake people up to what this raid means to all of us who believe in the rule of law.

"Let’s not lie to the American people," he said of what he feels is a predatory tangling of judicial and executive systems when it comes to illegal immigration. "It’s wrong to deny these people their day in court, but they knew they had their prey and that their prey was weak."

The actions of the federal government in Postville, Iowa have, in fact, weakened us all.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Let buyer beware: post calorie counts on Chicago menus

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

We don’t always have to be the Second City, but I’ll settle for it in this case.

In December 2006 Chicago could have been the one making international headlines about being the first city in the U.S. requiring restaurants to prominently post calorie content information, but New York beat us to it.

In May, after a two-year court battle (and an industry lawsuit is still pending), New York’s large fast food restaurant chains were required to post the calorie counts for their food and full enforcement began last Saturday. If the information – which can usually be found somewhere in the store and many times on corporate web sites – is not displayed prominently i.e., by the price, the chain faces penalties of up to $2,000 per store.

Of course, much like with the Foie Gras ban fracas, da Mayor was having no morsel of the Chicago City Council’s December 2006 proposal to bring the bright idea to a town. Mayor Daley is a, ahem, big believer in letting people make their own lifestyle choices. Though judging from various "Fat City" listings in which Chicago usually makes a top-5 showing, that’s not working out so well for us.

An April 2008 Health report published by Chicago’s Sinai Urban Health Institute did a small survey of face-to-face interviews with a representative group of people living in six racially and ethnically diverse Chicago communities during 2002 and 2003.

Based on the heights and weights reported by the primary caregivers of 501 randomly selected kids 2–12 years old, they found that compared with 16.8% for the U.S., the prevalence of obesity was 11.8% in a non-Hispanic white community on Chicago’s north side, 34.0% in a Mexican American community on the west side, and 56.4% in a non-Hispanic black community on the south side.

If you’re not alarmed by that you don’t need nutrition information: because your arteries are too clogged to have a pulse.

Our mayor, in 2006, was quoted by local reporters as saying "When we come to kids, every medical expert would agree that something needs to be done. Parents need to be more aware of what the calories are." He said that the same day that news outlets across the country reported that bad eating habits are so ingrained in our culture that kids—especially Hispanic ones—are being diagnosed with obesity as early as 18 months.

So maybe now that NY is on the bus, can we get on, too?

Yes, if Chicago started this requirement some restaurateurs would ignore posting rules and some customers would never actually read them. This is, after all Chicago, a place that has a pizza and a hot dog styled in its name, and a beef sandwich no one in Sicily could have possibly dreamed up.

And yes, it would cost time, effort and money for restaurant owners who would have to have their food tested and/or change their menus and signage reprinted.

I still want it. And I’m not the only one.

Do you think there are several major websites (many that are cell phone-enabled) that give common calorie counts for no reason? Do you think free text-messaging services so people can make healthier choices at the counter by getting counts zapped to them, are around just for kicks? Is it any coincidence that one tried and true way to maintain a healthy body weight is to keep written track of calories consumed every day? Of course not.

The bottom line is that an informed consumer is a healthier consumer. If I want a big fat 650-calorie cinnamon bun with my coffee in the morning, I’m probably going to push aside my high risk of Type-2 diabetes (I’m Hispanic and it runs in my family) and get it. The difference is that armed with the information, I can choose to eat half and share or save the rest. Or I can splurge but watch what I eat for the rest of the day.

Uproar over calorie counts in restaurants is just like upset over smoking bans: sure there are lots of people enduring the heat or cold to puff away, upset and possibly boycotting their once-favorite hangouts, but there are also crowds of people streaming into new spots where they never before ventured because they didn’t want to put up with the smoke. And we’re all getting used to that reality. We could get used to calorie counts in restaurants, too. Just like we got used to every single packaged food item sold in the U.S. sporting a nutrition label starting in 2003.

Rarely is it one big thing that makes a difference in our habits, it’s little things like being knowledgeable about what you eat that have the biggest impact. The health gains Chicagoans could make from simply knowing what they are putting in their – and their kids’ mouths – could be monumental over the course of a few generations.

Chicago, our time has come.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

The next extinct species: the Latino journalist

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

UNITY 08, the quadrennial gathering of the National Associations of Asian American, Black, Native American and Hispanic journalists, hits Chicago this week surrounded by wall-to-wall bad news about minorities and the media.

Never mind that the headline duo of McCain-Obama let the UNITY planners down by flaking out of the main-draw debate because of international travel schedules – Obama eventually decided to make nice by dropping by Sunday morning – it’s a shock there are enough employed journalists of color left to even have a convention!

Hardly a day passes when you don’t hear about some major newsroom losing hundreds of journalists due to a newspaper industry collapse resulting from advertisers spending what little money they have on the internet and not on the dead trees that consumers under 35 shun like the plague.

What you don’t hear about is that the hard-fought gains in newsroom diversity that were made throughout the last three decades are being flushed down the toilet by the common "last-in, first-out" practices. "Seniority policies" are shutting what few journalists of color there are out of major American newsrooms, I was one of them.

In January of this year when the Chicago Sun-Times let go dozens of journalists, I made headlines (visit my Press Room and read from the bottom up) by being let go even though I was Chicago’s only Hispanic metro columnist and the newsroom’s only Latino reporter. With no seniority on a roster that included people who had been there for over twenty years, I was out on my can despite the fact there are 1.7 million Latinos in the six-county Chicago metro region and the number grows every day.

You’d think the same editors and station managers who complain they can’t get new audiences would add Hispanic journalists to their line-ups. But no, they’re usually the first to go. Just in the last six months Chicago’s CBS affiliate WBBM-Channel 2 lost Antonio Mora – its’ first Latino anchor – and let go Rafael Romo, a Latino TV reporter. The Chicago Sun-Times waved bye-bye to me and Guillermo Munroe, a gifted artist who was the staff illustrator. Chicago Tribune Managing Editor George DeLama just stepped down after having ushered in an era of rich diversity in the paper’s pages that took it from being a singularly white paper to offering in-depth coverage of all of Chicago’s multi-colored communities. The Trib is back to having no Hispanic leadership.

Even two years ago things weren’t looking so great, a report from the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) found the percentage of Hispanic journalists employed in the nation’s English-language newsrooms declined slightly in 2006 from the year before for the first time in 29 years that ASNE had been keeping track. Way back then – when things were much rosier – the expected date for American newsrooms to reflect the U.S population was 2025. I’m guessing today it’s looking like 2080, not that any major media outlets are taking notice.

Brandon A. Benavides, Region 6 Director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and News Producer for KSTP-TV/5 Eyewitness News in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN has been keeping NAHJ members informed of the carnage with seemingly daily emails detailing the fallen.

"Nearly a dozen NAHJ members were laid off this year," Benavides told me in an email last week. "The layoffs affected print and broadcast journalists just entering the field and veterans. This is devastating news as a journalist of color."

Gary Pina, a 52-year-old page designer with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram with 23 years in the biz had his position eliminated last month. He told me, "I was shocked when I was told I was being laid off. I didn't think it would happen to me. On our design desk, there's four or five of us over 50, and I'm the youngest. I was also the only Hispanic on the design desk. ... I was expecting to receive an envelope with the buyout option like everybody else, but instead, I got a bigger envelope telling me my position was eliminated. I couldn't believe it. I've seen two young Hispanics, both in their early 20s, lose their jobs because of the last in-first out concept."

He’s not mad or bitter. But like me – and like all people of color who are concerned that negative or limited portrayal of minorities in the media feed racial stereotypes such as reported in a recent University of Illinois study – he worries about what this means for America’s view of the society we live in.

"At the moment, I think diversity has been thrown out the window in newsrooms across the country. This is now a business, and the company has to make money. I've been told that the Star-Telegram makes money, and is one of the top producers in the McClatchy chain, but apparently we aren't making enough.  I only hope that they consider keeping as diverse staff as possible when they are making their cuts."

"News is news," Gary continued, "our stories will be told if it's newsworthy, and if there's space to do it. The stories will likely be shorter, and probably won't appear as often as they should. And they may not be told by Hispanic reporters."

I’m not as optimistic as Gary. Those are too many "ifs" for the fastest growing segment of the population – and the rest of the people who live alongside them.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Latinos in the fine arts: Part Two

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

In Part One I say that in a perfect world minorities would have as much access to the fine arts – and the training to participate in them – as the average Caucasian.

Also covered was the contrast between fine arts organizations who attract or educate Latino audiences by changing their product for that specific viewership, and those who simply strive for inclusion and authenticity by using what few Hispanic artists there are in mainstream productions for core audiences.

Today I tell you about a third way which blends a little bit of both. Welcome to Chicago Dramatists' Many Voices Project.

Perhaps it's because this small, 29-year-old organization – "The Playwright's Theater" – labors in the shadow of the larger theater companies in Chicago that it has more latitude to move beyond the standard formula of interacting with minority communities strictly by "outreaching" their performances to the "community's underserved."

For the third year in a row C-D, which devotes itself solely to developing new plays and nurturing playwrights, is finding the best and brightest minority voices and prepping them to step onto bigger stages across the country by holding a national competition to find cutting-edge playwrights who just happen to not be white. They announced a final winner this morning.

Alfonso Ramirez, a 54-year-old New York City by-way-of Steamboat Springs, Colorado resident, made the final cut with a historical play inspired by a Diego Rivera mural called "La Maestra Rural." It follows Luz Jimenez, an idealistic teacher sent into the interior of Mexico by the newly-installed government to educate the peasants and help them re-possess the lands the government had promised them. The peasants embrace her, of course, but she encounters opposition to her altruistic work by a rich landowner. The hilarity ensues. Well, you know what I mean.

"It's all about the process," Alfonso told me the afternoon before his live performance – a staged reading directed and played out by actors – which you must understand is a rare, rare experience for few non-superstar playwrights. "There was a first table read then a rehearsal then constant rewriting. When I heard the play I started trimming and clarifying some of the questions the actors had. There's a feedback session where the audience tell us what they like and didn’t like so I am able to take those questions and answer them too."

Alfonso is eating this up because as a playwright of color trying to sell a complex story about bridging cultures, this opportunity lets him work more than just his craft.

Like me, Alfonso didn't speak any English when he started kindergarden and has always felt torn between the two cultures he lives in.

"My play kinda deals a little bit with the dawning of a new era and with trying to move ahead while straddling two worlds," he said. "I feel like I'm always forced to defend immigrants, I have to defend welfare parents – my mom was one when I went to school…at one time I changed my name because I was embarrassed of it. Our language –

we were made to feel like it was an encumbrance, a hindrance, though I know I did better on my SAT's because I knew a Latin-based language."

Alfonso's is just one incredible story out of four phenomenal writers in this competition.

"We develop new plays and provide the playwrights with connections to other theaters in the city," said Ilesa Duncan, Director of Youth and Community Programming who said other large theaters are invited to participate in the readings and get connected to the artists themselves. "If we're not the only, then we're the first [to do this], there are larger companies doing this but this is our third competition."

"If you're looking at who America is, you're looking at a diverse country," Ilesa said. "It's made up of all cultures and backgrounds and we need to be reflecting that in the major institutions in the country. There's an imbalance, [arts organizations aren't] reflecting the populations of the country, especially in the major cities."

Alfonso has seen few opportunities for staging "Latino plays," and though he did not "win" per se – that distinction goes to Los Angeles playwright Michael Golamco – he's awed by all he's learned.

"I feel like I really found a home. To me [the competition] became secondary," he said afterwards. "I wrote so much in these last two weeks, for me it was all about the collaborative process, to get a director… it’s a whole experience. You can't put a price on what I learned."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Latinos in the fine arts: Part One

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Diversity initiatives usually make my blood run cold. There’s nothing more patronizing than being attractive to someone more because of the color of your skin than because of your talent.

But in some cases it’s just necessary to set aside opportunities for inclusion or else there would never be anyone of color "at the top." And what’s true for the boardrooms of corporate America holds true for its performance stages.

Though there’s no lack of rich artistic traditions – music, dance, literature, visual art – in any given ethnic community, rarely do members of those communities make it onto mainstream stages. And the converse is true: you can practically count the number of black or Hispanic ballerinas or orchestra conductors in America on one hand. Audiences are no different; few white faces at the folkloric dance shows and few brown ones at King Lear.

Of course, how performing arts organizations attempt to mix and match means everything – the difference between a hit and a slight depending on the intended audience and objective.

For instance, bless their hearts, but I just gagged when I saw that Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater – whom I love, love, love – announced they’d be putting on Shakespeare en Espanol – Romeo y Julieta. In Little Village, no less. (At least it won’t be in the dreaded Pilsen neighborhood where most white people assume all Hispanic people live, and where high school kids from the rich suburbs are bussed in weekly to ogle the locals like it’s a zoo.)

I know my reaction is indefensible. There’s no downside – free world-class Shakespearean theater in the native language of a community with little access to such universally high-brow entertainment. The opportunity to open new doors to a whole generation of kids and parents who otherwise wouldn't make their way down to Navy Pier for Bill Shakes.

But though that’s a great example of community outreach, with an eye toward developing future Hispanic audiences, my initial reaction was: "Why isn’t it good enough to go on the real stage? Many of the people in the audience dragged themselves to the U.S. from thousands of miles away and you don’t think they can get themselves to Navy Pier?! And if you really want to diversify why don’t you find some great Latino leads for the regular production?"

The flip-side of that coin is, to me, brilliant! Less a "Latino outreach" activity and yet more authentic. According to the New York Times, in February Arthur Laurents, the original author of the famed musical, will be staging a "bilingual" revival of my very favorite musical "West Side Story" on Broadway. It promises to be grittier, more urban and more authentic.

I've always loved "West Side Story," seen it performed by high school students and professional touring companies alike. Stop me on the street or even call me on the phone and I can sing any of the songs – at full volume – for you.

But I hate watching the movie, with its close-ups of obviously white but creepily orange-colored stars who are as Latino as Margaret Thatcher and dance with as much sabor as Andy Griffith. It’s an insult. But, really, where were the producers of that movie going to find properly trained Latino stars in that time? At least the story humanized Latinos at a time they weren't on anyone's radar, and on stage the actors are far enough away you can suspend disbelief.

No, the whole performance won’t be in Spanish – and the Jerome Robbins choreography will remain untouched! – it’ll be spoken only in selected passages where the characters would naturally speak in Spanish.

And very best of all Mr. Laurents said he intends on casting Hispanic actors in the roles of the Puerto Rican Sharks and in the role of Maria! Hallelujah!!!!!!

"I’m not about to go slap some dark makeup on her," Mr. Laurents said. "I think it’s important to have a Latina in the role for a very simple reason — I think they know what it feels like to be an outsider. If they’ve got Puerto Rican blood, they know what prejudice is. If they’ve got any kind of Hispanic blood, they know what prejudice is."

%%%  Tomorrow, Part Two: a spotlight on one Chicago company diversifying on stage for their core audience. But I’ve got to go for now, Broadway auditions will be announced soon and I have to go sharpen my rendition of "Tonight"…

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contacteejaycee@600words.com

Health insurance coverage: key to unlocking Autism’s prison cell

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Quick quiz: what do the following all have in common?

Kids so sensitive to lights that Christmas trees are out of the question, toddlers who never learned to turn and look when spoken to, early childhood vaccines (maybe), mystery genes that keep a young brain from creating enough connections to relate to any part of our hectic world (maybe), health insurance companies, and the state of Illinois.

The answer is autism.

That’s autism with a capital "A" for the parents of the 26,000 autistic kids in Illinois who hope state lawmakers will give them a shot at "normalcy" by requiring insurance companies to pay up to $36,000 a year for occupational, physical, speech and behavioral therapies, and psychiatric and psychological services.

We would be joining Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who signed on the dotted line Wednesday, and seven other states that have passed laws ending insurance discrimination against autistic children by making crucial, life changing early-childhood interventions a covered benefit.

Aside from Dustin Hoffman’s character Raymond in the flick "Rain Man," or the pain it is to be around most autistic kids, people don’t know much about autism.

That they are "a pain" is not a criticism; it’s a tremendous understatement and a tragic reality.

In my few years of being a special ed. teacher I had my share of trying to connect a wide range of autistic kids – from the lively, hair-yanking, high-pitched-screaming ones to the highly-functioning who nevertheless couldn’t bear to wear collared shirts or drink anything warmer or cooler than room temperature – to ABC’s and colors. When it wasn’t physically jarring (I probably fall into the mild Asperger’s spectrum myself) it was completely emotionally draining.

Never mind the kids – the ones with the constantly vacant expressionless gazes who in some cases were mostly "gone" forever – even worse were their parents: an endless parade of lonely souls carrying living the daily grief of an entire life lost to autism. The most broken of them blame themselves for not knowing – or having – enough to get help early.

"With autism, early intervention is the key," said Nicholas Zacny, the 31-year-old parent of five-year-old Fiona Zacny who – thankfully – was diagnosed by her doctor at 18 months and was fortunate enough to have been living in Indiana where, since July 2001, insurance companies have been on the hook to pay for expensive therapies.

"She was diagnosed and got into a program where a behavioral therapist and occupational therapist came into our home once a week. In Illinois they don’t have that sort of thing and insurance tends to be very limited," Nick said.

High controversy swirls around whether autism is caused by early-childhood vaccinations, or can be cured through special diets or by removing heavy metals from kids’ bodies. But there’s no question that providing kids with trained therapists who can teach them how to cope with the too-loud sounds, too-bright lights, and too-scratchy clothes in our endlessly stimulating world works miracles, as was the case for Fiona.

"I would take her to my grandparents’ house and she’d scream and cry was terrified, now when she sees her grandparents she’s like a normal child," Nick told me, adding that if the law passes in Illinois the opportunity to bring Fiona, who currently lives with her mom in Indiana, to live here with him would become a reality, "should the need arise."

Nick constantly promotes two autism advocacy organizations – Autism Speaks and Talk About Curing Autism – who have supported him, Fiona, and the rest of their family throughout her young life. He says you can hit either website to write to your legislators for changes in existing laws or participate by donating time or money.

I say you can make a big difference by just learning a few things. Then, give an understanding smile to the tired-looking family with the wild kid next time one ventures out to your favorite restaurant or store.

- one in every 150 children born in the US (approximately 1 million) have autism

- it receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases

- "prevalence of autism among Hispanics is lower than non-Hispanic ethnic groups (1 in 300) but is most likely due to under-diagnosis and not that fewer Hispanics have autism," according to Easter Seals

- the length of time from concerns to early intervention for autistic African American children is 20 months – much longer than the 5.2 month national average, according to the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study.

"If this legislation passes it will take a huge burden off the backs of families," Nick said. "All families need this, it’ll go a long way and people just signing a ballot to support and encourage the legislature to do the right thing will help."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Say it with me: Chee-wah-wah

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Some stereotypes are true: I’m Hispanic and I own two Chihuahuas.

It is also true that: "Yo Quiero Taco Bell!"

Back in the late 90’s, before point and click tags were created, I taught myself how to write HTML code by setting up a website in which my two darlings masqueraded as Daisy, the Taco Bell Chihuahua. They answered fan mail via a "question of the day" and I got a lot of foot traffic to the site by including several photo galleries of "wet, naked Chihuahuas."

And so it is with great, great pleasure that I welcome you to countdown with me the seventy-three days left until what will surely be the highlight of my month. Three words: Beverly. Hills. Chihuahua.

Oh, yes – I wouldn’t joke about a thing like that.

Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua "50% Warrior. 50% Lover. 100% Chihuahua" (they totally lifted that off of my bio!) comes out September 26. This is a, ahem, tale of an oxymoronically spoiled Chihuahua named Chloe whose ancestors, according to the trailer, "went into battle alongside Aztec warriors, today move within the inner circles of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet" gets lost on a trip to Mexico.

The creamy-white Chloe, inimitably lisped by Drew Barrymore, then must rely on the kindness of a colorful cast of strangers to get back to Beverly Hills and along with the romantic lead – a luxuriously tan Chihuahua named Papi voiced by George Lopez – runs into dogs voiced by a line-up of Hollywood’s Hispanic elite: Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Paul Rodriguez, Edward James Olmos, Andy Garcia, and Placido Domingo.

If you’re going to email me about the victimization of Latinos because of the Mexican stereotypes in this movie, just click away now and leave me and my Speedy Gonzalez lunchbox alone.

Alternately if you’re going to complain about "the man" casting one of the whitest white girls in Hollywood, Drew Barrymore, rather than Salma Hayek or Jennifer Lopez in the lead role, thereby creating an all-Latino affair, then I say to you: It’s called "crossover appeal," get some.

If you’re looking for a politically correct movie, look much further. Heck its historical correctness is a little sketchy; the movie trailer has already been criticized for setting up a story based on the Aztec warriors of Mexico in Machu Picchu, an Inca city located in Peru.

But I’ll not let anyone deny me or my two lovely’s moment in the sun, and I can’t spend any more time writing today, I only have seventy-three days in which to craft two wildly-colored, beaded, feathery headdresses for the big night. And where did I leave those copper lip plugs…

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Leave the accuracy-meter at home, this is merely a flat-out fiesta for a Chihuahua-lovin’ nation! We’re talkin’ a cast of thousands of feathery head-dressed boogeying Chihuahuas punctuated by a cadre of well-choreographed, blinged-out rapping Chihuahuas bustin’ rhymes such as "we’re tiny, we’re mighty, we’re number one, we’re the real ‘hot dog’ yo- hold da bun!" Priceless.

Alas, not everyone is anticipating this flick by setting their atomic clocks to the opening of what will surely be an Academy Award-winning film in the category of "Best Supporting Mexican Dog."

I’m envisioning certain types decrying it for glorifying the illegal passage of unlicensed Chihuahuas from Mexico to the United States. Others are already reacting by posting videos of themselves and their non-Chihuahua canine friends cringing while viewing a trailer of the movie, as reported in Tuesday’s New York Times article

"Chihuahuas in headdresses? I cringe, YouCringe."

Putting the "bi" back in "bilingual"

"’Pregunta del Dia’ by Esther J. Cepeda"

"P-d-D" translates into "Question of the Day" and this one comes from J.O. a long-time reader somewhere out in cyberspace who, being particularly interested in linguistics and even a proponent of alternative spellings, had this question:

Q. A few weeks ago Obama said something about requiring students to learn a second language. He commented that he's embarrassed he only knows English. I feel the same way.

I think if it was part of the curriculum in grammar school, right from the beginning, I probably would have had no trouble. But it wasn't and it wasn't until I was 20 that I had any motive at all to learn another language. By then I didn't seem to have any aptitude for it. Tried to learn Spanish and Esperanto, but nothing seems to stick.

I suppose I didn't put enuff effort into it, but just the same, I have no trouble adding English vocabulary, so I believe there's something to early training that makes a big difference. What's your take on this?

A. Obama, responding to an audience question about teen drop-out rates after a speech in Powder Springs, Ga., said "I agree that immigrants should learn English but instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language."

Of course some people freaked!

A few days later, after the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC said in a statement, "Barack Obama has stepped on a political land mine by stating Americans should be forced to learn to speak Spanish," Obama had to play some defense and clarified: "The Republicans jumped on this. I said, absolutely immigrants need to learn English, but we also need to learn foreign languages."

How could anyone have doubted his feelings on the subject? After all, Obama did vote yes to the English as a Common Language Amendment in June 2007 and for the English as a Unifying Language Amendment in May of 2006 (He stopped short and voted no for officially Declar[ing] English the National Language in June of 2007 and the English as a National Language Amendment in May 2006).

The real answer for the dust-up is that after years and years of misuse, people no longer understand the term bilingual, which the Esther J. Cepeda Rule of Thumb Public Policy Institute, a bi-partisan think tank, defines thusly: the ability to speak – and more specifically, also read and write – two languages fluently.

Decades of spirited discussions about the value of "bilingual education" – which was designed to be incremental English immersion for new arrivals but by default became Spanish-language classrooms across the nation – have left people clueless about true bilinguality.

Throw on to that Spanish-only advertisements, public signage, and multi-media and all of a sudden there’s not much "bi" to it.

For example: mami and papi Cepeda, and me, are all bilingual. We speak, read, write, think and dream in both English and Spanish.

However "Jaime Lopez" – one of the many "bilingual" students I taught at a high school in the suburbs of Chicago – who was born in the United States and lived here all his life but in kindergarden was dumped into a "bilingual" class by school administrators who felt his home life demanded it, he is not bilingual.

At the ripe young age of 16, "Jaime" was a sophomore who could speak only enough English to order at McDonald’s and delighted in complaining to the school administration that I was denying him his rights by teaching my algebra classes in mostly English. I’ll digress no further.

To answer the final part of your question, I’m embarrassed I know only two languages and despite being a student of Professor Clarke Caywood, Northwestern University professor and Esperanto master who just carried the Olympic torch in China, the Esperanto bug never bit me.

It has been proven time and time again that the brain gets hard-wired early and the most effective time to teach a new language is before the age of ten. Take the students at Cyrus McCormick Elementary School in Chicago, the first predominantly Hispanic Chicago public school to offer Chinese instruction. I wrote about them February 19, 2007 in a Chicago Sun-Times article no longer available on their website.

Betcha didn’t know that Chicago Public School system runs the largest public school Chinese program in the country and that McCormick's 800 kids, 99 percent of whom are Hispanic, receive 20 to 25 minutes of instruction five times a week from a Chinese teacher who comes into the classroom to weave language lessons into a broader curriculum that exposes kids to all aspects of Chinese culture.

Tri-lingual second graders! Not the first time I’ve felt inferior to eight-year-olds, and hopefully not the last.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

‘Mer-cans as far as the eyes can see

"Pregunta del Dia by Esther J. Cepeda"

"P-d-D" translates from Espanol into "Question of the Day" and today’s comes from Julia, a faithful Carbondale, IL, reader who emailed:

Q. Last week I hosted my annual Group Study Exchange Team through Rotary International. Over the past few years I have hosted teams from Germany, Italy, Philippines, India and the latest was from Brazil.  I usually have one of the team members stay in our house.  This year I had two young women from Brazil (both age 24 and lawyers) and they told me something that I had not heard before. 

It seems that other citizens of the Americas (North or South) think it is somewhat arrogant for people in the US to refer to themselves as "Americans." Their view, if I understand it, is that all of us in the Americas are Americans and people in the US shouldn’t have title or a patent on the designation. 

I wondered if you were aware of this and had a opinion, comment, etc. My question was "If you don’t call people in the United States ‘Americans’, then what do you call them… "Unitarians" ?!!!!!

A. Ahh, Julia – oceanchild, seashell eyes, windy smile – you’ve stumbled into a particularly prickly point of contention. This one goes into the same bucket as "don’t call me Spanish, I’m not from Spain," but I’ve digressed.

My best pal, Wikipedia, defines the Americas thusly: "the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. The Americas cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area) and contain about 14% of the human population (about 900 million people). The Americas may alternatively be referred to as ‘America’ however, ‘America’ may be ambiguous, as it can refer either to the entire landmass or to the United States of America."

Here’s another one for you, our neighbor to the south? Well, down there it’s officially, as well as commonly, known as "los Estados Unidos Mexicanos," according to mami Cepeda. Yep, "the United States of Mexico." I won’t bore you with a wobbly recitation of all the states that make up that union or, as an additional example, those of the Republic of the United States of Brazil.

Take away Mexico and you still have approximately 34 million Canadians, 40 million Central Americans, and 371 million South Americans sporting all manner of non-U.S. American pride.

Let’s join hands, Julia, we’re all Americans!

And, yeah, it bugs the heck out of many, many of those 445 million Americans who don’t live somewhere between L.A. and New Yawk that "United States of America" citizens – known globally as believing that they alone are the center of the universe – don’t know or care enough about their continent-mates to know that Americans come in all different languages and cultures from across countless borders.

But don’t fret, there’s no need to revert to something as inartful as "Unitarians"! It’s been my experience that people in other countries of the Americas don’t want Americans to stop calling themselves "Americans," they just want Americans to know that there are plenty of other Americans out there and a great many of them love mami and apple flan, or Écouter and pomme tarte, even if they do get teary-eyed at something other than the "Star Spangled Banner" at sporting events.

Capice!?

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Awwww, geez, dad!!!!!

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

I coined the term "The Break" to refer to the emotional, symbolic – and many times physical –cutting off of one’s self from their culture, family, or group of friends necessary to fulfill one’s purpose in life. This election season has brought several puzzling and tragic examples.

Take Barack Obama: from the start he has been operating in his own spirit, completely focused on his goal of becoming the U.S.’ first president of color. Aside from his guiding vision of himself and the consciousness he wants to bring about with such a historic achievement, people don’t know quite what to make of him. He’s simultaneously too black, too white, too affluent to be in touch with the plight of low-income folks of all colors, and too young and too good at basketball to be taken seriously by parts of the established Caucasian ruling class across the country.

He’s heralded by white America’s favorite Black woman and has been consistently panned by black America’s most visible black leader. If you hadn’t heard, earlier this week the Reverend Jessie Jackson was caught on a live mike making disparaging remarks about Obama because Jackson feels he "talks down" to black people.

Obama successfully avoided making The Break with black people, but paid the price of having to make The Break from his polarizing pastor Jeremiah Wright. There are more Breaks ahead – he’s leaving some in his wake.

Jackson issued his apology and Obama accepted, but there was another voice as well, "Reverend Jackson is my dad, and I’ll always love him," his son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. rushed to announce. "I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks to and insults to himself."

This is certainly not the first time Jackson Jr. has come out against his dad, a smaller, more diplomatic Break was made in an op-ed piece "You’re wrong on Obama, dad" Jackson Jr. published in the Chicago Sun-Times last December. Watch for a bigger one if the Rev. can’t keep in line with the purported party line, or down the road when Jackson Jr. feels it’s time to run for his own higher office.

Here’s another one for you: Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz is making a silent Break right now. His father, Elias Munoz, pleaded guilty to taking pictures to manufacture fraudulent IDs in the Little Village Discount mall location which, as a result of a sting, was raided by ICE agents and made headlines across the country.

Alderman Munoz, understandably, declined to comment when I called him Thursday afternoon but according to Wednesday’s Chicago Sun-Times story where Munoz Jr. is quoted from last year, "Adults need to be held accountable for what they do." He was on his way to a Break even then.

Thanks goodness my parents aren’t the lightning-rod type, but what do you do when your job is based on your personal integrity and your loved ones screws up?

"I think most people can identify with having someone in the family who is crazy or a drunk, or someone who you have to look the other way and tolerate them because we love them and that’s what matters," said Chicago-based Public Relations Consultant Chris Martin. "My first reaction is ‘blood is thicker than water’ or anything else and a lot of Americans – aside from politicians – we all know we’ve been in that spot and can have some sympathy."

I asked Chris, who has handled a client’s media crisis or two in his day, how to manage a Break in the media. "At that point, the person would have to trade on their own reputation – having people come to his support and say ‘we’re closing ranks’ most people would understand that on a visceral level," Chris said.

"With the Jacksons my first reaction was surprise that he came out so strongly, so quickly I would think he could have waited a do or two for the emotion to subside – maybe the thinking was ‘if I come out now I could kill this – that’s being stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Breaking out of that hard place is what The Break is all about, and it’s almost always grueling and painful. Jesse Jackson Jr. must be used to his dad’s outrageous foot-in-mouth disease but I’ll be keeping tabs on Ric Munoz who last year – before U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez decided to stay in the game after announcing his retirement – had been planning on running for Congress. He’ll have to face his father’s music at some point.

Chris perfectly speculated about Alderman Ric Munoz’ parental/political pickle: "We all have a dad… hopefully everyone can give him a break."

Read an excerpt from the introduction to my book "The Break" here.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Amy Jacobson Redux

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

It takes a lot of guts to relive a humiliating – and very public – professional embarrassment. But, hey, Amy Jacobson has got guts in spades.

I was in a Chicago newsroom one year ago when the story broke of how Amy Jacobson came to be suspended from WMAQ-5 in Chicago after she was caught on tape at the home of presumed-killer Craig Stebic in a bikini, and I can tell you the comments and snickers from both male and female journalists were both highly sexist and vilely cruel – and this was before anyone had even asked for Amy’s side of the story.

According to Jacobson, then a popular reporter who’d been with WMAQ-5 in Chicago for ten years, she had been on her way to the East Bank Club for a swim date with her two little kids when she got a call from Craig Stebic's sister inviting her –and her kids – over to the house to talk.

On July 10, 2007, a few days after CBS-affiliate/rival station WBBM-Ch. 2 aired video of her in a bikini top with a towel around her waist at the Stebic home – where perky suburban mom Lisa Stebic had lived with her two kids and presumed-guilty husband until her April 2007 disappearance – she got fired from WMAQ-Ch. 5.

This week Jacobson filed suit against Channel 2, seeking more than $1 million in damages – and some vestige of her professional dignity – for portraying her as "’an adulteress and disreputable reporter.’" According to Jacobson, her reputation was tarred and feathered such that even though a year has passed she hasn’t been able to get a comparable job in a comparable media market and had to sell her house and move her family into a small apartment. They’ve already said the suit has no merit.

How Channel 2 got the video was never made public and Amy’s side of the story was literally laughed off by both media people and Chicago viewers. Not only was she made the butt of countless tasteless jokes, but she was highly criticized for not exercising "better judgment" though she did what most reporters would have done.

It’s a jungle out there in the media world. Even a year ago the journalism career path was a fool’s errand, and the adage that you’re only as good as your last top story or front page piece will never die. What they don’t teach you in Journalism school, however, is that no one cares how you get that story.

Good judgment? Journalists are not trained to exercise good judgment, they are conditioned to squeal "how high" when editors say "jump," and even when they aren’t blessed with the obedience gene, they instinctively run toward the gunshots, toward the burning building, and toward the lunatics. And if the family member of the summer’s hottest wife-murderer story happens to call and you might get the scoop of the city YOU RUN.

After hours or on your day off? Of course! In a bikini? You grab a towel. With your kids? Hmmmm…are there other kids there? According to Jacobson, she was told she was walking into a family get-together and decided it was probably ok, little did she know she was the one in danger.

And now, she’s living the nightmare over in a quest to clear her name, and she should get a medal for courage in the line of fire.

There’s no question in my mind that if any of the lead reporters on the ex-cop Drew Peterson story were called by a family member with the promise of a break in his young wife Stacy Peterson’s disappearance case, they’d be on it like white on rice under any given circumstance, and no one would bat an eye – such are the pressures to drive a news story that reporters are under these days.

But if you happen to have a pretty face attached to a hard-nosed reporter’s brain it seems there’s a double standard that opens you up to every dirty insinuation in the book.

Bravo to Amy for sticking up for herself, even if she loses the lawsuit, she’s won her integrity. No, scratch that – she never lost it to begin with.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Barbie forgiven: Alpha Kappa Alpha doll bridges gap

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

My hate-affair with Barbie is over.

Ever since my black-sheep Uncle Juan left for the dusty small-town of Harvard, Illinois and came back with a tall, blond, small-town cowgirl who thought a tall, blond Barbie would be an appropriate Christmas gift for her short Ecuadorian boyfriend’s tomboy niece, Barbie and I have had…issues.

Thank goodness my parents neve