Esther J. Cepeda

English proficiency requirement rears its head – unnecessarily

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

Some people should be required to become fluent in the English language: all U.S. school children, employees, and first responders like policemen and doctors. These same people would certainly benefit from being fluently bilingual in English and any other foreign language, as well.

Who should not be required to become fluent in English? Tourists, visiting family members, and sports celebrities.

Sports celebrities communicate primarily through their bodies' achievements, they rely on grit, guts and determination to scale the heights of physical perfection. They shouldn't have to prove they can conjugate English verbs to win in their chosen game.

But in a stunning international gaffe, the Ladies Professional Golf Association has decided to require foreign-born players to become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.

Why? So they can address the ball – "helloooooo ball" – ala Ed Norton, without an accent? So they can make even more money by being able to talk to fans?

Nope, according to Libba Galloway, the deputy commissioner of the LPGA, as quoted in the New York Times: “We live in a sports-entertainment environment; for an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.

“Being a U.S.-based tour, and with the majority of our fan base, pro-am contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in English.”

Give me a break!

Did Lorena Ochoa, the reigning queen of the links, who is Mexican through and through, need some stupid rule in order to learn English? No, she just instinctively knew she'd be better off learning English.

Ditto for, just as one more example, Milka Duno, the bombshell Venezuelan race car driver who at a Chicagoland Speedway Indy race last year insisted we conduct my interview in English because she needed to sharpen her skills. She didn't need some stupid rule to know that English is the language of success in this country and if she wanted to make the most of herself here, she'd better be intelligible.

Not that being intelligible kept Venezuelan Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen from winning the world series of baseball in 2005; those of us who speak Spanish fluently know it's difficult to understand his rapid fire ramblings in any language.

Nope, the LPGA's rule, which requires an oral evaluation to prove said English proficiency, is just plain stupid. And worse than that, it's doing more to degrade America's standing in the world as the welcoming, cosmopolitan melting-pot than a million "anti-immigrant" cable TV shows.

Already the world is weighing in on the pronouncement. Jin-Young Kim, a golf reporter at Korea's Seoul Economic Daily newspaper was quoted on MSN FOX Sports' website said, "It's not fair, we think it's like discrimination. We know it's very important to speak English in America and to be friendly with people. We all know. But it's not the standard, the method to cut or pass a player on the LPGA."

Here in the U.S., Asian organizations are, rightfully, outraged. FOX quotes Cao K. O, executive director of the Asian American Federation, in a protest letter: "Foreign-born players are needed here, and they help enhance the United States' global image and competitiveness." He further wrote: "We should make them feel welcome, encouraged, and appreciated. It does not make economic sense to create an atmosphere in which foreign-born players feel unfairly treated, because English proficiency is not performance relevant with respect to playing golf."

And that's the bottom line: proving your athletic prowess on any level playing field requires no words. Think of how the world would have scoffed if the Chinese had required proficiency in Mandarin prior to Beijing's games. Would the U.S., Spain, or Brazil think of announcing, today, a requirement of host-country language proficiency in 2016? Of course not, that's silly.

And it's not like the players themselves don't want to master our language. Hall of Famer Se Ri Park told the New York Times: '“We agree we should speak some English,” said Pak, who added that she thought fines seemed a fairer penalty than suspensions. “We play so good over all. When you win, you should give your speech in English.”'

But why even go as far as penalties? Neither baseball, basketball, hockey, nor soccer – other sports with a high number of foreign-born players – have such Draconian regulations in place, they know working as a team to win transcends culture and language and unites players of all backgrounds.

Who can know why the LPGA is going down this road – their stance that corporate sponsorships hang in the balance is spurious as best, and what corporation now wants to underwrite perceived discrimination? – but only time will tell what forecasted litigation will bring.

In the best-case scenario the LPGA spends a lot of money and tries to wipe this ridiculous chapter from their history books. In the worst-case scenario, they continue making boobs of themselves, and America, until someone in a leadership position comes to their senses.

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

It's Father's Day: A Million Fathers to March on first day of school

"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

When you stop to look at the array of organizations trying to address the crushing problem of poor children being left behind in U.S. schools there are the wonk strategizers, the conscientious objectors, and then there are those out there with kids and parents, just getting stuff done – like Chicago's Black Star Project.

Sure in their hometown they've never grabbed splashy headlines like the Rev. and State Senator James Meeks who has proposed boycotting the first day of school, busing kids to Winnetka for a symbolic registration attempt, then planting kids in lobbies of Loop businesses to bring attention to the dire inequities in how kids get schooled in this state.

They've never gotten the sort of "play" that Cheryle R. Jackson and the Chicago Urban League got last week when they announced a lawsuit against the State of Illinois and Illinois State Board of Education calling for the state's current school funding design be declared unconstitutional and in violation of the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003. But it doesn't matter to the Black Star Project staff, under the direction of its fearless leader Phillip Jackson, they don’t think about headlines they're just out there doing.

"We went to Cook Country jail today, marched around the jail chanting 'Educate or Die!' and spoke to 1,000 men in division four, asking them to write letters to their family to have them take their children to school next Tuesday," Phillip told me late Wednesday night. "Last week we took a letter to Tom Dart and asked him to provide paper, envelopes, and stamps and he did saying 'Yes! That's exactly what we're looking for!'" I told those men that the one thing that should never be taken away from a man is the right to be a good father."

That was just one of about a million things BSP has been doing leading up to Tuesday's first day of school, and only a few of them have happened here in Chicago. You see the MFM has been around awhile. “The media here pretty much ignored the Million Father March for 5 years,” Phillip said. “The MFM is all over the country in New York is huge. We're in 475 cities; including Chicago we're expecting 600,000 fathers across the country to take their kids to school – and those are just the cities who are registered with us.”

Phillip says he can’t really estimate how many will be living the spirit of the March and showing their kids that their education takes precedence over everything else by escorting them to school on the first day but he says, “Every day I hear about cities we have no connection to doing Million Father March and that's what we want, we don't control the MFM anymore, its something that every community controls.”

And when he says every community, he means EVERY community, even in towns where Da Mayor and the Guv haven’t declared September 2 Million Father March Day.

“We’re not leaving anybody behind, I had a white man from Traverse City, MI call me and ask ‘Can white people participate in the Million Father March?’ I said yes …if you have children.’ He went out and recruited 25 other small cities in central Michigan where the total minority population is less than 2 percent to participate.”

And Phillip’s hoping for a bump here as well. Despite being overlooked for years because parent mentoring, student tutoring and good old-fashioned hard work in getting kids through school isn’t sexy, his phones have been ringing these days as a result of pleasant unintended consequences.

“The Rev. Meeks brought up this boycott and now people are giving me the opportunity to talk about MFM and things I think we need to do to educate poor black, poor Latino, poor rural white children,” he said. “But we are going to depart with him on the first day. In fact we're going to door to door in low attendance communities to make sure the kids come to school – we even have teachers out doing it!”

“See we’re doing it all; we we're going to keep working for the money to equalize educational opportunities and we’re going to keep talking about fathers and mothers becoming involved in children’s educations, how that leads to a better education, higher test scores, higher graduation rates, less drop outs, less drugs, less school suspensions and less pregnancies. That's what we should be doing,” Phillip said. “This is not ‘Wellll…it’s Sept 2^nd, the kids are back. No, we’ll keep working.”

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

Sun-Times' Gasping Leaves Us All Winded

This column originally published on Huffington Post/Chicago

It's almost the era that never ends but simply keeps ending endlessly, seemingly every week. If print news were a TV character it would be Fred Sanford, except with real, honest-to-goodness heart attacks, only a few breaths from seeing his beloved Elizabeth.

In the latest turgent episode of "As the Crumbling Newspaper Industry Turns," news broke that Jay Mariotti, the $300,000-a-year (give or take a few thousand) controversial sports columnist at my old newspaper, The Chicago Sun-Times, abruptly quit.

The news was followed by reports that a new round of newsroom cuts would begin shortly. By the end of the business day newsroom gossips were naming a reporter who had been on the short list to go back in January when I, one of the newest kids on the block, was cut, as well as two columnists, two photographers and a few support staff as the next likely, though unconfirmed, targets.

This development comes, almost dizzingly, on the heels of a Chicago Tribune purge that saw barely-two-months-on-the-job managing editor Hanke Gratteau and long-timer James Warren take buyouts, along with an estimated 80 reporters dismissed because no one is making money off an electronic news system that relies heavily on syndicated wire services and a passed-along-by-a-friend distribution model.

How will the Sun-Times dismissals play out? Probably no one will be hustled out by security, as I witnessed in the days before my own January departure, though that fact was later vehemently denied.

There will be more tears, but far fewer people to shed them in a newsroom so condensed that several departments are comfortably occupying the space where just one dwelled as recently as a year ago.

And subsequent Sun-Times editions will surely contain even more freelanced dispatches of delicious depth, bought for a pittance, from ex-staffers who were bought out - or who simply chose to bail out - such as the incredible classical music writer Wynne Delacoma.

Fear, now a familiar face across all the Sun-Times News Group properties, has once again taken up residence and is clanging a loud bell for the unfortunate who have been left behind long enough to wonder whether tomorrow or the day after will be their last.

One editor, who wished to remain nameless, at a suburban Sun-Times News Group property articulated perfectly what Mariotti's bye-bye signals mean.

"There's a sense of the end being near and we don't know when it's coming but we're a day closer," he said. "When you see one of the Sun-Times' most recognizable figures saying we're dead in the water and he doesn't want to go down with the ship it's not good. The worst thing is that Mariotti is ahead of the curve."

Despite there being life after the Sun-Times, the slow, emaciative demise of this newspaper, scrappy to its core (wait until you see Thursday's edition which features fans who have vowed to return to the paper's fold now that the sharp and cutting Mariotti is gone) even in the face of cuts that have gone way beyond fat and into marrow, is nothing short of a tragedy.

Sure, some of the fiercely talented group of people will instantly be snapped up by eager employers, but the real losers are Chicagoans who everyday rely on the printed paper, not the Internet, to tell them what's what in town.

Newspapers' web sites require twice as many, not half as few, excellent reporters to feed the 24-hour news beast, not that that means anything only two days removed from the New York Times' announcement that its ad revenue fell by 17.9 percent, with less than 1 percent growth in online ad revenue despite having poured money into its "golden goose," according to Advertising Age magazine. So prospects for an online only rebirth look grim as well, despite Mariotti's cocksure pronouncement that the internet is where it's at. One longtime Sun-Times staffer candidly told me, "What Jay doesn't realize is that the internet doesn't pay."

Either way, my beloved Sun-Times is almost out of breath and though it's obvious that the city isn't mourning, and management appears gleeful at the Mariotti development - their news release quoted Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke coolly remarking, "We wish Jay well and will miss him--not personally, of course--but in the sense of noticing he is no longer here, at least for a few days." - it's a bad week for a hometown favorite.

In a parting shot comment to a Chicago Tribune reporter Mariotti said, "I'm a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete," he said. "Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers. I think probably the days of high-stakes competition in Chicago are over."

The Sun-Times may not think Jay's departure is a loss, but his spot-on call of the Chicago newspaper market is really a loss for us all.

This amnesty wasn’t good enough: "Operation Scheduled Departure" departs

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Let us join together and give a collective sneer to library fine amnesties. Parking ticket and gun amnesties, too. You see, they’re just so stupid!

It’s so ridiculous to imagine that after years of not paying parking tickets or returning books for fear of fines, that anyone would be idiotic enough to "turn themselves in" and pay a way-reduced penalty from the fines they’d otherwise be on the hook for.

If you, for instance, didn’t pay your $20 expired-meter parking ticket, then parked in a fire lane to the tune of 250 bucks, then let the compounded late fees balloon up to over $2,250, you’d presumably be a plain moron to just fork over the original $20 and go on your merry way.

This is the argument of that segment of immigration activists who will accept nothing less than full amnesty and "an immediate moratorium on all raids and immigration enforcement and deportations" for illegal immigrants.

These are the same people who ensured that "Operation Scheduled Departure" – a plan whereby illegal immigrants would be spared workplace and home raids and jail time prior to deportation if they turned themselves in to government offices in North Carolina, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, and Santa Ana, California.

Never mind that the government has also – rightly so, I add – been criticized for disastrous workplace enforcements, such as the raid in Postville, Iowa, which left illegal immigrants confused about the rights they’re guaranteed even while in this country illegally and ripped for shoddy to downright inhumane treatment in holding centers.

Nope, giving people who knowingly violating laws and already appealed to an immigration judge and been sentenced to return home a small measure of control over the date and time to say goodbye to their loved ones was ridiculed by the activists.

Mr. Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of the Chicago-based "all or nothing" Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights was quoted in the New York Times story announcing the end of the initiative thusly: "A cynic would say they are going to say, ‘See, we tried to be nice,’ " he said. " ‘We don’t abuse people. Now we’re going to get tough because they didn’t come forward when we tried to be nice, so now we’re going to be mean.’ "

He was more than a little cynical when, in his nearly impeccable Spanish, told Chicago’s daily Spanish-language newspaper Hoy that, among other things, he considered the government’s offer to let people turn themselves in after a 90-day window in which to settle their affairs, arrange travel and prepare for a new life back home, "the theater of the absurd."

Maybe. Maybe not.

Yes, with all the lefty activists spouting about how the U.S. should "give back Texas," and the salivating-for-warm-bodies union bosses telling the very people who would benefit from this sort of "get out of jail free" card that they’d be fools to go for it, it was an almost sure bet that the whole thing was going to be a flop. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, of the 457,000 "fugitive aliens" who would have been eligible for the program only eight came forward.

And oh, the courage of those eight who broke away from what, to my eyes, looks like a pro-illegal-immigration mafia!

In fact, widespread shoulder shrugging by these "rights groups" accompanied Friday’s announcement of the campaign’s end, along with indignant defenses that they had nothing to do with its failure. "Plenty of said it was a silly idea and not going to work, that the undocumented may be illegal but they are not stupid," Hoyt said.

The gentleman doth protest too much. And he thinks that those of us who aren’t illegal immigrants are too stupid to differentiate between stupidity and honest ignorance on the part of the many illegal immigrants stuck in our no-man’s-land of enticing jobs and miserable laws.

The pro-immigration activists need to start making better decisions for the people they have appointed themselves to protect.

Steering their people away from fulfilling an immigration judge’s order to leave the country – after having gone through all the paperwork and petition processes to stay, and been denied – is simply irresponsible and cruel.

Maybe not as cruel as denying a cancer-ridden illegal immigrant medical care until he dropped dead while in custody, or bamboozling a whole heard of illegal immigrants out of their legal rights in a cow pasture, but the pro-illegal immigration activists’ theater is getting more absurd by the minute.

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

A new press for justice in Chicago cop's Thanksgiving Day killings

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

All good relationships are based on trust. Sadly, citizens of Chicago have come to mistrust the police who are supposed to serve and protect them – and the system that lets bad cops literally get away with murder. The reopening of Officer John Ardelean's car crash case might be a small step toward rebuilding some of that trust.

As I wrote in the column "Colorblind Killings" last May, Officer John Ardelean killed Miguel Flores, 22, and Erick Lagunas, 21, with his car after an alcohol-laced high speed chase on the city's North side, then went into cover-your-ass mode and refused to take a field sobriety test until almost eight hours later when his supervisor finally insisted.

The tragedy smelled not of some anti-Latino bias but more of the CPD brotherhood's "we protect our own" policy that seems to permeate every single one of the many, many highly-publicized police brutality incidents that marked 2007.

Six-months after starting a crusade for justice, retired Cook County Judge Raymond A. Figueroa got a little closer to giving voice to the dark-skinned victims of police misbehavior who, lacking busty, blond photogenic appeal, seem to always get forgotten in the mainstream media.

On Friday First Assistant State's Attorney Bob Milan forced open John Ardelean's felony DUI case, which had been shelved for lack of evidence, when he introduced a tape that a TV station aired showing Ardelean, 34, getting a drink poured down his mouth and grabbing a beer before walking out the door of a bar – presumably immediately before getting into the Dodge Durango that slammed into Flores and Lagunas' Pontiac Grand Am killing both – according to the Chicago Tribune's story.

Back in February, nearly three months after the Officer had gone about his business while two families mourned the death of their young loved ones, Judge Figueroa toiled away to cast a light on the incident that had been covered by Chicago's media with the ferocity of a kitten stuck in a tree. At the time I felt the coverage was in undeniable stark contrast to the case of the cop who'd been caught on tape beating up the pretty blond bartender the previous summer.

But through it all Figueroa has had Justice's blindfold on, arguing that the case be reopened based on the kid-glove treatment Ardelean got from all involved, and the bumbling efforts from the very people responsible for protecting the victims. Charging obstruction of justice, prosecutorial misconduct, and perjury, Figueroa was on fire about witnesses who hadn't been called to testify, irregularities in police officers' treatment as they testified on Ardelean's behalf, and a general disinterest by all parties to uncover the truth of what happened that Thanksgiving night.

This videotape's potential to show yet another policeman behaving badly offers a unique opportunity. You see, most regular law-abiding people toil under the impression that if you don't break the law, you don't get messed with. They have no way of understanding that the justice system in this city and in this country has two tracks: one for the affluent and one for everyone else that gets more awful depending on how dark your skin is.

Uncovering yet another tacit approval of police misbehavior by the Chicago Police Department that resulted in the deaths of two people who were more-or-less assumed to have been "probably up to no good anyway," as I've heard many say, get us closer to making sure this sort of thing doesn't happen – and get swept under the rug – again.

That Chicagoans have little trust in the Chicago Police Department because of the bad actions of a tiny, tiny part of the force isn't fair, either, of course, but fear is not logical.

Right now the CPD is continuing an internal investigation though no charges are pending against Ardelean – yet. But reopening the case puts things back on track towards finally getting it right.

At a press conference last February Judge Figueroa spoke passionately on behalf of those who so often get forgotten. Of the fiasco, he asked that "governmental bodies protect us and investigate the involved entities for misconduct" after remarking "the victims, their families and the community deserve better."

Yes, black, white, brown, our whole community deserves better.

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

When family wishes and an immigration poster-child photo-op collide

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

If you missed it, about two weeks ago the New York Times featured on its front-page a story about how U.S. hospitals deal with illegal immigrant patients beset by long-term illnesses.

Luis Alberto Jimenez, a Guatemalan native with a traumatic brain injury who had been treated for several years in a Florida hospital at a cost of over 1.5 million dollars was profiled.

At issue was the state court order (that later was declared invalid) which enabled Martin Memorial Hospital to lease an air ambulance for $30,000 to "forcibly" return Mr. Jimenez to Guatemala.

Chicago now has its very own Jimenez.

More to the point: at issue is a thirty-year-old Mexican man named Francisco Pantaleon who, no less tragically, suffered a "severe cerebral hemmorage," according to Sherry McGuiness, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center’s spokesperson. He was to be transferred to a hospital in Acapulco (at the UIC’s expense) until some disgruntled family members and activists stepped in.

The story, reported in today’s Chicago Tribune and Hoy newspapers goes thusly: father of two with no health insurance who has been living in U.S. illegally for eleven years has a severe brain hemorrhage in mid-July, goes to Alexian Brothers Hospital falls into a coma, and must be transferred to the UIC Medical Center for long-term care.

UIC, realizing there’s little hope for recovery, arranges – with Mr. Pantaleon’s family’s permission – to pay for him to be returned to Mexico where he can live out the rest of his days.

Mr. Pantaleon’s sister freaks out and unleashes the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on the hospital. They, gleefully waving the New York Times piece, get Chicago’s Mexican Consulate to shame UIC into halting the transfer on the grounds that UIC failed to inform the Consulate of their plans to move the patient back to his country of origin.

Drumroll please: despite the fact that Mr. Pantaleon’s wife has been toiling for over a month to get him back home to Mexico, according to her comments to Hoy newspaper.

In the printed version of the Trib’s story, Dr. William Chamberlin, UIC’s Chief Medical Officer, said: "We have worked with the individual who has had primary decision-making responsibility for the patient" and had that person’s full consent.

I don’t dispute the following: 1) this is a sad story. And 2) there’s no question that legal or illegal, no immigrant should be denied due process when it comes to being returned to their home country.

But: we can’t even afford to adequately care for U.S. Citizens! And: his wife wants him home!

Forget the "hospital as ICE agent" straw man argument, the real crime here is being perpetrated by the leftist, illegal-immigrants-should-do-as-they-please, we’re-in-your-face-so-there! activists who would go so far as to deny this man his dignity by allowing a photographer to take his picture in a most undignified state while denying his wife the right to care for her husband at home.

Howard Peters, a senior VP at the Illinois Hospital Association was quoted in the Trib saying that "the family ought to be grateful" that UIC found a facility in Mexico willing to take Mr. Pantaleon and volunteered to foot the bill for his transfer.

As far as I can see, in his comatose state Mr. Panaleon is a pawn, being victimized by the very people who claim to be fighting for the rights of illegal immigrants such as himself.

His family truly ought to be grateful he’s received such top-notch care so far. And I believe that once Mr. Pantaleon returns to his tierra, his wife will finally see him, feel his warm skin, talk to him and express her gratitude quietly - and far out of the glare of the TV camera’s lights. 

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

Lower the drinking age to 18

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

I don’t drink. At all. No beer, no wine, no champagne. It weirds some people out, but I don’t care, it’s just who I am.

That said, enough with this “21 to drink” business.

Monday the presidents of one hundred colleges and universities announced an initiative to lower the legal drinking age to 18. According to them, the change in the law – set to 21 in 1984 and which has supposedly “saved 25,000 lives” according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving – will reduce "a culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge drinking'" on their campuses.

I agree.

I’ve been, as far back as I can remember, the designated driver. Yes, even when I started driving at 16.

And as far as I can remember, kids have been saying that it’s unfair for them to have the privilege and right to vote and to join the military and die for their country but not to drink a beer.

That sounded like all sorts of BS back in the day, but now – after thousands of young soldiers have been killed in the Middle East wars since 2001 and while the country is captivated by November’s historic presidential election – it doesn’t sound quite so self serving.

The real reason most people don’t want the drinking age to be reduced to 18 is because then parents would have to deal with it.

Yes, a 21 minimum drinking age means that parents can wash their hands of the uncomfortable task of talking to their kids about responsible drinking. Forget actually modeling responsible behavior – imagine that! – and forget about discussing the role alcohol plays in family life. As it stands today, parents are free to simply cross their arms across their chests and refuse to talk about drinking unless it’s the standard “don’t you dare drink!” admonitions.

They get ignored, just in case no one noticed, as do the “21” laws. MADD’s numbers speak for themselves:

• In 2006, the average age at first alcohol use among [those] aged 12 to 49 was 16.6 years, earlier than any other drug except inhalants
• It’s been found that family factors, such as parent-child relationships, discipline methods, communication, monitoring and supervision, and parental involvement, also exert a significant influence on youthful alcohol use
• In a survey, 33 percent of 6th to 12th graders said their parents never, seldom, or sometimes set clear rules for them and almost half said their parents never, seldom, or sometimes discipline them when they break the rules
• Between 1985 and 1996, there were 5,555 child passenger deaths involving a drinking driver. Of these deaths, 3,556 or 64 percent occurred while the child was riding with a drinking driver
• Of the 306 children 0-14 years old who were killed in alcohol-related crashes during 2006, half (153) of those killed were passengers in vehicles with drivers who had been drinking.
• Only 31 percent of parents of 15- to 16-year-olds believe their child had a drink in the past year, compared to the 60 percent of teens in that age group who reported drinking
• Youth who reported that a parent or a friend’s parent had provided alcohol at a party within the past year reported drinking more on their last drinking occasion and were twice as likely to have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days and to have engaged in binge drinking

These numbers don’t paint the full picture, of course, but it does point to a serious lack of modeling, guiding and teaching healthy drinking habits on the part of parents. “There’s no reason to do so,” most parents – even the ones who wouldn’t dream of letting their kids drive without supervision – rationalize, “after all, by the time they can drink legally, they’ll be grown.” That’s called a false sense of security.

Let’s just take the fake security blanket away and drop the age for drinking to the age of dying for your country and voting for the top leader of the world.

Accepting what is (kids find ways to drink no matter what the age) rather than focusing on what should be (kids waiting to drink until they’re “mature”) will save way more lives than denying that a general lack of parental responsibility leads to more alcohol-related deaths than can be estimated by well-meaning moms’ groups.

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

Rick Bayless: Chicago's only Mexican Chef?

"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Faster than a speeding bullet at rolling flautas, more powerful a chef than thousands of Marias and Juans in Chicago, able to leap into halls of fame while wearing huaraches…look up in the sky! It’s a taco vendor, it’s a Mexican it’s…Rick Bayless!

That’s right, Rick Bayless. Salt-n-pepper goateed chef/owner of the Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. Author, TV superstar, James Beard award collector, soon to be the third inductee into the Chicago Culinary Museum and Chef’s Hall of Fame, and seemingly Chicago’s only Mexican chef.

Yes, in a town with at least a handful of hot Latino chefs and restauranteurs – and where 1.44 million of its 1.8 million Hispanics are of Mexican descent – when you look at all the Mexican chefs whose books are featured on bookshelves, are written about, talked about, or referred to as Mexican food experts in Chicago’s media, there’s no list – it’s just Rick.

Google around and you’ll see what I’m talking about: whether it be a comment on the use of store-bought, pre-made sopes, what hot chocolate to pair with your churros, or a description of Chicago’s Mexican culture, Rick’s da hombre. The book which greeted me at the front of my local Borders a few weeks ago said it all. There was Rick’s smiling face, topped off by the proclamation: "Authentic Mexican."

I’ve heard some conspiracy theories – don’t think Chicago’s Hispanics haven’t noticed the Bayless phenomenon – but as far as I can see there’s no one to blame. Well, maybe some unimaginative reporters, but…Bayless is just that good.

He is, if I may, a fusion of cultures and flavors – Oklahoman by birth, Mexican by heart – possibly our time’s best ambassador to Mexican culture, and absolutely not shy about the Bayless Mystique.

"Yes, certainly, through the years I’ve heard it. They usually say it to my face: ‘Who’s this white guy making Mexican food and capitalizing on us?’" Bayless told me in an interview last week. "But for every one of those, I’ve had thousands of ‘thank you for showing the world the real Mexico.’"

The man has seen more Mexico than me, my mom who was born there, and my dad who immigrated to Mexico as a kid, combined. On his show I’ve watched him cook fish over a fire pit in old lady’s huts, eat truly frightening things out of market carts, and identify cheese that all my life my family knew only as "white cheese." He knows his stuff and can rightfully claim to be a Mexican food expert.

As we spoke, his take on things made sense to me, a girl who never once made tamales or baked Dia del Muerto bread.

"Somehow people think that if you're raised by a family of a certain culture you'll have a mastery, it’ll be in your genes, and that’s not always true," he said, "and in a sense that’s such a small part of it."

Then he hit a touchy nail on the head: "For instance, if you want to write about mole, as a Mexican, you are obliged to say your grandmother’s recipe is the only one that’s the best, and if you were to go to another town and say ‘that mole is better than my grandmother’s’ you’d get run out of town on a rail! But it’s not a problem for me; because I don’t have that Mexican grandmother I can embrace all of Mexico, all the regions all the styles, and bring it all together in one place."

Which, I’ll admit, is another unique Bayless viewpoint: many Chicagoans think Mexico is just one homogenous Mexico and don’t recognize what us Mexicans know – that Chicago is full of Mexicans from all over that country, with some extremely distinct socio-cultural norms, and super-varied foods. Once here it turns into a pastiche that has created a multi-regional Chicago-Mex food scene that’s a little bit Yucatan, little bit Norteňo, a little bit lots of other things (heck, I don’t even know what other things, I’d have to call him back).

My take on Bayless as ambassador frequently clashes with others’, I know, but Latinos are living through tough times; there’s a lot of hatin’ going on with all the immigration talk. And here’s one guy literally devoting his life to changing those attitudes – not a bad thing.

"I can say [I reach] a lot of people that don’t see eye-to-eye with me politically, socially or anything. Yet when we’re at the table, cooking an incredible paella over a wood fire, we have the most amazing time. All of a sudden all the differences fall away," he said. "I can bring people to the table with really beautifully crafted food. As our country becomes more and more Latino, I think a real Mexican table is really going to be an important step in sort of bringing the cultures together – I can't help but think it will influence others to look at what Mexican culture has done."

Still, I’m bummed few Hispanic chefs are getting any love from the MSM – there’s certainly plenty to go around – but there’s something to that as well. Jeff Bailey, a former Chicago-based New York Times reporter put it into a journalist’s perspective. In a recent travel section feature, Bayless was only one of many, many Latino chefs, and other experts, he sourced for his story on Pilsen. Last month we talked about his Bayless quotes. "The type of people who get in [to stories] are those who truly help stories move along, have a particular knowledge and expertise," Bailey told me, "Bayless has all kinds of views."

So I asked Rick – who I bet you didn’t know provides highly competitive full-ride culinary school scholarships and internships in his restaurants for Mexican-American students who flock to Frontera Grill from all over the country – to give the aspiring Hispanic chefs in Chicago some pointers.

"First you have to do your homework – you have to learn the history." Bayless said. "‘This is just how my mother makes it’ – that doesn’t make a story. This is how it was created in this part of Veracruz, and it was made this way, with that from there…is the story."

"But it’s also really the flavors – you have to be a good cook, you gotta do all the rest of the work, and have a good personal story, and tell a good story about the food, and you have to have inherent passion for what you're making," Rick, who has no shortage of that, said. "People love to be around passion. It’s very important to talk about the food with this great verve."

"The passion is the main ingredient."

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

Act quickly: Hispanic population majority has major needs

"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

The headlines are blaring it: Minorities will overwhelm whites to become the majority by 2042.

Thousands of newspaper articles, TV reports, and radio stories repeated these numbers: the Hispanic population will triple to 133 million, going from 16 percent of the population in 2010 to over 30 percent in 2050.

For the last three days I've been hearing the blaring from acquaintances – on Spanish-language radio, on the bus, all over – bravado, "ha-ha"-ing, and swagger, about "how will whites like being a minority?" Not constructive.

Feeling low from two years of being cast in the role of America's biggest pain in the butt because of the contentious immigration debate, some Latinos felt a particular glee in hearing that there will soon be power in numbers. The only problem is: there are some serious weaknesses in these numbers.

I didn't see many headlines screaming the chilling numbers the Pew Hispanic Center and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released that same day; they basically outline a future health disaster waiting to happen.

The report found that more than one-fourth of Hispanic adults in the U.S. lack a steady health care provider, and about the same number got no health care information from a qualified professional medical source in the past year.

The most popular source for health information? More than eight in ten reported getting their medical advice from television and radio, which amount to this: white, black or brown – we're all screwed.

Just take the following estimate from the July 2007 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: the total cost of lost work and lost productivity due to lost work days was estimated at $63 billion per year (in 2003 dollars). With the burgeoning Latino population – and their medical habits – mixed in, what's that number going to look like in 2050?

And make no mistake, it's not just the living-on-the-edge, recently arrived low-wage-earning immigrants. Pew's report found that a significant share of Hispanics with no usual place to go for medical care are high school graduates (50%), born in the United States (30%) and have health insurance (45%).

The report's authors said, "Indeed, the primary reason that respondents give for lacking a regular health care provider is not related to the cost of health care or assimilation. Rather, when asked why they lack a usual provider, a plurality (41%) of respondents say the principal reason is that they are seldom sick."

Sure! Happy, happy, feel good… no problem, right? May be today, but by 2050, the Hispanic share of the elderly population will almost triple to 17 percent from 6 percent in 2005. Take into account Hispanics' present-day high prevalence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma – not only in adults but in kids, as well – then sprinkle in the fact that most of the population growth will be in U.S. births (and U.S.-born Hispanics tend to be less healthy than Hispanic immigrants) and you have a recipe for disaster.

So forget culture, language and financial barriers, and forget that today's Latino's are overwhelmingly young, it's in the general public's best interest to launch a massive health information campaign aimed at teaching Latinos that health care is just, if not moreso, as vitally important when you feel well than when you don't.

And maybe after the "gotcha" moment gets savored, attention will be turned to the most important matter at hand: building the infrastructure of acculturation, social services, and educational and political opportunities we need to make the most of the power in numbers we could have come 2050.

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

Modest proposal: never mind amnesty – eat the immigrants

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

According to a new report "Immigration to the United States and World-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions," legal or not, immigrants are stinkin’ up the place. In other words, green cards are not "green."

The report, released by The Center for Immigration Studies – "an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985 and the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States" – concludes this:

"Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO2 emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country. On average immigrants increase their emissions four-fold by coming to America."

Other nuggets from the report:

• The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American. However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin. (Not including the impact of children born to immigrants in the U.S. – if they were included, the impact would be much higher.)

• U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually – equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined. That’s 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries. And if the 482-million-ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.

• Of the CO2 emissions caused by immigrants, 83 percent are estimated to come from legal immigrants and 17 percent from illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants have a much larger impact because they are more numerous than illegal immigrants and because they have higher incomes, and thus higher emissions.

What shall we do about this malevolent scourge?! Don’t you worry, I’ve figured out the solution.

A modest proposal, sure, but try it on for size: eat the immigrants.

Savor this: world global food shortage + overcrowded American cities and schools + exported immigrant meat = a happy, healthy, greener America!

Of course, we Americans wouldn’t have to resort to cannibalism, no, no, no! We’ll round up all the immigrants, haul them over to that Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa – where management had all the kid immigrants working in the slaughter house – and find some good, red-blooded Americans to dress ‘em, ice ‘em, and ship ‘em to poor, hungry countries.

Just think about it, there’s no downside!!! You get rid of the immigrants, gainfully employ U.S. Citizens, add to the faltering economy by making money off the sale of the meat, feed the world, and reduce the carbon footprint – all in one fell swoop!

Heck, it could be a unifying thing, too, after all the Koreans are terrified of our beef but there’s certainly no track record of tainted human ground chuck (or ground Carlos). And who doesn’t like Mexican food? Or Chinese? I, myself, love Polish sausage (it’s a Chicago thing, what can I say?)

In no way has the Center for Immigration Studies endorsed my plan – I’m still rolling it around on my tongue, so to speak. And they would not want you to think that they have anything against immigrants. Their press release says:

"Some may be tempted to see this analysis as ‘blaming immigrants’ for what are really America’s failures. It is certainly reasonable to argue that Americans could do more to reduce per capita emissions. And it is certainly not our intention to imply that immigrants are particularly responsible for global warming. As we report in this study, the average immigrant produces somewhat less CO2 than the average native-born American. But to simply dismiss the large role that continuing high levels of immigration play in increasing U.S. (and thus worldwide) CO2 emissions is not only intellectually dishonest, it is also counterproductive. One must acknowledge a problem before a solution can be found."

I, for one, am certainly glad CIS’ report found me and that I found a solution for them so we can solve all our immigrant-related problems and live happily-ever-after.

I’ll draft my proposal to them after I have a snack…I’ve worked up quite the appetite.

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 Adler Planetarium’s star: Dr. Jose Francisco Salgado

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Take a moon-entranced kid who grew up scarfing down Isaac Asimov and tinkering with music and video, give him the boundless resources of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium then add the creative spark that only Chicago’s funkiest band of violins, cellos, flutes, and tubas can bring, and what do you get?

The kind of sensual, visually-arresting cosmic journey usually reserved for Grateful Dead concerts – in the form of sumptuous interstellar images pas de deux-ing with the Chicago Sinfonietta’s elegant wall of sound under a summery dusk.

The kid in question is Dr. Jose Francisco Salgado, an Adler Planetarium Astronomer and Science Visualizer who is quickly making a name for himself around our humble globe as a choreographer of – not to – the stars. His video journeys through the galaxy visit such notable hangouts as the Eagle Nebula and the surface of Mars, and have been such a hit that they’re making their way to stargazers in Spain and Paris.

You don’t have to travel that far, though. After a series of incredible collaborations with the Chicago Sinfonietta – aka America’s most diverse orchestra aka the Joffrey Ballet’s pit crew – the gang is presenting a free encore presentation of Gustav Holst’s "The Planets" on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage at Millenium Park Friday August 22nd.

"In 2005 the Sinfonietta came to the Adler looking for a visual backdrop for ‘The Planets’ performances and basically [the Adler] asked me because of all my interests in art, classical music, and graphic arts," Jose told me this week. "I’d been looking for the perfect project and this was it."

I had the pleasure of experiencing his visual choreography during the Chicago Sinfonietta’s May production of Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition, where Jose choreographed real space pictures and computer generated images from astronomical data to Modest Mussorgsky’s "Pictures."

"The visualizations themselves looked like works of art," Jose said, adding that he gets only the best pictures from his peeps at NASA, the European Space Agency. Some he creates himself with raw data from Adler’s databases. "[Leading the viewer] through the promenade passages, walking through the "gallery," was the perfect way of showing cutting edge images and visualizations. ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ took about four months, ‘The Planets’ took about six."

If you’re the type who regards the constellations as greatly-jeweled chandeliers that sail through our night sky, a mysterious scattering of eternally circumnavigating planets, their many moons and countless stars continually scanned for their secrets, you’re not alone. For others, the very mention of the term "solar system" causes a reflexive yawn.

"‘The Planets’ is about planting the seed, about inspiring people to learn more about the solar system in general and hopefully grab a book, got to the planetarium or next time they’re switching channels and see a documentary to stop and watch it," said the guy who got interested in astronomy as a third-grade boy when he happened upon a book about the first moon landing his dad owned in their native Puerto Rico.

"Astronomy uses cutting-edge technology and data for scientific purposes but for education and outreach also, it’s a great way to engage audiences who are not science attendant," he said. "My interests are not only in science but in technology, graphic arts, photography – I even compose [music] a bit – I use it all to engage people."

And he does it in two languages! Ever so humble, Jose doesn’t go on and on about how few Latinos there are in the sciences, he just works to change it. As the Adler Planetarium's webmaster, he’s got a web page devoted to Spanish-language astronomy resources and is working to create educational resources, such as a planetarium show in English and Spanish, for nationwide distribution.

"’The Planets’ is a good synthesis of the things we have achieved in solar system exploration. It doesn’t cover absolutely everything but it’s a very, very good summary," he said. "What’s interesting is that many people will come out of the concert learning so much just from looking at the visualizations."

"It’s so exciting, to see the conductor synching the music to the visuals," Jose said, "and to see people coming out of the hall and saying ‘Wow I didn’t know that Jupiter had so many moons!’ It’s so very rewarding."

(full disclosure: I am a Director on the Board of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and as such I personally invite you to join us for this FREE concert, under the actual stars, in Millennium Park on Friday August 22nd. I hope you can make 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

No adjective zone: forget the Hispanic part, I’m just me

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

Doing what I do, I get a lot of love mail and a lot of hate mail. Much of it revolves around my ethnicity, and usually falls into one of two categories:

The love mail needs no description. The hate mail, however, frequently takes me to task for (take your pick) not being “Hispanic enough,” or alternately, “against our people.” There are also charges of (the black folks in the audience will love this one) “acting white.” My color-blindness turns some people off.

As I told a crowd of multi-ethnic journalists last month during a panel discussion on why bloggers “of color” are few and far between, I’ve been electronically served with the “Wet Burrito Award,” called a “coconut” – brown on the outside, white on the inside – and called a “Taco Tia” which I assume is the Mexi-version of the “Uncle Tom” insult. I explained that my writing and reporting doesn’t serve my ethnicity but, rather, informs it. I’ve become accustomed to the usual perplexed looks; not trading on one’s ethnicity seems wasteful to some.

Which brings me to Matt Bai’s deeply inspiring New York Times Magazine cover story Sunday: “Is Obama the end of Black Politics?” which stopped me dead in my tracks. Matt basically talked to both young and old African American politicians to gauge their sense of what an Obama presidency would do to the civil-rights-focused Black political machine and found that – president Obama or not – things have changed.

This passage which quotes Cory Booker, the 39-year-old mayor of Newark, NJ, jumped out and grabbed me by the throat because after years of trying to explain myself, this is the first time I’ve ever seen such an eloquent Cepedian declaration:

“When I asked Booker if he considered himself a leader of the black community, he seemed to freeze for a moment. ‘I’m Popeye,’ he replied finally. ‘I am what I am.’ He paused again, then tried to explain.

‘I don’t want to be pigeonholed,’ he said. ‘I don’t want people to expect me to speak about those issues.’ By this, presumably, he meant issues that revolve around race: profiling by police, incarceration rates, flagging urban economies. ‘I want people to ask me about nonproliferation. I want them to run to me to speak about the situation in the Middle East.’ Since the mayor of Newark is rarely called upon to discuss such topics, I got the feeling that Booker does not see himself staying in his current job for anything close to 20 years. ‘I don’t want to be the person that’s turned to when CNN talks about black leaders,’ he said.”

Thank you.

See here’s the deal…I pretty much devote myself to helping others to the exclusion of no one, as I’m sure is the case with Cory Booker, so when others put you in a category defined by exclusion, it hurts.

For instance, several years ago I was mentioned in the “neighborhoods” column of my local weekly newspaper as a “Hispanic leader.” I was very disappointed; the fact that I busted my hump as a publicly elected library trustee – the only Latino/a in board history – somehow made me less a regular community leader than the other members of the board, and more a champion of some “Latino agenda.”

As a point of fact, I squirm nearly every time I’m described as a Latino or Hispanic anything. Not because I’m not proud of my immigrant parents (Mexican and Ecuadorian, I’ll have you know), our culture or language. No, I can identify with C-level executives who happen to be Hispanic and with the illegal South American workers toiling quietly in restaurant kitchens and factories across the country. The real issue is the luxury – the right – to have others see you for who you are, not what the color of your skin is or what your country of origin implies. 

Over the years, I’ve befuddled people by explaining: “I’m not a ‘Hispanic columnist,’ I’m a columnist who just happens to be Hispanic.” But I like Cory’s tagline better because I’m Popeye, too: I am what I am.

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

Nuclear Power Could Fuel Chicago's Economy

This column originally appeared August 8, 2008 on the new Chicago Huffington Post website where I'm a new HuffPo/Chicago Blogger. The direct link is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-j-cepeda/nuclear-power-could-fuel_b_117636.html

John McCain just put it right out there last Wednesday: the answer to our pressing energy needs? Go nuclear.

While on the hustings in Michigan, and while ridiculing Barack Obama's suggestion to keep car tires inflated for better gas mileage, McCain suggested that 45 nuclear power plants built by the year 2030 would help decrease America's reliance on oil, sending shudders of revulsion over anyone who still has images of 1986's Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster chemically burned on their brains.

Let's for a moment, set aside the Simpsonian three-eyed fish your mind's eye has conjured and give it a think: maybe these wouldn't be "your father's nuclear plants." And maybe there's more to gain than cheap energy: like scores of good old American jobs.

Months before Chicago-based energy giant Exelon announced their comprehensive plan to offset or eliminate over 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases - the equivalent of taking almost three million cars off roads and more than Exelon's own carbon footprint - by 2020, John Rowe, the company's President and CEO, was getting nuclear power on Chicago's radar.

At a May Executives' Club of Chicago breakfast, Rowe pitched his plan to corporate America's elite. After ticking off reasons why natural gas reserves and coal coupled with wind, solar, and water power schemes are both unsustainable and too expensive he pitched nuclear (which I'm very happy to report he pronounced correctly) energy.

"I can't imagine society dealing with carbon without nuclear energy...to sustain [American's] way of life," he said. "The alternatives range from being substantially inconvenient to catastrophic."

In a room full of investment bankers and business wonks twisting in their seats, Rowe admitted the very term "nuclear" was enough to turn people off, but he insisted it was the only foreseeable path to energy independence. A path fraught with challenges but loaded with opportunities as well.

"One plant costs five to seven billion dollars and eight years to build, and even if we started now the new ones wouldn't replace those out of service - we need hundreds of new plants," he said.

And that's where the opportunity comes in. According to Rowe, a guy who has invested heavily in Chicago schools - many of them in rough inner-city neighborhoods - a nuclear push would require human capital on an epic scale. "We can design and operate them, but who will build them?" he asked. "We need people to build these things, everything from PhDs to welders to make it happen. We need people."

Imagine if you will the full weight of Chicago's corporate and governmental resources trained on a city full of young brown and black student cash cows - millions of dollars poured into neighborhood schools in 'hoods and townships across Illinois designed to build the next generation of resident engineers and skilled laborers tasked with building the next generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants across America!

Savor it: Chicago, epicenter of the world's sustainable energy brain and brawn trust.

Hey, it could happen...because at the end of the day it's all about making money. And at the end of Rowe's speech it was apparent that it's also about leveraging influence.

Peruse the latest polls on voter attitudes toward pro-nuclear candidates and you'll find no surprises: a July USA Today/Gallup poll found - shock! - that more Republicans (58 percent) feel favorably toward a pro-nuclear power plant candidate than Democrats (51 percent). They were certainly similar in May.

Rowe was clear on this point: "It's not going to be cheap and convenient but it will be a lot less [costly] if we face these issues squarely. And we need the political will to get these things done."

Perhaps McCain, and Chicago's corporate ruling class, were listening.

American Dream part two: Dream comes true…mostly

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

Saturday, June 14th, four hundred and fifty miles from home on a patch of green Toronto grass, moments after the U.S. National Anthem’s last cymbal crashed and regulation play began for the Colorado Rapids’ twelfth game of Major League Soccer’s 2008 season, it happened.

Cesar Zambrano’s dream came true: he was a professional soccer player starting in his first game with his new team. The moment he’d been waiting for since he was a child was upon him complete with mom, dad and long-time girlfriend in the stands.

“That was the best moment – when I made the debut in Toronto – because that’s something I always told my parents I’d do,” Cesar, who had just turned 24 two days before that big match, told me over the phone after a long day of training this week.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better night – the greatest thing about it was it was a sellout crowd.” Savoring it again he continued, “I started playing and I just concentrated on the game to making sure I did good. I had fun and at the end I was really tired – it’s not the same as practicing! – and that was my first game. I did good.”

Cesar certainly did. The unspectacular Brother Rice student – who, despite great odds, actually graduated high school, somehow got noticed by the Flames soccer coaching staff at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and did hard time at City Colleges of Chicago to make the grades he needed to actually get on the UIC field – was drafted as the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 MLS Supplemental Draft last spring.

This is the same kid who never ever thought he’d go to college – no one else in his Mexican immigrant family had – and had to take the ACT three times because his academics paled in comparison to his footwork.

The last time I’d spoken with Cesar was back in October he was just another Hispanic kid hoping to – somehow – play professionally in a sport that had migrated to the U.S., riding the wave of transplanted Latino culture, but hadn’t created many opportunities for its biggest fans. I hadn’t given Cesar much thought until I read the New York Times’ story about Edgar Castillo, a U.S.-born soccer player overlooked in his native country but now a rising star on Mexico’s professional soccer scene.

The story noted something I’d been talking about for awhile – that U.S.-born Latino players are often underrepresented in soccer-strong high schools and colleges and mostly ignored until other countries give them their big break. A FIFA adviser was quoted thusly: “Now we have more American scouts looking at the Hispanic community and trying to bring players into our national camps.” After I shrieked hallelujah, I got to wondering “whatever happened to…”

Well, in addition to adjusting to the rigors of playing with the big boys, number 33 Cesar Zambrano has also been adjusting to…the food.

“I miss my family, my girlfriend, and my mom’s cooking – all I do is eat out! We have Argentinian [teammates], his wife cooks and we always take advantage when she invites us over.”

Cesar also told me all about getting drafted: “The general manager, the coach and the assistant coach welcomed me to the family, I was like, wow – is it really true?!” and about leaving the Windy City: “I was nervous, I get back whenever I get a break.”

And he told me about fitting in. You see, at UIC, Cesar was the odd-man-out, the team’s first Hispanic co-captain and the only Latino as far as the eyes could see. The big leagues are different – he has two other U.S.-born Latino mates and three from Argentina, but still...

By my meticulous count, there are a total of 384 MLS players, 48 of whom are Latin American imports, and a mere 15 (maybe 18, the MLS people wouldn’t verify) U.S.-born Hispanic players out of a pool of 250 Americans. For a country inching toward a 30 percent Latino population, those aren’t stellar numbers. 

“It’s the same but a little better. At UIC I was the only Mexican, but here I don’t really look at it. We all get along and there’s a lot of good competition, everyone wants to be a starter and be a better soccer player so nobody looks at who’s Mexican,” he chuckled. “We’re all just a big family.”

So all’s well that ends well, right? WRONG!

I was shocked to hear that Cesar did not finish his Criminal Justice degree at UIC before he was drafted. His coach had told me he was a super-talented guy headed for graduate studies, but that was…before.

I did not hesitate to remind Cesar that in our last talk he’d said, quote: “In the future, I think there are going to be more Mexicans, more Hispanics going to college. Hispanics never give up; they always want more. But the percentage is not high enough yet. People need to know if you have a dream you follow it.”

“Yeah, my dad’s always calling me asking about that,” he said, hoping I wasn’t going to have a full-on heart attack on the phone. “I only have two electives left and I can take two on-line courses to graduate with the Criminal Justice degree. Hopefully I’ll get to maybe walk on stage when I go back.”

He assured me he’ll never give up: “I have to graduate after everything I went through. And I wouldn’t want to be working a hard job like my dad’s in construction. It’s tough – I’ve worked 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

American Dreamer: a Chicago kid’s story, part one

(Editor’s note: this column originally appeared on pg. A16 in the Sunday October 21, 2007 Final Edition of the Chicago-Sun Times under the headline: 'If you have a dream, you follow it.' It is reprinted here as a prelude to tomorrow’s follow-up to this young man’s story.)

by Esther J. Cepeda

A Mexican kid uses his soccer skills to get into college on an athletic scholarship – an easy goal, right?

Think again.

"At Brother Rice Catholic school, my soccer coach used to always tell me, 'Get good grades, make sure to take your ACT, it'll be important,' and I'd say, 'Yeah, yeah.' I never paid attention," said Cesar Zambrano, a 23-year-old midfielder for the University of Illinois at Chicago Flames men's soccer team.

"I never did it. I had it in my mind I didn't want to go to college – nobody in my family went to college. Now I'm going to graduate in May."

Zambrano was like scores of Hispanic kids around the city who grow up with soccer in their veins but never turn that into a vehicle to college. Many, like him, think they'll join a pro soccer team "somehow," knowing that anything beyond high school is such an expensive, far-flung possibility that while families encourage "getting your education," the realities of getting into and paying for college rarely get real consideration.

"My friends started working – when you're young and start making $500 a week or more and live with your parents, life is nice and easy. That's why not a lot of Hispanics go to college," he said. "Some just didn't want to try, though the talent is out there."

Luckily his Brother Rice coaches, recognizing talent that made him an MVP and leading scorer in high school, pushed him to aim higher despite low grades. "I applied to all these colleges – I had to take the ACT three times, and I couldn't get in even though I played soccer well."

He ended up at Richard J. Daley College, where for a year, with the encouragement of UIC soccer coaches, he improved his grades.

"I was scared getting into it; I didn't think I was capable of doing it. Even while I was there I didn't know if this is what I wanted to do," he said.

Zambrano got on track to qualify for a partial athletic scholarship at UIC and a shot at a good career regardless of where soccer takes him.

Zambrano is now the first Hispanic co-captain of the team under head coach John Trask, making above-average grades toward his undergraduate degree in criminal justice, and spends time talking to middle-school Hispanic kids about doing well in school. "Not too many Hispanics end up with college degrees," he said. "I go talk about my whole experience and tell kids not to be in gangs or into drugs."

Hispanics don't get into college at the same rate as other ethnic groups. In 2002, the Pew Hispanic Center reported that of students enrolled in college, 1.3 million were Hispanic compared with 11 million white, 2 million black and 1 million Asian/Pacific Islander.

Once there, many can't hack it for financial and cultural reasons. U.S.-born Zambrano, who describes himself as Mexican American, took it all in stride.

"On the team, I'm the only Hispanic, so I'm 'the Mexican guy.' When we do marketing and pass out fliers, they turn to me and say, 'You go to Pilsen.' Some of them even think I was born in Mexico," he said. "It's much different now, and most of my friends are not Hispanic; they're English, Bosnian, African, black and white."

Trask says he's pushing for grad school. "There's so much more to him than being a soccer player. I told him he could be an alderman by 35. He's a Mexican-American kid paving the way for others."

Zambrano hopes that's the case. "I know I need to do good for the young guys that come see us. I set an example for them," he said.

"In the future, I think there are going to be more Mexicans, more Hispanics going to college. Hispanics never give up; they always want more. But the percentage is not high enough yet. People need to know if you have a dream, you follow 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

Don’t supply my demand: high gas prices are good!

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

I love $4-a-gallon gas. Driving by a local station yesterday I saw that it had gone down to $3.85 and I was bummed.

According to recent reports expensive fill-ups have curbed Americans’ insatiable desire for feeding their big gas-guzzling cars. The Energy Information Administration said in its July 31 inventory report that U.S. gasoline supplies fell by 3.5 million barrels last week resulting in an expected (estimated) 400,000 barrels gas supplies increase.

It doesn’t stop there, that same report found U.S. demand for energy is falling across most sectors. For instance the inventories of heating oil and diesel rose by 2.4 million barrels, more than the 1.8 million barrels expected, according to the EIA report.

Have you heard that researchers with the National Safety Council recently reported a 9 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths overall through May 2008 compared with the first five months of 2007? That was just overall; they clocked a drop of 18 percent in March and 14 percent in April, harkening back to rates last seen during the Arab oil embargo in 1974. We all know correlation doesn’t guarantee causation but let’s not kid ourselves, people are driving less – you put two and two together.

Other unintended consequences: higher production costs to farm the food are adding to the global food insecurity problem. It’s gotten so bad in Bolivia that in an unprecedented move, cocaine farmers are actually choosing to cut back on planting coca, and choosing to cultivate rice instead.

Also spotted: slimmer, healthier people. According to the Federal Highway Administration, since November 2007, Americans have driven 40.5 billion fewer miles, compared to the same period a year earlier. We logged 9.6 billion fewer miles in May than in May 2007. And the bicycle stores are feelin’ it; reports from all over the country are saying they can’t keep bikes in stock. I recently ran into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in over a year. I said "Wow, you look thin – lost some weight?" He replied, "Yeah, I’ve been riding my bike everywhere."

Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is great! I didn’t say it’s not horribly painful to pay for, and I’m not happy prices are crippling people making minimum wage rather than just inconveniencing the affluent, but there’s no denying that high gas prices are destroying demand and people and car manufacturers, who are bustin’ hump to manufacture more energy efficient cars are making changes for the better.

Sadly, superstar investment bank Goldman Sachs speculated that weakness in U.S. energy demand is "transient rather than permanent," because the fundamentals of falling oil production and rising world energy consumption remain intact.

We’re on the verge of probably the greatest innovations in pursuit of scalable solar, wind, sugar and other renewable power sources ever even as politicians who are financed by the just-bought-a-new-Hummer crowd are instead looking to lift the 26-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling so we can comfortably use more U.S., rather than foreign, oil.

Regardless of whatever schemes emerge to feed our need for gas-guzzling speed, we’ve already turned a corner – I don’t think anyone not wearing bellbottoms was seriously worried about the environment back in the seventies – and energy conservation won’t fall off the radar. And – drilling or not – we’re never going to see buck-a-gallon gas again.

Ride the storm out: that $4 dollar a gallon pain in the pump is more blessing than curse.

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 "R-" word: are you racist, or just skeptical?

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

According to the press, because Barack Obama mentioned the looks of our favorite dead presidents, the race genie is supposedly now out of the proverbial bottle – as if it hadn't actually been filling the air for what seems like forever.

Everywhere you turn, the talking heads are flapping about the Obama statement which the McCain campaign insists "played the race card."

Obama was making the case that McCain is trying to point out how black he is to turn off fence-sitters by saying that Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bill."

Well, duh! What other American president has ears like Mickey Mouse? OK, maybe the other guy from Illinois, but still.

The Obama camp denied having played said card but the implication is clear, and the junk coming out of the McCain camp (did McCain even know who Paris Hilton was before his Karl Roveian ad ran?) comes pretty close to just flat-out saying "beware the young black man."

But…would it be so wrong to be wary of someone who didn't look like Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin to take the helm of our listing American ship? Isn't it human nature to be suspicious of the newbie? Or the odd bird?

Not right, mind you, but human?

What I'm getting at is that we can't allow ourselves to become a nation afraid to dissect, criticize, or even dislike any African American – even our most famous and first presidential one – without being labeled a racist?

Of course, I can say that sitting from the lofty protected perch of non-whiteness. In fact, the good folks at the Pew Hispanic Center just cleared me of racism charges, as well – they just reported that Hispanics are favoring Obama over McCain by nearly three to one so I'm assuming now all Latinos no longer have to be tarnished with the "Won't vote Obama because they hate blacks" label, though the fat lady ain't sung yet.

Still, just for a moment, step away from the context of the historic presidential race (and if you're anything like me you wish it were history already). Maybe Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown" always grated on your nerves. Maybe George Washington Carver popularized dishes featuring what you consider to be the most evil legume. Maybe Condoleezza Rice's politics or her rendition of Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat drive you insane. That doesn't mean you're a racist.

It could be that you're too uptight, spent too many days next to a heart monitor after an allergic run-in with a PBJ, or are simply tone deaf. None of those should imply you think less of anyone who isn't white.

Don't buy into the hype. An uproar over race is exactly the type of thing the traditional media outlets like to whip up in the hopes it will sell more newspapers or make a bigger splash during the ten o'clock news, but it doesn't need to translate into real life.

None of us can afford to vote – or not vote – for anyone based on the silliness you hear on the TV or the radio. Analyze, dissect, argue, and decide but leave the white, brown, black or green guilt out of it.

There will always be racists and just plain old jerks – that's life. An old white guy or a young black guy president might be just another part of life, too. Whichever way it goes, feel free to love him or hate him on merit and without fear of being called the "R" word (and I don't mean "Republican").

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