Esther J. Cepeda

Obama's cut lip got tongues wagging

ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

 

PRESIDENT Obama got his mouth busted last Friday and that's cool. Not in the sense that I'm glad the president got hurt, of course - I mean it's cool because we have a hard-core athlete in the Oval Office.

  

The elbow shot heard `round the world happened Friday afternoon, a couple of hours into a basketball game where Obama was setting about the task of working off his portion of the six different pies served at his White House Thanksgiving the day before. The five-on-five included Obama's nephew Avery Robinson, his ubiquitous assistant Reggie Love, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and the now infamous Rey Decerega, the director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. In the last of five games, Decerega's elbow hit Obama, who was playing defense, in the mouth, causing the lower-lip cut that required 12 small stitches.

 

The irony that our President got smacked down on his home court by a Latino was not lost on any of the people who reacted to my Tweet by imagining a symbolic nudge for Obama to pay more than just lip service to comprehensive immigration law reform.

 

Others saw it as the latest in a string of domestic and international "shellackings" he has suffered. News website comment boards lit up with sentiments ranging from snarky disappointment that he didn't get his entire mouth stitched shut to those inflamed that the man dared take some time to play basketball before facing the tumult in the Koreas and the remainder of Congress' lame-duck session.

 

I, on the other hand, am psyched that we have an athlete in the White House who isn't scared to compete hard and occasionally get smacked.

 

Lest anyone think Obama is charting new territory as a president getting razzed for being a "wuss," as he's been described on many comment sections, let's not forget January 2002 when then-President George W. Bush was mercilessly skewered after his athletically low pulse combined with a pretzel stuck in his throat caused a fainting spell that gave him a bruised cheek and a fat lip.

 

Few appreciated that the freak accident reflected an ultra-healthy man's cardiovascular system rather than someone prone to passing out. Many thought out loud: What, exactly, is the point of being so darned healthy if you're going to get a shiner for your efforts? I heard those same words last weekend, but you don't have to live in the White House to know that exercising your body is worth the trouble.

 

Forget about any perceived symbolism or the politics of the day. There's no better role model for a country plagued by life-shortening physical inactivity than a president who's not afraid to get sweaty and even bloodied as a result of strenuous exercise.

 

Obama may have lost Friday's last game, but he really scored by setting a good example for a nation of couch potatoes: Playing hard is rewarding despite the peril of a few scrapes.

 

estherjcepeda@washpost.com.

 

Laptops for CPS students are fine but are no silver bullet

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2929120,esther-cepeda-laptops-for-students-112910.article

 

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Chicago Sun-Times Columnist

 

You may have heard that mayoral candidate Gery Chico’s education agenda includes a proposal that the Chicago Public Schools provide each student with a laptop to use in class and at home.

I wondered how long it would take one of the candidates to propose this. It sounds really good and might even be relatively affordable, depending on which computer maker steps up to the plate with a jaw-dropping volume discount. Chicago is, after all, the third-largest school district in the country.

Chico won’t be the only mayoral candidate to jump on the laptop bandwagon, and he’s certainly not the first local politician to suggest laptops are the definitive tool of empowerment for our schoolchildren.

 

In the spring of 2006, then-Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn floated a proposal to equip 13,000 public school seventh-graders and their teachers with laptop computers; he called them the “textbooks of the 21st century.”

 

I was still working as a teacher then, but I wrote a Sun-Times guest column pointing out what should still be obvious to all: The major factor in the success of students is a low student-to-teacher ratio. Knowing that, any money Illinois can scrape together to pay for efforts to improve student achievement should be spent on getting more well-trained teachers into classrooms so students don’t have to be packed together like sardines. It shouldn’t be spent on silver bullets.

 

And four years later, I’d still say laptops are no silver bullet.

 

Ofer Malamud, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago, co-authored a study released last January that investigated educational outcomes after low-income families received vouchers to help them buy computers. He and Cristian Pop-Eleches of Columbia University found that while students gained improved computer skills — a benefit that should not be undervalued — there was no significant improvement in grades. The students with the computers, in fact, earned lower grades on average in three key math and language subjects.

 

Why? Because at home — regardless of Internet connectivity — the kids used the equipment to play games. Duh.

Likewise, a Duke University paper published last June looked at the arrival of broadband service in North Carolina between 2000 and 2005 and found that, in that time, middle school students’ math and reading test scores dropped. One explanation, the researchers said, was the kids’ new access to Web-based entertainment.

 

This is not to denigrate Chico’s education agenda, which includes considerably more than just a call for laptop computers, nor is it to say that computers necessarily have no place in a classroom. Dueling studies contradict each other.

 

I can point to school districts across the country that sing the praises of their send-a-laptop-home programs, but I can just as easily point to school districts in Liverpool, N.Y., Richmond, Va., Costa Mesa, Calif. and Broward County, Fla., that have reported laptop-related cheating, student hacking and exorbitant repair costs accompanied by little or no academic gains.

 

The important thing to remember is this: While a laptop computer can be a powerfully useful tool of education, it’s not the superman schools have been waiting for to swoop in and rescue struggling students. You can’t just slide a laptop across a student’s desk and assume that his or her intellectual curiosity will save the day.

 

With realistic expectations, good planning and loads of cash for training, a take-home laptop program could be a success. Before getting them into kids’ hands there would have to be a tremendous amount of training for teachers who, if not flat-out technophobic, are unfamiliar with how to teach classes that integrate laptops. You’d also need a robust outreach plan for parents to make sure they know how to drive positive academic results.

 

To properly prepare for life in the real world, students need as much access to computers as possible — for academic use. But nobody should assume the benefits of a laptop in every backpack automatically outweigh the costs.

 

 

 

 

 

Never mind the Pew Hispanic Center's report - Latinos are not leaderless

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Washington Post Writers Group

 

 

Are Latinos leaderless? According to a recent bilingual survey, three-fourths of Latinos could not name a national leader. I say it's no big deal. And apparently a lot of other Latinos agree with me.

The Pew Hispanic Center's report – "National Latino Leader? The Job Is Open" – got little if any notice in the mainstream media, most likely, I assumed, because it said what I thought was an obvious fact. Pew asked Hispanic adults to name "the most important Latino leader in the country today." Sixty-four percent said they didn't know, and 10 percent said "no one."   

Of the 26 percent who did have an answer, the responses were scattershot: politicians such as outgoing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; organizational leaders such as Janet Murguia , president of the National Council of La Raza; Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ; Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois; Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ; and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.

 

When Latinos discussed the findings on social networking sites and blogs – the place Hispanics go to read and write about themselves – it buoyed my spirits.

 

"I actually see this as a positive thing," said Cristina Lopez, president of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, an organization dedicated to developing Latina leaders. "The great thing is that our community is so large and diverse that we have so very many leaders."

 

And not to criticize the Pew Hispanic Center – it does a great job of putting its finger on the pulse of Latino issues in America – but let's flip this a little. As many bloggers noted, say your phone rings one evening and the person on the other end of the line asks: "Name the most important white leader in the country today." Or this one: "Name the most important female leader in the country today."

 

My guess is that you'd be overwhelmed by the vagueness of the questions. But more importantly, even if 64 percent of Latinos didn't name a national leader, it does not mean Hispanic leaders aren't making things happen. Just look at the midterm elections where Hispanics won two governorships and one U.S. Senate seat.

 

Another item in the report noted that Latinos don't have a champion such as Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King Jr. The 48 million Latinos who comprise the nation's largest minority are not an oppressed class forced to set aside such factors as diverse as native country, preferred language or citizenship status in order to back one leader pushing a single issue.

 

And don't let immigration reform cloud this thought. Recall that last month a Pew survey of registered Latino voters found that it came in fifth after education, jobs, health care and the federal budget deficit as a top issue of concern.

Like me and the Latino Twitterati and bloggers who scoffed at the Pew report, Juan Andrade, president of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, thinks the entire premise of Latinos lacking a singular leader is strange. "You'd have to live your whole life under a rock to believe that there is such a person in the white or black or Latino community – that person does not exist," Andrade told me. "Latinos will always transcend their differences for issues that matter, but a 'national leader' for all Hispanics? That just isn't going to happen."

 

That's not a problem. All around us are Hispanic teachers, librarians, lawyers, activists, police officers, executives, doctors and many others making strides in their work. Any perceived lack of power for not having a "national" Latino leader will continue to be overshadowed by these role models who address the issues that challenge Hispanics – and all Americans – every day.

 

 

Esther Cepeda may be contacted at estherjcepeda@washpost.com.

 

 

 

Latinos wait in line for preschool spots

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2914294,esther-CST-1122.article

 
November 22, 2010

By ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

 

I was on a panel on covering Latino education issues in mainstream media last week when an audience member criticized this newspaper’s recent story on Latino kids’ relatively low preschool attendance rates.

“Your coverage put the blame on parents when in reality our schools are overcrowded and we have no access to preschool programs,” an attendee said passionately.

She was referring to an article that appeared in the Sun-Times last Tuesday under the headline “Preschool attendance lags among Latino children.” The deck headline felt like a slap in the face to me, too: “Culture, language gap may be to blame, experts say.”   

Those who did not flip the page with a dismissive, “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know” learned these facts from a report by University of California-Berkeley professors: Only about 35 percent of Illinois’ Latino 4-year-olds attended some type of preschool, compared with 66 percent of white children, 63 percent of Asian and 54 percent of African-American children. The U.S. average is 48 percent.

 

The news story focused on explanatory factors mentioned in the report, and by the lead researcher in an interview, such as that Latina moms are less likely to have attended college and less likely to have read to their children than their black or white peers. Also, that the custom of sending young children to preschool has not yet taken hold in Latino households — no surprise given that three generations typically reside together. Furthermore, the story said the report noted that Hispanic families might face barriers such as the inability to confidently communicate in English or fears about’ legal status.

 

Any or all of these help produce this result: In Illinois, Hispanic children start kindergarten, on average, five months behind white children and one or two months behind African-American children.

 

But the news story didn’t include another factor that keeps Latino children out of preschool: There are far fewer preschool centers in Latino neighborhoods than in white and African-American neighborhoods. This lack of supply contributes to gaps in early learning even before kids start kindergarten.

 

Lest you be left with the outrageous impression that Latino parents are too backward, too fearful of immigration agents and too unsavvy to maneuver the school system, which offers almost every bit of information in Spanish, here’s what Marta Moya-Leang, director of CPS’ Belmont-Cragin Early Childhood Center has to say about preschool access:

 

“I have 280 students in our center and there is simply not enough space,” Moya-Leang told me. “There’s no funding to expand because it’s not a mandated program, and we don’t actively promote the program in the community because since the day we opened we’ve had waiting lists to get kids into the school.” Two hundred children are waiting for the next opening.

 

“Our school runs three shifts from 8:30 in the morning to 6 p.m. at night, and let me tell you that the families who find a way to get their toddlers to a 3 p.m. start time, coming through dark and cold, are committed to those kids’ education,” she said.

 

There is no question that the Latino community faces serious roadblocks, but Hispanics are known to be unusually reverent of education as a path to economic empowerment. I have no doubt that as recent immigrants are acculturated to understanding that preschool is an important first step in the education process, this will change. If enough preschool classes are made available to meet the demand, that is.

 

In his closing remarks to the assemblage, study author Bruce Fuller, of the University of California-Berkeley, responded to the crowd’s concerns about how their culture was portrayed by sharing this great advice: “Culture is always in motion, there’s nothing fixed about it — values, beliefs and commitments change. We need to get beyond these labels.”

 

 

A convergence of cultures gives Thanksgiving and Holiday traditions their unique flavor

 

ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

CHICAGO — Everyone knows that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks for the food. But in contrast to millions of other Americans, I will not be gorging myself on my favorite family comfort food, and for that I thank the great American melting pot.

Growing up in a tri-generational, half-Ecuadorean, half-Mexican household, my two cousins and I endured the annual ritual of being barred from the kitchen for two days before Thanksgiving. We were then starved all turkey day until the feast was laid out at 6 p.m.

 

By the time the blessings were said, our low blood sugar made the spread of "special occasion food" seem miraculous. The corn tortilla chips and fresh pico de gallo, which most restaurants today call salsa, were laid out as an introduction to the turkey, which was filled with relleno, a stuffing made of a combination of ground beef, green peppers and chopped boiled eggs. Fresh bread was laid alongside my mother's ensalada de papas, a potato salad featuring more chopped boiled eggs and absolutely zero yellow mustard. My grandmother's signature remolachas, a mixture of chopped bright purple beets, avocados, shredded lettuce and green peas, always had a special place next to the white rice on the plate. Sure it looked gross, but it was tasty.

 

The highlight of the meal for us kids was dessert. The empanadas — turnovers gloriously rolled from special corn flour dough, stuffed with a near-mystical concoction of egg yolks, soft cheese and sugar, then fried crispy-dark in lard and corn oil — took hours to prepare. That's why they only made an appearance at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and were guarded like gold in the hours leading up to dinner. The cheery mix of cumbia, merengue and salsa music playing in the background provided the festive air. I think back on it as though it were heaven.

 

Fast forward 20 or so years. This week I'll be traveling south 400 miles to join my absolutely delightful in-laws for our 13th Thanksgiving Day together. Each of the last 10 or so has been better than the last. On the ride there I no longer say bordering-on-rude things to my husband such as: "Croutons? I'll never understand why people stuff their turkeys with Stove Top."

 

During the meal, I avoid the "cranberry sauce" that is served room temperature and sliced still in the metal can's tube shape. And I give thanks on my waistline's behalf that I never acquired a taste for the ubiquitous pumpkin pie. Instead, I get to concentrate fully on conversations, baby gurglings and visiting all the relatives we won't get to see again until summer.

 

At these moments, I'm not torn at all. It is actually a joy to watch my husband delight in his beloved dumplings and gravy-soaked mashed potatoes. I love knowing that our two sons get to experience a traditional, all-American Thanksgiving complete with the afternoon carbohydrate-induced stupor and dinner-time repeat.

 

It's true that I might not feel this way if we didn't spend Spanish-flecked Christmases with my family, but even this is worlds apart from my childhood days. Like me, my cousins married non-Hispanics and today we celebrate what I lovingly call our "cultural convergence Christmas."

 

The Spanish music has been replaced by the TV blaring "Home Alone" — our generation's "It's a Wonderful Life." Three tongues (Spanish, Tagalog and English) are spoken freely — four if you include the kids' video game-speak, which none of the adults understand. My mom still makes the potato salad and my aunt the empanadas, though, ironically, none of our six kiddies will touch them.

 

My cousins' African American and Filipino wives bless our table with their scrumptious pancit noodles, egg rolls and spare ribs. Before we eat, my aunt gives the holiday blessing, which includes gratitude for our life here and remembrances for family members "back home," as she has done since before I was born.

 

Just like at my husband's family gatherings, we gossip, chat about football, compare games on our smart phones, and talk about work. In those moments the great melting pot bubbles all our past traditions into today's American experience.

 

estherjcepeda@washpost.com

 

 

Hey immigration reform activists: forget "You owe us" and get better messaging

Forget IOUs on immigration reform

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

 

CHICAGO – "You owe us" is not exactly a compelling argument for legislative action, but this is really all that some immigration reform activists have left to goose Democrats to make something – anything – happen during the lame-duck session of Congress.

This doesn't look likely and everyone knows it – Congress reconvened Monday and is facing major, controversial issues such as Medicare payments to doctors, unemployment benefits, and whether to extend the Bush tax cuts.

 

There are other matters – like ratification of the nuclear arms treaty with Russia – but the ones I just mentioned will overshadow any interjections about the highly flammable issue of immigration reform because of their impact on American pocketbooks. And like it or not, right now all anyone cares about is the economy and their own financial stability.

 

Don't get me wrong, you can't blame activist groups for trying anything to keep their reform agenda in the public eye at a time when some Republican House members are licking their chops about legislation to deny "birthright citizenship" to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, and do anything else possible to make illegal immigrants' lives hellish enough to inspire a mass exodus.

 

On the first day of the lame-duck session, President Obama was quoted by Sen. Robert Menendez, who is trying to meet with him to press the issue, as saying he's only willing to move forward on immigration with Republican support. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart from Florida sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging her to schedule a vote during the session on the DREAM Act, which would legalize immigrant youth who came to the U.S. illegally before the age of 16 and fulfilled strict requirements. Pelosi would join the forever-grateful-to-Hispanics Harry Reid in bringing up the act which has enjoyed bipartisan support for over 10 years but was again smacked down in September when he tried to tack it onto the defense spending authorization bill.

 

I can't predict whether Congress will respond to this last-ditch effort for relief to those frustrated with inaction on immigration reform, and many observers think a comprehensive overhaul is dead until at least 2012. Either way, the next few weeks should close the five-year "We demand comprehensive immigration reform" chapter in the continuing American saga over how we welcome newcomers and usher in a next chapter I'd call "Political pragmatism, compromise, and small steps delivered substantive progress."

 

"There's little political will to tackle something as huge as immigration," Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert at Cornell University, told me. "But if people realize they can't pass comprehensive reform the question is, will they be able to pass some smaller bite-sized bills like the DREAM Act, Ag Jobs? Some worry that if small bills go through, the will to get through a larger, comprehensive package is diminished, but smaller chunks could actually make a down payment on comprehensive immigration reforms."

 

Yet that won't happen unless there is compromise on the part of legislators – and also those demanding the reforms. Pro-reform organizations have failed to communicate their legislative agenda effectively to non-supporters. For the last five years they've left the impression, especially on those who tend toward nativism, that "comprehensive immigration reform" is actually code for an open borders policy that provides amnesty for all. While this might not be true, activists have done a poor job of selling a more concise vision to a country that, according to a recent nationwide poll of registered voters, overwhelmingly believes it is unrealistic to deport all illegal aliens and craves a federal solution including tighter border protections.

 

This is an opportunity, not a setback. And rather than arguing for what might be "owed" to Latino voters, it's time to convince the average Joe on how both small and large reforms could benefit the entire country and its financial stability.

 

Esther Cepeda writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.

 

 

 

 

Medical technology leaps the language barrier

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2893634,CST-EDT-esther15.article

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Chicago Sun-Times Columnist

 

Being bilingual is a blessing -- except when it's a curse. Imagine you're a family member of a recent immigrant or a deaf person who communicates only by sign language.

You're tagging along with mom, dad or grandma on a doctor's visit and the next thing you know you're called into an exam room to help explain to your loved one that there's something wrong. Never mind if the illness is of a personal nature or if it's heart-breaking or scary, you are duty-bound to be an intermediary in a delicate, complex medical conversation.

This happens all the time. Our medical centers are challenged by increasing numbers of patients whose English is not as good as their native language and by a shortage of trained medical interpreters.

Over the years, health-care providers have had to learn to handle patient issues with increased privacy and proper respect, but those efforts often sputter when there is no affordable professional available to translate.

 

Technology is stepping in, providing medical centers with highly trained medical interpreters 24 hours a day through the Video Interpreter Network, a national program being piloted in Chicago hospitals. Medical interpreters can be dialed up on a computer monitor to speak face to face with a patient and his doctor.

 

"Five of our member hospitals in the Chicago area have these systems up and running and the Network is in use nationally in hospitals in California, Texas, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico," said Dr. Michael Wahl, director of the Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, which is helping 244 member and associate Illinois hospitals to learn and use the new technology.

 

"We estimate that nationally 10 percent of patients have low English proficiency. In Chicago it's about 15 percent, and you can imagine how difficult it is for health-care providers to deliver services in a compassionate, efficient way," Wahl told me. We talked the day before hospital administrators from across the state were to gather at the University of Illinois Medical Center to learn how the video link works.

 

Health-care facilities have relied on costly in-person medical interpreters who are fluent in a select few languages. Some interpreters use phone services, which can be cheaper but -- depending of the language -- still run as high as $3 a minute.

 

After the expense of buying and installing equipment, the Video Interpreter Network costs about 80 cents a minute.

"We can't charge Medicare or an insurance company more for patients who require translation, so it's really on the hospital's dime," Wahl said. "But we can't provide quality care if we can't speak with the patients."

 

Wahl estimated that nonprofit hospitals in Illinois spent more than $14 million on medical interpretation services in 2008, a financial burden that smaller suburban and rural hospitals -- where immigrants increasingly are showing up -- are finding especially tough. The alternative in a pinch, now frowned upon by hospitals, is to use untrained translators such as family members, children and non-professional hospital employees.

 

Dr. Ervin Hire, a medical oncologist at Mount Sinai Hospital, which started using the Video Interpretation Network in 2008, says he likes that the system allows family members to be just that: family.

"Sometimes we have bad news to tell patients and you start speaking about end-of-life issues. Is the granddaughter capable of speaking about these emotional topics? Is she telling the patient what I said correctly?" Hire said. "With an interpreter, I know what I'm saying is being communicated properly, and that's helpful for the whole family."

 

 

 

Missing in the immigration debate: our Asian community

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

 

CHICAGO — If I were a member of the third-largest minority group in the United States, I'd be really frustrated that the immigration issue continues to be discussed almost exclusively with Latin Americans in mind.

As immigrants' rights advocacy groups across the country wonder whether there's even a slim chance Congress will take up debate about comprehensive reform anytime soon, recent national conversations have been set exclusively in the context of the Latino vote and Republican Hispanics.  

 

Despite President Obama's failure so far to deliver on his campaign promise to shepherd through meaningful reforms, Latinos turned out to help Democrats hold a few hotly contested seats. Paradoxically, Hispanics also boosted the Republican Party by helping elect several high-profile Latinos who had few ideas for solving our current illegal immigration woes and instead campaigned on tighter border controls and stepped-up enforcement.

 

This Latino-centric immigration narrative, while reflective of the population and a key to Hispanic political empowerment, excludes many who also have a stake in this debate.

 

"It is really frustrating to be mostly left out of the conversation," said Karen Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, which advocates for the rights and interests of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. "Mostly it's because the Asian-American vote is missing — the media do not sample the Asian vote to tell what we're really voting on."

 

Compared with the 9 percent of eligible voters who are Latino, Narasaki estimated the Asian vote represents about 5 percent of eligible voters.

 

"That '5 percent nationally' gets lost because we're heavily concentrated on the West Coast, New York, and in California, which has the largest Asian population," Narasaki told me. "We believe we contributed probably 6 to 7 percent of the vote in Sen. (Barbara) Boxer's race. In Las Vegas, where we're one of the nation's fastest growing populations, (Senate Majority Leader Harry) Reid courted the Asian vote and got it. These are working-class Asians who got together for him but we get lumped into the category of 'other immigrant voters.' "

 

Census and other studies have put the number of all illegal immigrants in the U.S. at approximately 12 million. About 1.5 million are Asians — representing 12 percent of the total Asian population — with 23 percent estimated to be Chinese, 17 percent Filipino, 14 percent Indian, 11 percent Koreans and the balance from a variety of smaller countries, all with different issues.

 

For instance, huge backlogs exist in families where immigrant citizens or legal permanent residents can bring spouses, parents and minor children from overseas. Their wait times are heartbreaking. The longest is for Filipinos, Narasaki said — they currently must wait about 19 years to reunite with family members. Chinese and Indians face up to nine-year waits.

 

Then there are the concerns of refugees from Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar who are wary about strict filing deadlines for asylum claims and crackdowns on deportations for minor criminal offenses.

 

Indians — a highly skilled subgroup of Asians who tend to come into the U.S. on H1B visas — are, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants. But if they lose a job, they have a limited window, sometimes only days, in which to find another before losing their legal status. In such a difficult housing market, homeowning Indians and their U.S.-born children are choosing to stay illegally.

 

All this makes Asians a mystery to the political parties in which they must gain a foothold to influence immigration reform and other priorities.

 

"The parties have under-invested in us," Narasaki said. "The Republicans think that because Asians are a minority they must be Democrats and the Democrats think that because Asians are business people, they must be Republicans."

Though a 2006 exit poll showed 79 percent of Asian-Americans voted Democratic, she added: "In the Asian-American community a lot of the vote is up for grabs — depending on the region there's a lot of independence."

 

We need diverse Asian and other viewpoints in the national conversation about voting blocs and how to deal with immigration-law reform. Their experiences are exactly what voters and elected officials need in order to get past their preconceived notions of who would benefit from an overhaul of our current system.

 

Esther J. Cepeda's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com

San Francisco fast food toy ban: Nothing ‘Happy’ about obesity

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group (11/11/10)

 

CHICAGO -- Happy Meals in San Francisco are about to become a little less happy, and my smile has been super-sized.

Not because I don't love Happy Meals. On the contrary, I buy them for myself as a treat because as an over-30 adult who exercises a minimum of five times a week, my daily intake limits allow me the 525 calories of the cheeseburger, small fries, three packets of ketchup and kid-sized diet drink packed in the delightfully petite carton.

 

If I were a 6-year-old boy of average weight who is moderately active, that might be OK, too, unless mom or dad added low-fat milk or succumbed to pleas for chocolate milk, regular soda or a shake. Then you're looking at 100 to 400 more calories -- or well over half that child's 1,700-per-day calorie needs -- in that one happy little meal.

 

And even that wouldn't be so bad if trips to fast-food joints were a rare, once-in-a-while occurrence as many who were around when McDonald's first became nationally popular in the late 1950s might recall. But today high-fat, high-salt, high-sugar fast-food meals and their fun, highly collectible, much advertised movie-themed toys are a staple of adults' and children's food routines.

 

And this is where a child's desire for a fun treat, a parent's desire to cheaply feed and simultaneously entertain their kids, and a profound ignorance of the basic tenets of nutrition intersect to fuel the obesity epidemic in this country.

 

It is an epidemic that is estimated to put a $168 billion annual burden on health care costs, according to a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Obesity was recently classified as a national security threat by a group of retired generals in a report titled "Too Fat to Fight," which found that 27 percent of all young adults are too overweight to serve in the military. It's the leading medical reason for rejection from the armed forces.

 

Which brings us back to San Francisco's new rules. Supervisors there just voted to ban toy giveaways in any fast-food meals where the calories total more than 600, there are more than 640 milligrams of sodium and more than 35 percent of calories come from fat.

 

"Nanny state" you say? Sure, a lot of people are burning up newspaper website comment sections with notes such as "Parents should be in charge of kids' diets, not the government" and "It's parents' obligation to monitor the food their kids are eating."

 

But understand one thing clearly: Parents cannot make wise decisions about their own or their child's eating habits when they rarely possess even the most rudimentary grasp on what it means to eat all kinds of food as part of a balanced diet. We simply don't know how much food our bodies need and what the healthiest -- and the worst -- foods are.

 

A recent USA Today survey found that 63 percent of respondents didn't know how many calories they should consume in a day to maintain their current weight and another 25 percent couldn't even guess. Only 12 percent knew how many calories their bodies need to live healthfully. How are they going to know how many calories their children need daily?

 

The only reason I'm an amateur dietician is because as a Hispanic with several Type 2 diabetics in my family, I watch what I eat closely. But most people rely on their doctors to counsel them on nutrition-related topics, and some docs aren't talking. According to researchers at Duke University Medical Centers, nearly one-third of doctors in a recent study were observed never broaching the topics of healthy weight with their patients. Those who did spent an average of just 3 1/2 minutes on this life-sustaining topic, not terribly impactful.

 

San Francisco has not taken a stand against parental choice or even against fast food. The city is trying to educate parents so they understand the nutritional value of what kids are gobbling while they play with their toy. The rest of the country should follow its example, if for no other reason than to keep nutrition on the tip of everyone's tongue.

 

Esther J. Cepeda 's e-mail address is estherjcepeda(at)washpost.com.

 

 

Washington, DC: The Capital of Latino Affluence

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Washington Post Writers Group

 

CHICAGO -- My first visit to Washington, D.C., occurred when I was 7. The town impressed several things upon my young brain: Compared to Chicago, the buildings were all squat and white, and traffic was horrendous. But it was where the president lived and therefore the world's center of power.

The family had traveled there to visit my dad’s cousin Lupe, who turned out to be one of a wave of what a recent Washington Post article called the “educated elite” from Latin America who came to the nation’s capital in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

She and her children, who are my age, helped shape the Hispanic community in Washington, which today lays claim to being the most educated and affluent in the U.S.    

Stunningly, Washington's 700,000 Hispanics boast a median household income of nearly $61,000 -- the highest in the country among Latinos. And at a time when school districts everywhere are struggling with how to get Latino graduation rates up -- nationally, the dropout rate for Hispanics is almost 20 percent -- almost one in four Hispanic adults in Washington has at least a four-year college degree, almost double the national rate for Latinos.

 

What would be really fantastic is if the city and its surrounding suburbs had a winning formula for educating and launching Latinos into careers -- one that could be replicated across the country in the states with the highest number of Latino residents. But alas, that’s not the case.

 

While cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have traditionally offered a mix of both unskilled and professional job opportunities, basically, Washington offers only brain work. It's a place overflowing with professional positions at embassies, international organizations, government agencies and numerous think tanks. As a result, the people who flock there bring their education with them: According to the Post, the 23 percent of Hispanics who have college degrees still trails the 60 percent of Asians, 57 percent of whites and 29 percent of African-Americans with degrees. And they pass on their educational expectations to their children.

 

Through her adoption of controversial student and teacher performance assessment practices, outgoing schools chief Michelle Rhee put Washington's struggling school system into the national spotlight -- further highlighting this tale of two cities where, as a whole, the Latino community is better off than other U.S. Hispanic communities. But as you look at those outside the elite, well-educated group, the depressing reality is that about 12 percent of adult Hispanics in Washington live below the poverty level, and as many people have college degrees as have less than a ninth-grade education.

 

I celebrate and envy Washington's Latinos but lament that their mostly imported affluence isn’t something that can be easily copied and scaled to benefit Latinos across the U.S. The rest of the country will have to continue finding ways to grow their own Latino success stories.

 

Esther J. Cepeda 's e-mail address is estherjcepeda(at)washpost.com.

 

 

The next Chicago Public Schools chief: a teacher or an executive?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2873720,CST-EDT-esther08.article

 

November 8, 2010 BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Chicago Sun-Times

Is it that bad? Is heading the Chicago Public Schools so grinding, so arduous, that Ron Huberman couldn't hang in there a few months longer until the incoming mayor put someone new in place?

It may well be. Still, it seems criminal that he couldn't wait it out just a little while longer so that the Chicago school system wouldn't be forced to stop concentrating on education and staffing matters and instead deal with the uncertainty that the impending musical chairs will bring. But Mayor Daley said it best: If someone doesn't want to be around anymore, it's pointless to try to force it.

Because the mad scramble to see who will be put in the critical position of CEO -- the one we'll have for a long time, as opposed to the one who has little chance to warm the seat for more than six months -- has begun ahead of schedule, the most important question is now in the spotlight: Should CPS' top leader be a business executive or an educator?   

 

Daley has always seen the school system as a business puzzle that only a seasoned executive could sort out, and that's not a bad way to look at it. The day-to-day responsibilities of running CPS Inc. is a $5.5 billion enterprise -- almost 70 percent of which is exclusively dedicated to teacher and staff personnel costs which go up every single year.

 

Educators, of course, see the top leadership role as one that requires not only extensive higher education in pedagogical theory and educational leadership, but also a firm grip on curriculum and methods for instructing all students, regardless of background. Most think this can come only after having stood in front of classrooms filled with hungry, depressed, exceptionally bright or otherwise unique students.

 

The reality is that CPS needs a leader that is neither more nor less than an exceptional teacher or brilliant business mind -- it needs someone who is both.

 

Eons ago, the trajectory of the average school teacher was to graduate from high school into a college education program and then probably spend an entire career at the school where the initial student teaching semester was done. A few would maybe get an advanced degree and move into administrative leadership roles and certainly none of them would have any real-world business or management experience.

 

That tide turned about fifteen years ago. The demand for teacher training programs for disillusioned doctors, lawyers, marketers and other professionals who wanted to get into classrooms skyrocketed. Then highly competitive programs such as Teach for America and schools run by groups such as the Knowledge is Power Program started booming. They cultivated young wiz kids who knew they eventually wanted to be entrepreneurs, political giants or CEOs but chose to spend a few months training to teach low-income students for a few years.

 

The reality is that aside from the standard reasons -- politics, posturing and power plays -- neither the current nor the future mayor has to make a gut-wrenching choice between a CPS leader who can navigate the complex details of various federal education programs and their statutory requirements or one who can read between the lines of the profit and loss pages of a financial report.

 

Regardless of what teachers or bureaucrats prefer in a leader, the students and parents who rely on the Chicago Public Schools deserve nothing less than someone who knows exactly how to run both a successful business and a successful classroom.

 

 

Mid-term elections verdict: get to work

By Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group

 

CHICAGO - If we've learned anything from the midterm election, it's that neither political party has an unrelenting grip on the confidence of the American people. And that hope lives on - hope that the newly elected can pull off the stunt that the last cast of players flubbed: providing leadership.

Every pundit, politician and their mothers have pointed out that Tuesday's numbers don't necessarily mean the country has swerved to the right. In the days before the counts were tallied, the consensus was astounding - really, how often does one see Arianna Huffington and Jeb Bush agree on anything? 

 

Huffington told ABC News that Americans should not fall into the trap of over-interpreting a Republican victory: "(It) does not mean that the nation is rejecting Democrats and affirming Republicans - it means that they are rejecting the way our institutions are working, that they have a deep mistrust of all establishments and that basically our system has not worked for them."

 

Bush, the former Florida Republican governor, had a similar take in an interview with The New York Times: "The looming victories for Republican candidates ... is not a validation of the Republican Party at all." He went on to say that the real message was one of "disgust with the political class" for not cooperating on kick-starting the economy and getting people back to work.

 

Not only are these statements conciliatory and politically correct at a time when we need some national civility, they also happen to be true. What we saw on Nov. 2 was a wave of angry, unsure voters who had to struggle to discern which candidate was the lesser of two evils and in many instances took a chance on an unknown quantity rather than keep the same-old, same-old.

 

There's nothing wrong with this - it's the whole point of our democracy to be able to switch it up when things aren't working.

 

But now that the winners have been sorted from the losers, who will actually lead? Who will take the chance they've been given and inspire their colleagues to fix our public institutions and get the nation back on the path to prosperity?

For the Democrats, will these election results get them to stop blaming Republicans, and especially former President George W. Bush, for everything and focus on reaching across the aisle to get things done?

 

Will the Republicans finally formulate a game plan that involves something more than merely tearing President Obama to shreds and attempt to work toward the meaningful changes the voters have asked them for?

We'll see who has got the guts. Angry America has finally hit bottom and the only way to go is up - but we need to be rallied toward it.

 

"What this country needs is a renewed sense of unity, a feeling that we can believe in ourselves as a nation again," Joe Caruso, an organizational change expert and author of "The Power of Losing Control," told me. This book should be required reading for both new and returning legislators who need some practical advice on how to let go of past stumbles and use influence to actually get things done.

 

"Americans used to have incredible optimism, but it has faded these last few years," Caruso said. "Today we need leadership that will give the American people not a 'things have always gotten better, so they'll get better again' complacent optimism, but an optimism with a sense of duty to get focused and work hard."

 

Newly and currently elected leaders will have it only slightly less awful than how things looked in November 2008, so there will be no lack of opportunities to prove they can deliver on their promises of no more "government as usual." After all, the people have spoken and that's the one thing they've all asked for.

 

Politicians forget about single mothers

Politicians forget about single mothers

 

November 1, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2852410,CST-EDT-esther01.article

　

In the slicing and dicing of the electorate by age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, income, political affiliation, marital status, education level and propensity to vote, one type of engaged -- probably disillusioned -- voter tends to slip through the cracks:

Single moms.

 

The very term "single mom" conjures up an array of stereotypes that generally revolve around the twin anchors of under-education and a reliance on welfare benefits. But single moms are an educated, hardworking, aspirational and rapidly growing part of our community -- and they need the time and attention of our elected officials.

 

"Candidates should really think about what's most important to single moms -- quality child care and education for our kids and for us. That would really help us focus on making our lives better and help us make our whole community better," says Emily Carrazco, a divorced 34-year-old who everyday wakes and feeds her 7-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, drops them off at two different schools, then makes to her way to the Loop for a full workday.

 

Carrazco told me her experiences as a single mom during a short break in her hectic day as an accounts payable clerk.

This was two days after the Eleanor Foundation, a Chicago organization that funds economic security programs for households headed by working moms, released a report shattering old inner-city single mom stereotypes.

 

According to the report, "Changing Conditions in a Changing World," women-led households have increased 9.77 percent -- more than double the rate of "traditional" households in the Chicago region since 2000.

The number of households headed by single working mothers earning lower-to-moderate incomes grew 18.5 percent between 2000 and 2008, with significant increases in the suburbs, resulting in a third of a million women-led households in the Chicago region.

 

According to the report, which used 2008 census data, these women are increasingly Hispanic and educated. The percentage of women with less education than high school declined to 18 percent of the total population of women studied, while the percentage of women with a college degree or higher degree increased to 13.

 

They also work hard for their money. Strikingly opposite the stereotype of the freeloading single mom, 78 percent of these women were employed and only 7 percent were unemployed -- and reported that they were actively looking for work -- representing a 10 percent drop in unemployment in this group since 2000. Of the single moms with a job, 79 percent worked more than 35 hours a week and only 6 percent received any public assistance in the 12 months before the survey.

 

"It's rough when we're viewed as on welfare, not pulling our own weight," Carrazco says. "I really have to do work of two people, and it's hard to make ends meet. I don't have access to a lot of assistance programs because I don't make a large enough income to live comfortably month to month and I don't make a low enough income to qualify for affordable housing, foods stamps or free childcare. It is the struggle we face day to day."

 

Carrazco's challenges are magnified by city living. Unlike most suburban single moms, Carrazco deals with two separate private schools for her children because she doesn't want her kids going to the low-performing public schools. Because she has to drive her kids, she can't use public transportation and ends up paying outrageous downtown parking fees, reducing her limited funds even more.

 

Like other single moms, Carrazco says she has high hopes for Tuesday's election.

 

"What I'd most like the elected candidates to do is really think what we go through," she says. "Forget about what's politically correct or what others would like to hear and really think about how they'd handle their lives with the challenges single moms face. Would their views be different. Would they run their offices differently? I would hope so."

 

I hope so too.

 

Making Latinas think pink, too

Making Latinas think pink, too Oct 31, 2010

By Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group

 

CHICAGO – As we look through the rearview mirror at October's wall-to-wall pink-ribboned extravaganza of breast cancer awareness efforts, let's take a moment to consider that there are many out there who didn't engage in the national conversation.

There was almost no getting away from marketers' aggressive pinkifying – T-shirts, bagels, disposable batteries, professional sports club tie-ins, etc. – aimed, ostensibly, at making the topic socially acceptable in any setting and garnering support for the organizations dedicated to curing this disease. And if you felt warm, fuzzy and pink about how much this brand or product cares about women's health, well, then, all the better. 

 

 

While I'm not endorsing the commerce-induced oversaturation of a health threat, we do need some more of it aimed at Latinos. Even with independent efforts to specifically target both Spanish – and English-speaking women in cities with large Latino populations, breast cancer awareness among Hispanic families has not yet reached a critical mass.

 

Part of the reason is that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hispanic women are 33 percent less likely to have breast cancer than white women – I can't tell you how many times I've heard a Latina say that breast cancer is "not something we get" – but it's actually the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among Hispanic women.

 

Breast cancer in Latinas is more likely to be diagnosed at an advanced stage than in other women because the disease tends to manifest in Hispanics at far younger ages – some studies say about 10 years earlier than the national average for all women – making it more difficult to treat successfully.

 

On top of that, Latinas, like African-American women, are more likely than white women to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, which occurs in the youngest women, is more aggressive, has distinct growth patterns, resists most treatments and offers bleaker survival rates than the more common strain.

 

According to Dr. Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy, an oncologist at Ohio State University where clinical trials are under way to find a treatment for the triple-negative strain, 40 percent of all breast cancers in African-American and Latino women are of the triple-negative variety, compared with 15 percent to 20 percent in non-Hispanic white women.

 

Despite these numbers, Latinas are less likely to get screening, which makes heightened awareness even more vital.

 

"Only 38 percent of Latinas are screened for breast cancer compared to almost 80 percent of white women," Ramaswamy said. "There are many reasons why breast cancer doesn't enjoy the same level of awareness in the Latino community as in the rest of society – there is general poverty and lack of insurance, cultural and language barriers and differing levels of trust in non-Spanish speaking doctors."

 

Indeed, the myriad factors that come into play are as complex as they are plentiful. A study published in October on the website of the journal Cancer found that even when economic, social class and levels of access to insurance are accounted for, African-American and Hispanic women are still less likely to get recommended breast cancer treatments than white patients.

 

"Many times there is a sense of fatalism, of 'well, it's going to happen, so if God wills it what's the point?' in seeking treatment – I see that in the Indian community as well," Ramaswamy said. Though some Latinos bristle at the hyper-religious stereotype, Springer's International Journal of Behavioral Medicine just published a study affirming this anecdotal evidence. The researchers found that a higher number of Latinos believe that cancer cannot be prevented and that death is inevitable after diagnosis.

 

Finally, Ramaswamy noted a modesty in the Latino community that keeps women from openly talking about, well ... you know. I can't speak for every Hispanic family in the U.S., but growing up in mine you did not talk about breasts. Not yours, not someone else's, not ever.

 

Alas, all is not lost. As awareness of breast cancer in the Latino community gets to center stage – and as young English-speaking Latinas grow up in an environment where it is completely natural to talk about breast cancer treatments and triumphant survivors – things will change. But it'll take many culturally sensitive conversations every month of the year.

 

Esther Cepeda writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.

 

 

 

It is time to shatter the myth of the monolithic “Latino vote.”

Participation, not party, unites Latino voters

 

Oct. 29, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

　

It is time to shatter the myth of the monolithic "Latino vote."

In countless news stories, Hispanic voters are portrayed as strictly Democratic, single-mindedly concerned with immigration law reform, and willing to vote for a candidate with a Latino-sounding name regardless of the candidate’s stance on policy issues.

This painted-with-the-broadest-possible-brush portrait is not only imprecise, it is insulting. Hispanic voters are a culturally, politically, geographically and demographically diverse group of U.S.- and foreign-born citizens who are just as concerned about the direction of this country’s leadership as other Americans are.

 

When I’m asked who Latinos are going to vote for, I say "which Latinos?" — there are so many different kinds. There are the naturalized citizens who are recent immigrants from Latin American countries — which have varying ranges of liberal or conservative social norms and political engagement — and those who have been in this country for 20 years or more and might either have a long history of turning out on Election Day or have cast their first vote only recently. Then there are the first- or second-generation U.S.-born Latinos and also those who can trace their ancestors back to the Mexican-American War of the mid-1840s. Their ages range from 18 to 80 and older.

 

Support for a particular party has gone back and forth between the two major political organizations. Many Latinos feel a natural affinity with conservative and traditional social values and vote Republican — remember George W. Bush’s 34 percent to 44 percent lock on the Latino vote between 2000 and 2004? Today, many Latinos feel Democrats are more responsive to their particular issues.

 

According to an early October Pew Hispanic Center report, "Latinos and the 2010 Elections," 65 percent of the registered Latino voters surveyed planned to support the Democratic candidate in their local congressional district, compared to 22 percent for the Republican candidate. But for all we know, this could shift again. After all, "get out the vote" efforts in the Latino community have been primarily run by grass-roots Hispanic and community groups and not financed by either political party. Latinos are truly independent.

 

In that same report, the top four most important issues for Latinos were education, jobs, health care, and the federal budget deficit. Immigration was fifth on that list — only slightly ahead of the environment and the war in Afghanistan. Yes, as the anti-immigrant rhetoric heats up, rankings will fluctuate, but the fact remains that while immigration is important, it’s not all Latinos ever think about.

 

Lastly, there’s the ethnic solidarity issue. It’s an especially hot topic in the races where a Latino candidate with a hard-line anti-illegal immigrant stance is in the running — Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio, Nevada gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval, New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez. I’ve even heard commentators suggest that Latinos might vote for Rahm Emanuel in the Chicago mayoral election because his name sounds Hispanic.

 

Martin Cerda, research director of Encuesta Inc., a Florida-based Latino marketing and opinion research company, has picked up on this, too, and told me, "Latino voters are coming of age, they’re not going to be a solid voting bloc, they’re getting wise and will think completely outside the box, picking and choosing the very best candidate for themselves."

 

Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota, a Southwest-based group specifically targeting hard-to-reach and infrequent Latino voters, added: "It is so patronizing how people talk about Latino voters based on a handful of polls. People think Latino voters are not smart — but we are not just going to respond to a Latino name or Spanish-language ads, it’s all about how a candidate has invited us to participate in the elections process. And if they get elected and don’t work with the community, they won’t be back."

 

No one engaged in thoughtful conversations about the political passions of the fastest-growing portion of the U.S. population can rely solely on short-hand assumptions. Latino voters step into the voting booth as college kids, white-collar and blue-collar workers, senior citizens and, yes, soccer moms like everyone else.

 

Sure, Latino voters will always have a cultural affinity with each other, but what truly unites them is their desire to participate in the American political process.

 

Esther Cepeda’s e-mail address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com

 

Needed: shared understanding on bullying

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Washington Post Writers Group

 

The increasingly frequent examples of bullying-induced suicide have at long last provoked dramatic action to recognize and prevent this type of harassment.

 

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights sent out a 10-page letter this week issuing detailed guidance to educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to college clarifying their responsibilities in preventing violations of the federal anti-discrimination law. This includes "when peer harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees."

 

The ex-teacher in me initially had a knee-jerk reaction that this mandate would put the burden of policing out-of-control children on teachers and administrators rather than on parents who should be responsible for a child's behavior education. But I looked at it in a different light after talking to Gerald Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, an educational leadership organization.

 

"This was a very direct, forceful memorandum and I applaud it," Tirozzi told me. "This sends a loud and clear message that the guidance from the Office of Civil Rights should be read by all educators and be understood by parents in the respective communities because, yes, a lot of this lies at the feet of parents."

 

That’s what got me -- why aren’t parents held as responsible for bullying as the school district employees are, according to these guidelines?

 

As Tirozzi and I talked, it dawned on me that this reminder is needed because teachers and administrators aren’t fluent in the intricacies of what bullying can look like, how it can be avoided and what to do when it rears its ugly head. And if the professionals who are trained to interact with children all day aren’t bully-prevention experts, how could average parents -- a third to half of whom, by some estimates, might have been helpless victims of bullying themselves at some point in their life -- be knowledgeable enough to intervene?

 

"Well, you’re right, the parents have to understand what it all means, but up until now it’s been acceptable for everyone to quietly dismiss certain behaviors and move on," Tirozzi said. "I would say that when many parents or teachers hear or see an act that might be considered bullying, they see it as just kids growing up and reacting to one another. But I think (Education) Secretary (Arne) Duncan hit this issue on the head in a strong, forceful, measured way so the schools can tackle this responsibility while educating parents and the community."

 

It'd be nice if we lived in a perfect world where all students attacked the school day with only the thirst for knowledge. Since this is not the case, at least there is a now a concerted effort under way to create a shared understanding both at school and in communities that it's no longer an option to dismiss bullying behavior as "just kids being kids."

　

 

Esther J. Cepeda 's e-mail address is estherjcepeda(at)washpost.com.

 

 

Charity donations in US go down and the worst is yet to come

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2831636,CST-EDT-esther25.article

 
　

For charities, pain still in early stages

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

October 25, 2010

A little over a year ago, I wrote a column headlined "Recovery? Worst ahead for some," pointing out the green shoots that were, at that time, emerging in the economy.

Christy Romer, then on the President's Council of Economic Advisers, had just reported that 1.1 million jobs were added in the third quarter of 2009, 21,000 Oprah fans had swarmed the Magnificent Mile, and Steve Jobs had just introduced an iPod equipped with a video camera and radio tuner.

The clouds seemed like they would soon part.

But in that same column, I quoted Terry Mazany, president and chief executive officer of the Chicago Community Trust, who was the voice of cold reality.

"Nationally, there's talk of the green shoots of an economic recovery, but we know that in a three-year cycle, the pain of 2009 will prove to have been the easiest," Mazany said back then.

I called Mazany a few days ago, after the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that donations to the nation's biggest charities dropped 11 percent last year, the worst decline in the two decades since the Chronicle started its "Philanthropy 400," which ranks organizations that raise the most money from private sources. The drop in contributions was nearly four times as great as the next-biggest annual decrease -- 2.8 percent in 2001 -- when charities similarly struggled to raise money from recession-battered donors.

"If you recall, a year ago I told you this would happen because foundation funding, for the most part, experiences a lag effect, and we knew that in 2010, 2011, 2012, we'd continue to see reduced foundation grant-making," Mazany said. "There is a compounding factor -- we are just now starting to experience the pain of the state budget cuts. Up until Sept. 30, when federal funding officially ended through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus artificially masked the state budget's underlying weakness, and the impact is now twice as great."

At an early October panel discussion on the issues Chicago's minorities should ask political candidates, I and other attendees got an earful about exactly what havoc the state budget mess is wreaking on those who have been slammed the worst by this recession's long tail.

Amy Rynell, of the Social Impact Research Center at the Heartland Alliance, put the need in perspective. "According to our most recent census numbers, one in every five people in Chicago are living in poverty and one in every 10 are living in extreme poverty," she said, emphasizing that those hit worst are minorities.

A report released by the Pew Research Center just last week measured the rates at which different groups lost financial ground. They found it to be 50 percent of all whites, 66 percent of blacks and 70 percent of Latinos.

Sylvia Puente, executive director of the Latino Policy Forum, told the crowd at the panel discussion: "The budget crisis is having a devastating impact on the Latino community and the small, grass-roots, nonprofit community organizations, who were struggling before the crisis hit. They're giving up a lot just to stay open and continue providing services."

While there are no simple answers to how to keep the safety net from continuing to fray, Mazany stepped away from his self-described role as Mr. Doom and Gloom to offer a few silver linings. Because of the belt-tightening, he predicted, organizations will become more innovative to make the most of their resources and rely less on public dollars.

And, he said, the Chicago Community Trust will again this year offer a Unity Challenge Fund, which fills budget gaps for organizations caught in the state reimbursement molasses.

"Though most of us are saving everything we've got because of the uncertainty of the times, individual contributions do remain strong," Mazany said. "And we continue to stress to individuals who haven't lost their jobs to please consider donations to those living in poverty and are the most vulnerable."

　

Health and the Latino Paradox: holding up a mirror to American health

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cepe101024.htm

 
　

HEALTH AND THE LATINO PARADOX
Oct. 24, 2010

　

CHICAGO -- When the Centers for Disease Control this month released its first official compilation of life expectancy for U.S. Latinos, the headlines were dramatic: On average, Hispanics outlive whites by 2.5 years and blacks by 7.7 years.

The study recast a spotlight on the "Latino health paradox" -- that Latinos in the U.S. tend to be healthier than the average population despite their generally low socioeconomic status and barriers to education. The CDC also released data showing that Hispanic males are three times more likely to have HIV than white males, and Hispanic females are a whopping five times likelier than white females, yet they inexplicably live longer than HIV-positive whites.

The breadth of the paradox has been disputed, but a 2007 study by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute looked at mental health, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma and overall health. Among these, the Latino health paradox definitively existed for mental health issues, asthma and high blood pressure.

Many theories about the paradox abound. Some say the very Latino immigrants who chose to move to the U.S. are the heartiest -- and the most likely to return to their native countries to die. Others point to the strong friend and family networks that are crucial to good health for anyone.

But here’s the important point: The paradox doesn’t last. The Tomas Rivera study also measured the effects of acculturation. It found that "Latinos are healthier ... when they first arrive in the United States, however, they become less healthy after acculturation."

This has been proved time and again. If you look at statistics on the frequency of alcohol and tobacco abuse, illegal drug use, obesity and obesity-related illnesses and teen pregnancy in the Latino community, U.S.-born Hispanics are worse off than the foreign born.

This is a five-alarm warning about the general state of American health. If you look at the CDC’s numbers, once you take out the Latino figures -- skewed by the fact the Latino population in the country is becoming more and more U.S.-born -- life expectancies declined.

The new life expectancy report -- and its implications -- comes as no surprise to Hector Castro, the director of the Beth Israel Latino Health Institute in New York and founding partner of Itzamna Medical Center, a Manhattan practice dedicated to eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care.

"We know that when Latinos come to America, diabetes and hypertension all increase," Castro says. "People say Latinos have health challenges because they’re not educated, have lower incomes, poor access to health care, linguistic challenges, but their health issues are directly related to the adoption of the American lifestyle."

More to the point, Castro says this is definitely not a minority/majority or an income-level issue. "The health care system is just not doing a great job in general, and this is just amplified in the minority community." He touched on patients’ inability to access specialized care and navigate medical and health insurance systems, but then brought our conversation back to basics.

"I just read a study that found that of all the Americans getting annual checkups, only 60 percent got what they needed. Think about it -- the last time you went to the doctor, did he look in your eyes? In your ears, your nose? At your skin? Did you get offered a pap smear? Doctors aren’t really examining patients thoroughly," he said.

Castro also cited the 2007 Commonwealth Fund ranking of six affluent countries’ health care systems that found U.S. care ranks last or next-to-last in quality, access, efficiency, equity and healthy lives. On top of it all, the U.S. spends roughly double on health care per person and as a percentage of gross domestic product as does Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand or the United Kingdom.

While the "Latino paradox" is intriguing, it tells us more about mainstream America than about the fastest growing minority in the U.S. And it points to a raft of health care issues we all need to address so the entire country can enjoy longer, healthier lives.

Esther J. Cepeda 's e-mail address is estherjcepeda(at)washpost.com.

 

 

Keeping up appearances; Obama passes up visit to India Sikh temple

http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cepe101022.htm

 
　

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
Oct. 22, 2010

CHICAGO -- Appearances are important in most situations, but probably none more so than when the president of the United States goes on a foreign junket.

There is tremendous pressure to show an appreciation of the landscape and culture, and demonstrate willingness to work ever closer together -- all while upholding the gravitas, the very American-ness of the office of the president in an international spotlight.

So is it any wonder that, according to The New York Times, the spin doctors at the White House decided to take a pass on visiting India’s Golden Temple? It is beautiful, historic and revered by the authoritative Frommer's travel guide as "the most tangibly spiritual place in the country." But the deal-breaker was the traditional head covering -- a cloth wrap resembling a turban or head scarf -- required for entry.

In a perfect world, images of an American president taking off his shoes and tying a piece of cloth about his head in reverence to another country's holy site would be a healing moment -- a time to celebrate America’s proud history as a country that is tolerant, even welcoming, of varied religions.

This is not that moment.

Never mind that just months ago, the U.S. Army welcomed its third U.S.-born Sikh recruit in a reversal of a post-Vietnam War policy banning the turbans and beards that Sikhs wear as a part of their faith.

Never mind that Obama is not a Muslim -- though a recent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll found that nearly one in five Americans believes he is.

Though White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday that the schedule for the India trip was not finalized -- leaving the door ajar to the possibility of visiting the Golden Temple -- just imagine the frenzy.

Images of this president with the head covering would ignite exponentially more hysterical fears about his allegiance to the United States than did the picture of him on his 2006 trip to Kenya, wearing the traditional robe and head wrap, which came out during the presidential campaign.

Presidential historian Brandon Rottinghaus of the University of Houston pointed me toward a charming picture of Gerald Ford wearing a Mexican sombrero in the Oval Office circa 1974, and noted that it was a different world then. He recalled a 2008 picture of George W. Bush wearing a Peruvian poncho but added, "My guess is you wouldn’t see a modern president wear very traditional items. Today it’s all about looking presidential.

"For instance, when Bill Clinton was president he would wear sport watches, but his aides eventually got him to wear a leather-banded one. In all moments the president is expected to be a reservoir of dignity and to look presidential."

It’s too bad about the Sikh temple. And now I know I’ll probably go to my grave never spotting an American president in a Burmese longyi skirt, a Libyan fez, or a red Cuban tracksuit either.

Esther Cepeda 's e-mail address is estherjcepeda(at)washpost.com.

Germany's Merkel says multiculti is dead; US melting pot is where it's at

 
 
http://www.postwritersgroup.com/archives/cepe101021.htm

 By Esther J. Cepeda, Washington Post Writers Group

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

CHICAGO — Chancellor Angela Merkel declared the death of German multiculturalism at a conference of her political party, the Christian Democratic Union, last weekend. She said the very idea that guest workers who immigrated to Germany to fill a labor shortage during the 1960s could “live happily side by side” with native-born Germans was an illusion and suggested a hard line for those who refuse to assimilate.

The whole thing reminds me of Benjamin Franklin’s lament about German immigrants in colonial Pennsylvania. They didn’t speak English and therefore couldn’t be addressed “either from the press or the pulpit,” and he feared that their keeping to themselves would mean they’d never join the mainstream. Franklin even supported several schemes designed to dilute the Germans’ influence in the colony founded by William Penn to provide freedom of worship and religion.

Just as we in the U.S. struggle with the idea of how to define and proliferate “American culture” in the context of how to reform our clunky, sometimes laughably unjust immigration laws, other countries are dealing with similar issues brought into stark relief by the crippling global economic downturn.

Whether it’s Turks in Germany, Filipinos in Israel, or North Africans in France, it is time countries embrace the reality that the mobility ignited by our global economies will never end. Rather, they — like the U.S. — must formulate a plan for assimilating immigrants or suffer continued discord.

That’s why Merkel may be on to something. Multiculturalism — the idea that several different cultures can coexist equally and equitably in a single country — has always sounded a little too “separate, but equal” for my taste.

While the United States is far from a perfect example of complete brotherly love with recent immigrants — and the Great Recession has brought out the nativism in many — we come really close. That’s because we remain devoted to the American mythology of being a nation of immigrants that has always assimilated into a whole greater than the sum of its parts. We have a steadfast expectation that newcomers will become one of “us,” not stay one of “them.”

The fear of “otherness” is what unites Germany’s sharp conservative turn, Franklin’s angst about the Germans, and U.S. worries about immigrants from Latin America: a large group of foreign newcomers who are united by language and similarities in culture have the luxury of taking respite in each other rather than jumping into their new world.

By its own account, Germany has done little to foster the civic participation of its new residents, who were allowed into the country to combat a rapidly aging population and low birth rates among those in their child-bearing years. Polls have shown that more and more Germans fear that too many foreigners live in insular clusters with little or no connection to the mainstream culture.

The raft of “English-only” and enforcement measures that municipalities across the U.S. are trying to enact seem motivated by the fear that “they” are taking “us” over.

Both Germany and the U.S. ask that new citizens be able to speak the language, and pass a test, but neither country has nationwide standards or programs for welcoming newcomers who may or may not be interested in being more than legal permanent residents. This should change.

The word “assimilation” has always carried negative connotations — even Franklin disagreed with some of his fellow Pennsylvanians who called for banning the importation of books in German and a scheme to encourage government-subsidized intermarriage. But support for the newest members of communities is needed.

Reforming U.S. immigration laws promises to continue at the forefront of our national conversation. But how we stir all our immigrants into the melting pot is as important a part of any comprehensive plan as determining specific rules under which illegal immigrants can stay or must return home. Embracing the challenge of helping newcomers more easily become “us” is still, as it has been for most of our history, our great American opportunity.

Esther J. Cepeda’s e-mail address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com.

 

 

Mayoral candidate's takes on Chicago's Whittier Elementary school parent sit-in

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2797136,CST-EDT-esther13.article

 

Whittier is one place city needs fresh start

　

October 13, 2010

ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

The 29-day sit in at Whittier Elementary School continues on with parents and supporters still camped out in a makeshift library in a former field house, with the hopes that the Chicago Public Schools system will renovate the structure and make it a permanent library. They say independent experts have found the building to be structurally salvageable.

But CPS insists the building is structurally unsound and must be demolished, creating space for a new play area.

The parents experienced a triumph of sorts last week when the City Council ordered CPS to turn the gas in the field house back on. All the same, the families occupying the field house are drinking bottled water, sleeping on inflatable mattresses and living in conditions that CPS CEO Ron Huberman has called ''unsafe'' and ''an accident waiting to happen.''

''Keep in mind my background was head of emergency management. I know an unsafe situation when I see one,'' Huberman told WBEZ-FM (91.5). ''That is a small building. That building has no carbon-monoxide detector. That building has no fire-suppression system. It's now full of books and it's full of kids. That makes us very, very nervous.''

But jittery nerves have not been enough to bring an end to what any reasonable person would call a disaster waiting to happen.

How things got to this point is beyond me. But with a lame-duck mayor, a possibly lame-duck schools CEO, and a city captivated by February's mayoral election, maybe it's not surprising the standoff has yet to be resolved.

Just for kicks, I talked to most of the declared or contemplating mayoral candidates to see what they would do. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart declined to comment because he's not officially in the race. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez declined to comment and, to my puzzlement, Rahm Emanuel's ''Tell it like it is'' campaign also refused to weigh in. The rest of the field, of course, said they never would have let such an outrage get so out of hand, which admittedly is easy to say.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) cut straight to the chase: ''An elected school board offers way more checks and balances than an appointed one.''

State Sen. Rickey Hendon said the same and added: ''They should build them the library even if they have to build one from the ground up -- that would satisfy the people and that's the most important thing a mayor can do. The money? There's always money.''

Both U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and businesswoman Carol Moseley Braun said they never would have let the situation get to this point. ''I would have called my superintendent in immediately and ensured that the parents would be sat down with and listened to so I wouldn't have to step in,'' Davis said.

And Moseley Braun said she would have raised private funds for the new library, if necessary -- anything to ''not discourage parental involvement.''

Jay Stone, a clinical hypnotherapist, and state Rep. Annazette Collins said they'd listen, listen, listen to parents. But Collins said she wouldn't necessarily give in. ''Though I would try to negotiate, you have to understand that everybody in the school district wants a new school lunchroom, playground, library,'' Collins said. ''You can't give in just because parents sit in. What if everybody did this?''

Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle both shook their heads that such a situation could still play out in Chicago, where Latino parents have had to stage hunger strikes to get schools built. Both practically guaranteed their own school leaders would not get themselves into this sort of mess, but del Valle said he'd "encourage CPS to work it out themselves.''

And Chico thinks the parents are aiming too low. ''They should ask for the park and the library," he said. "It can be done. It kills me that parents have to agonize over such a small issue -- this should have been solved by now.''

All easy to say from the sidelines, but it does feels like February might bring a much needed breath of fresh air.

Tuesday October 5 2010: Last day to register to vote in Illinois

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2769478,CST-EDT-esther04.article

 

Tuesday: Last day to register to vote

　

October 4, 2010

BY ESTHER J CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

　

Quick quiz!

What do these two things have in common:

Rahm Emanuel's official entry into Chicago's mayoral race and the probability of the Bears making it to Super Bowl XLV?

Answer:

Both topics are taking up space and time in the heads of plenty of people who are eligible to vote in the Nov. 2 election but probably won't because "I didn't know" how/when/where or when the deadline to register was and, of course, "What's the point?"

We all have other things on our minds. I totally get that. I'm personally focused on procuring good Chihuahua-size Halloween costumes. But while watching the posturing of all the would-be Chicago mayors these last few weeks has been tons of fun, that's all anyone with an interest in local politics seems to want to talk about, which means the Nov. 2 elections are being totally eclipsed by next February's election for mayor.

Which is exactly why I blew in a call to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners last week to ask how things are shaping up.

My first conversation was with spokesman Jim Allen.

"It's quiet -- and it's alarmingly quiet," he said. "People have leap-frogged to February. Given the significance of the issues confronting the country right now and the major offices on the ballot, our concern is that too many voters have put November 2nd on the back burner."

My next call went to the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization which, in partnership with the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, has been doing extensive community outreach to get people registered to vote. Spokeswoman Amina Sharif was as struck by the lack of interest as I am.

"I don't understand why people aren't passionate about getting out to vote," she said. "So many major things are happening right now . . . but people are just fed up and it makes them apathetic to vote."

Ali Malik, the council's New American Democracy Project fellow, says he's seeing apathy in neighborhoods across the city -- it's rough out there.

"We know people don't vote in midterm elections like they do for presidential elections," Malik said. "But I'm telling people that for us in the Muslim community it goes far beyond the controversy over the proposed New York City Ground Zero mosque. There is serious Islamophobia going on and we need to vote for people who will represent all voters equally."

Like the council, African-American, Latino and other special interest groups are hitting would-be voters with issues specific to their concerns to get them to register to vote.

So consider yourself informed: Tuesday, is the last day to register to vote. You have to be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 on Election Day and a resident of your precinct 30 days before the election. A simple Google search will yield the city or county website where you can find your nearest voter registration location, and while you're at it, you can learn about grace period voting, early voting and absentee ballot voting, just in case.

As for "What's the point?" Well, politics literally disgust some people, and I completely understand that, too -- some politicians give us plenty of reason to feel disgusted. But that's not a fantastic reason to pass up the opportunity to pick the person you least hate to make decisions on critical issues that will impact you directly.

Langdon D. Neal, chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, put it to me this way: "While there's this great interest in who is going to be the next mayor of Chicago, let's not forget the enormity of the offices up in the air in November. You've got the leaders of all branches of government from federal on down. There's the U.S. Senate, the governor, the president of the County Board to state legislative and judicial races -- they will all have an enormous impact in our lives, let's not overlook it."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

 

The hazards of healthy living

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2747348,CST-EDT-esther27.article

 
　

Live healthy --but keep it quiet

September 27, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

　

Add this to the twin pitfalls of religion and politics that lead the list of topics one should not bring up in polite conversation: healthy living.

Good, clean, healthy living gets a bad rap these days. Oh, not among the sort of people whose idea of fun is drinking raw milk directly from old Millie's wizened udder during a back-to-nature "hay-cation."

I mean among regular people. You know, the sort who generally don't feel they have the time, energy, money or need to work out or to make meals that require a lot of fresh food.

Bless their hearts! Everyone knows there have been generations upon generations of regular Joes and Joettes who never obsessed over a single calorie or laid eyes on an elliptical machine but had long, satisfying lives that even may have included the occasional cigar.

Yes, bless the naturally hardy and physically apathetic -- if only they didn't treat others like mental cases for making healthful lifestyle choices.

Who can blame them? Turn on the TV, open a newspaper or flip on the radio and there's a barrage of conflicting and confusing information that inspires the deep desire for a hot, delicious pizza and a glass of red wine followed by a nice nap.

For instance, everyone knows you're supposed to eat at least five fresh fruits and vegetables a day, right? Sure -- if you don't mind the insecticides your pears are bathed in, or the e. coli that might be lurking in your salad greens.

A few weeks ago, my dad leaned over and quietly warned me about the dangers of poisonous apple skins. I was still reeling from a recent Center for Disease Control warning: "Restau- rant salsa, guacamole can be risky."

"Nearly one out of every 25 restaurant-associated food-borne outbreaks with identified food sources can be traced back to contaminated salsa or guacamole, according to a new study," the Associated Press story said. It piled on the gory details of countless restaurant missteps with hot peppers, tomatoes, cilantro and too-warm refrigerators.

Don't think this didn't spring to mind when I was at Tacos El Norte chowing down my Saturday night pico-de-gallo and chips, but I emerged unscathed.

Amazingly, I also lived through the jogs I took in this summer's stinging heat and the ones I take now without meaning to get caught in the pounding rain. My mom fears the grippe, hail-induced lacerations etc., but I value my endurance too much to heed her warnings, nice as they are -- especially compared to hearing, "It's raining, stupid," yelled from a speeding car. But runners literally take that sort of thing in stride.

I, and the other health-conscious who walk among us, know well enough not to bring such wellness-related topics up at family parties, around the water cooler at work or at kids' school events. Rarely do these conversations end happily.

Our culture's heavily distorted view of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle has been caught in the crossfire between suggestions to get a minimum one hour of daily exercise and warnings about the ill-effects of obsessive exercise disorder.

The conversation about what to eat has been sucked into a distasteful vortex that includes good-for-you-bad-for-you-studies of chocolate and coffee, filthy egg/buggy infant formula food safety issues, and whether high-fructose corn syrup is "better or worse" for you than sugar.

The chatter is hastened by consumer advocacy groups, industry lobbyists, medical professionals, government officials and marketers each pushing their own eat-drink-live agendas.

Aristotle's golden rule -- "Everything in moderation, nothing to excess" -- seems a quaint notion in our on-24-hour-a-day, fleeting, Tweeting life, but we'll learn to cope. As Paul McCartney, another favorite philosopher, once sang: "We used to say live and let live, but when this ever changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry -- say 'live and let . . ." Well, you get the picture.

Take my advice: Whether maneuvering cocktail party chit-chat or family patter, keep the health talk tucked away with the politics and religion. And whether it be a frosty footrace, or taking our chances with a deliciously suspicious-looking spinach leaf, let us soldier on with our death-defying behavior.

　

　

Ken Burns back at bat with 'Baseball' documentary

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/2742310,ken-burns-baseball-092610.article

　

 

Ken Burns back at bat with 'Baseball' documentary

September 26, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA

From the moment the iconic black-and-white archival footage rolls, then fades into shots of impoverished Latin American children playing ball to the tune of Jose Feliciano’s sweet rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner," Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s new documentary is a magic carpet ride through the last 20 years of baseball.

Never mind your crummy job (or lack thereof), never mind the pressures of everyday life — heck, never mind whether you’re a fan of the game or not. The momentum of this film carries you effortlessly off on the beer ’n’ hot dog, roasted peanut-scented American romp called baseball.

Manager Joe Torre and the Yankees celebrate after winning the 2000 World Series, less than a year before baseball would help New York and the nation heal after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"The Tenth Inning," a two-part, four-hour documentary, is the next chapter in the 1994 series "Baseball." From the crippling 1994 strike to the increasing dominance of Latino and Asian players, to mega-stadiums, interleague play and the wild card, we see America’s national pastime at its best and worst. Two decades of ups and downs — from doping scandal darlings Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds to the Cinderella-story Boston Red Sox — are put under a microscope and into the context of baseball’s past heroes and villains, then held up to the mirror of today’s America.

With the same deep love of the hallowed institution that permeated "Baseball," "The Tenth Inning" wastes little time in tackling the 100-pound gorilla in the diamond and jumps right into a discussion of what doping has done for — and to — the game. But it does so by first putting the issue of steroid use into the context of other soap-opera-esque discrepancies that have hovered at the margins of the game since its infancy: bribery attempts, game-fixing conspiracies and corked bats.

Then, Burns walks the issue home, straight into our medicine cabinets.

"We are a society that turns to performance-enhancement drugs for everything. There’s vitamins, sleeping aids — there’s Viagra!" Burns said back in August when he was in Chicago to pre-screen his film for WTTW members. He was echoing the very point that historian Paul Thorn made near the beginning of the first night’s episode: "We live in a time when we think anything can be cured by medication. If you want to talk about a performance-enhancing culture, let’s look at Viagra, Levitra, all the things that are advertised on daytime TV. This is the time we live in. We believe that modern medicine can make us supermen."

The film’s writers, David McMahon, Novick and Burns, don’t merely rely on luminaries such as comedian Chris Rock to point out that human nature dictates most people would take steroids to make it big in the big leagues. They anchor two decades’ worth of lightning-quick record smashes on the story of how Barry Bonds went from being a frustrated, mostly ignored son of a record-setting right fielder to the buff, steroid-popping home run king who never felt he’d gotten the respect or the due he deserved from both ballclubs and fans.

Based on exclusive pre-screenings, there is already some criticism of the documentary that implies the filmmakers went easy on Bonds by telling his personal story in such heart-wrenching detail, but Burns continually points to the bigger picture beyond any one player. The filmmakers point out the role fans played in Bonds’ saga, but Burns says the tension between succeeding and succeeding at any cost essentially boils down to the complexities of being human in our modern world. "Baseball is a precise mirror of who we are," Burns said.

This is not to say that "The Tenth Inning" dwells just on scandal; there are many complex and intertwined themes. For instance, the stories of immigrant baseball players and their struggles are woven throughout the film. And those stories dovetailed nicely with the business and marketing aspects of the game that are both a threat and an opportunity as baseball becomes more global and America becomes more diverse.

One particularly touching section of the documentary recalls what happened to baseball in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center. Then-Yankees manager Joe Torre talks about the morning the attacks occurred while archival footage plays, taking the viewers directly back into the moment before recalling Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001, when the Yankees resumed play against the White Sox in Chicago.

Images of fans holding signs saying "We are all Yankees" immediately bring us back to Burns’ basic premise: that baseball reflects the continuing evolution of a diverse America seeking to hold its athlete heroes to high standards even while forgiving their peccadilloes in order to enjoy the game, warts and all, and that this instinct binds us together as a community.

Burns and Novick also spend time on the 1994 strike, and the dramatic way then-hero Roger Clemens brought an ethic of hard work and fan love to the game and drove a resurgence in the game’s popularity.

Though there have been phenomenal changes to how athletes get into the game and fans experience it — enhanced minor league baseball recruitment and marketing; split screen; real-time viewing; smart-phone apps for fans to follow games, which bolster fantasy leagues, and whole communities devoted to following baseball from a strictly statistical viewpoint — Burns and Novick were not able to fit it all into this installment.

"The biggest criticism I ever hear is about all I’ve left out, which is actually a huge compliment," Burns said. "But I think we did get in some really important turning points in this inning.

"Baseball reflects who we are as a community, as a country. It reflects the sentimental values we hold dear and is the greatest game that has ever been invented," Burns said. "It has a rhythm; it’s like breathing."

Burns’ reverence and enthusiasm are present in almost every moment of this film — from the looks on the faces of impoverished children in the Dominican Republic who play their hearts out with broom-handle bats in the hopes of becoming the next Sammy Sosa, to the looks on fans’ faces when the infamous "Bartman ball" was exploded, to testimonials from Boston fans about how life-altering was the Red Sox’s 2004 World Series win — their first in 86 years.

This is a TV experience well worth blocking out two evenings’ worth of time. Viewers will not only revisit where baseball has been for the last 20 years but also catch a glimpse of what it might look like for generations to come.

Esther J. Cepeda writes a weekly column for the Sun-Times

 

 

Obama lets Latinos down, seeks votes

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2726402,CST-EDT-esther20.article

　

Obama lets Latinos down, seeks votes

September 20, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

The opening bell of the November election season conveniently coincided with independence celebrations for Mexico and several other Latin American countries, the start of Hispanic Heritage Month and more promises from the White House on immigration law reform.

At the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual awards gala, President Obama played to (and delighted) the crowd -- completely ignoring the fact that for two years his administration has pushed the tough politicking of reforming immigration laws to the margins in favor of the simpler pour-money-on-border-security Band-Aid.

"Now, I know that many of you campaigned hard for me, and understandably you're frustrated that we have not been able to move this over the finish line yet. I am too. But let me be clear: I will not walk away from this fight," he pledged. "My commitment is getting this done as soon as we can. We can't keep kicking this challenge down the road."

Really? We've gotten within sight of the finish line? I didn't know the footrace had started. And now that we're coming up on November and the proverbial sea change could turn into a monsoon for both Democrats and Republicans, it's time to give Latinos a reason to go to the polls?

Give me a break.

Hey, guess what? Just because the president got up in front of a who's who of Hispanic America and delivered a too-cute-by-half slam -- "Their [Republican] platform, apparently, is "no se puede." Is that a bumper sticker you want on your car?" -- that doesn't erase two years in which anti-illegal immigration rhetoric has boosted the number of hate crimes against Latinos being reported across the country. It is rhetoric that the White House has done little to combat until now -- now that Hispanics have re-morphed from just another special interest group back to the important "Latino vote."

There is no question other critically important issues are on the table: the heatedly debated Bush tax cuts extension, the Middle East peace process, the "don't ask, don't tell" repeal, the continuing corruption in Afghanistan . . . never mind clean energy legislation, the economy and the lack of jobs, jobs, jobs.

I understand the complexities and challenges of this upcoming legislative session, so while I would prefer for immigration reform to stop being perennially ignored, I can certainly understand why now is not the time.

That's why it is extra insulting that the Dream Act is being slapped onto the Defense Authorization bill simply because, as it looks to me, elections are coming up and Obama and the Democrats, remembering their 2008 campaign promises to Latinos, want to look like they're giving it the old college try.

While it's true that the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would bolster our military by maintaining a "mission-ready All Volunteer Force," according to one Department of Defense strategic planning document, the education argument is less palatable.

Legal permanent resident and U.S.-born college graduates are sinking in unprecedented student loan debt and unable to find jobs. Is now really the time to try to sell nervous partisans a comprehensive business case for why it is critical to this nation's future as a knowledge economy to harness the intellectual power and personal enthusiasm of all-American students who, in many cases, didn't even know they were illegal aliens until it was time to register for college?

In my wildest dreams.

Instead, this abrupt election-driven attempt to pass one good long-term, forward-thinking piece of immigration policy stands a chance of not only going down in flames, but of cranking up the kind of rhetoric that is increasingly making Latinos targets of violence. All while engendering more mistrust in the Obama administration's commitment to practical and humane immigration law reform.

And here's the zinger: What are Latinos going to do about it? What can we? Like the rest of the country, not voting in November's elections would be slightly worse than going to the polls to pick between the lesser of two evils.

 

 

 

 

Want to be Chicago's mayor? Skip lies, pandering

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2701040,CST-EDT-esther13.article

　

Want to be mayor? Skip lies, pandering

　

September 13, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

Eventually, the dogpile will clear. Those likely to declare they have what it takes to lead this city of hot winds and big shoulders will either garner the dollars, personal support and 12,500 valid signatures to legitimately get on the ballot to make a go of it, or be left with a decent story about how many people called him (or her) on that gorgeous September afternoon when Mayor Daley called it quits.

Those who make it beyond "hopeful" status to see their names on the ballot will have a unique opportunity to change the way campaigns are run and politics is played in this town. They will have it within their power to eradicate from our city's lexicon that hideous phrase "the Chicago Way," which implies nothing less than self-serving, graft-slinging corruption.

That whole "vote early and often" and "we don't want nobody nobody sent" Chicago Way shtick is way past its prime and must be allowed to pass into history, just as the images from the bloody 1968 Democratic convention have.

What Chicago needs on the road to Feb. 22, 2011, is not just a good, clean fight, but a smart one.

Chicago being, well, Chicago, it may be too much to ask that there be no hitting below the belt, tripping, pushing, holding, biting, spitting or hitting after your opponent is down. All the same, here's my candidate tip sheet for a spirited 10 to 12 rounds toward City Hall's fifth floor:

• Don't waste our time by exaggerating on the hustings. You will be embarrassed if you didn't actually invent the Internet, fight in Vietnam or teach poor kids to read -- and despite your best efforts, someone will call you out on it. Get your annoying Aunt Millie -- the one who never really liked you much -- to attend all your public speeches and tell you in blunt terms when you've oversold your "humble Chicago roots." Every candidate needs someone who keeps them from believing their own hype.

• Understand, value and respect the experiences, needs and viewpoints of Chicago's diverse population, but don't oversell scant interactions or present yourself as a cheerleader for causes you may not even understand. For example, if you've never had firsthand experience with Chicago's ultra-diverse Hispanic community aside from eating really great Mexican food, vow to learn. But for the love of Pete, don't pander -- no one's going to buy it.

Back in July, a candidate for statewide office sent out a press release announcing he was reaching out to Chicago's Latino community by meeting with local educators and business leaders. Yawn. I've heard nothing since. Double yawn.

• While we're talking about race and ethnicity, let me say this: Anyone who really cares about ensuring that all the residents of Chicago thrive will care principally about visionary leadership, relationship-building and management skills. So please, don't exploit or ignore the differences between the many ethnic, racial or special-interest groups jockeying for power -- harness them.

• About your experience: Spend less time telling us what you did in the past and more time convincing us how you'll scale your skills to tackle the headaches you'll inherit in May 2011. And yes, the challenges are huge, but channel Daniel Burnham and let this city know you intend no little plans.

• Strike a fair balance in working for both the Chicago that serves the people who actually live here and for the Chicago that drives the economies of the surrounding six counties. It's cool to snub your nose at suburbanites, but our fortunes are tied up together, and metropolitanwide alliances cannot be undervalued.

And while you're at it, don't underestimate the leadership and naked determination necessary to keep Chicago on the national and international stage.

Good luck to the candidates for mayor of the best city in the world. In the enduring words of my favorite ring announcer, Michael Buffer: "Let's get ready to rrrrrrrumble!"

　

　

　

　

A college education is still worth the sacrifice and investment

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2677966,CST-EDT-esther06.article

"College still worth the investment"

September 6, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

As unemployment continues to cast its shadow across the country's present and future, young people poised to become the first in their family to go to college are asking themselves whether an expensive degree really is the smart choice.

Here we are, 15 years after a movement to promote college to qualified low-income and minority students got under way, and many of the very people who were supposed to be empowered by that degree are out of work. Of all young adults with degrees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17 percent are unemployed or not seeking work.

"People are starting to lose their faith in the promise of college as being the way out of poverty and the way to create a better life," said Phil Jackson, executive director of the Black Star Project, a Chicago nonprofit that has been on the front lines of college access efforts since its inception in 1996.

"The families I come into contact with look around them, see the degreed professionals in their communities who sacrificed so much to go to college and are now sitting at home unemployed," he told me. "They're no longer believing the hype about college being the path to a better life. They say, 'You can be just as unemployed without a degree.' "

I called Jackson on a hunch that headlines were scaring away the very people who could best influence a young student to take a shot at college: parents.

He shocked me with this first-hand account: "For months we have been promoting Saturday morning college preparation sessions that give families the opportunity to talk one-on-one with colleges and university academic and financial aid representatives from across the country. I had one school tell me, 'Bring us your qualified students, we are willing to sign them up on the spot.' We promised them a good turnout, screamed about the opportunity from the rafters, and do you know how many families came out? Not one person showed up."

Jackson's observations seem to back up data showing that faith in a college degree as a sure ticket to a prosperous future is eroding. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that in a survey of 3,000 people "63.5 percent said a college education is still a good financial investment for young adults given rising costs, compared to 79.1 percent last year and 80.9 percent in 2008."

There are more opportunities for those who attain a college degree or professional certification compared with those who immediately join the work force in low-paying unskilled jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2009, the unemployment rate was 9.7 percent for high school graduates but just 5.2 percent for those with bachelor's degrees. Median weekly earnings for college grads were $1,025, compared with $626 for high school grads. Even after you figure in the cost of repaying student loans, it works out in subsequent earning years.

Unfortunately, those figures don't speak much to a low-income family that has to decide whether to encourage their student to embrace the completely unknown quantity of college. The tradeoff between finding a job after high school and earning a small income today in exchange for taking out frighteningly large student loans on the promise of more money and opportunities later -- if the kid graduates -- is a difficult decision for a family with no college experiences.

For years, scholars have known that family influence is the most important factor in determining whether a student will go to college. As parents lose faith in the higher education system, at least a solution to the problem is clear. In the quest to get academically capable, low-income students into and through college, it's more important than ever to reach into the home to explain the long-term, lifetime monetary and non-monetary value of a degree to families with no college experience.

Regardless of higher education's many broken promises, there can be no doubt that when students and families question whether a college degree is a good investment, the answer is yes, in the long-term, a solid education will pay untold dividends.

Evaluate teacher performance as just one aspect of students' educational experience

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2651138,CST-EDT-esther30.article

　

Not all is within teachers' control

　

August 30, 2010

ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Chicago Sun-Times columnist

Divorce, chronic illness, domestic violence, substance abuse, job loss.

I saw it all in my first-grade classroom -- plastered on the faces of my students. My high school students were much the same, except for the added woes of unwanted pregnancies, bullying, gang violence and the associated depression.

To assist my students, I would visit their homes and offer research advice on health insurance, social programs and college savings plans. I spent my own money on classroom supplies and extra hours planning cutting-edge lessons to engage all the different students in my class. Yet in the end, I felt I had accomplished far too little.

My efforts weren't special or rare, this is how a great many -- though certainly not all -- teachers in schools across America ply their trade during the academic year and, yes, even during summer vacation.

But you won't see much of this effort reflected in the numbers that tell whether a school has made "adequate yearly progress," or in year-over-year reading and math scores, or in frameworks for evaluating teacher performance that rely heavily on standardized test data.

Last Wednesday -- as Congress continued stalling the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, aka "No Child Left Behind" -- Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged public schools to publish more data on student achievement so teachers' performance can be evaluated based on students' academic performance.

That sounds like a good idea, but in the real world it's unfair to measure just one outcome that is, in fact, the result of multiple factors -- only one of which is an individual teacher's performance. It is just plain irresponsible to ignore the burden the other factors put on a student's performance.

In March 2009, David C. Berliner, a researcher at Arizona State University, published "Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success," which noted that U.S. students spend about 1,150 waking hours a year in school vs. about 4,700 more waking hours with their families and in neighborhoods. Berliner identified the top six nonacademic roadblocks to student success: low birth-weight and nongenetic prenatal influences; inadequate medical, dental and vision care; food insecurity; environmental pollutants; family relations/stress, and neighborhood characteristics.

His data spotlight the obstacles poor students have always brought into the classroom.

In June, the Foundation for Child Development released its annual Child Well-Being Index for 2010, illustrating some of the effects the Great Recession is having on the quality of life for America's children. Their study of 28 key indicators found that this quality of life began to decline in 2009, and by the end of 2010, the recession will have wiped out virtually all progress made in the last 35 years for children in economic factors such as secure parental employment and health insurance coverage.

This doesn't mean school districts across the country can't or shouldn't hold educators accountable for delivering the best teaching practices. Now more than ever the U.S. educational system -- held hostage to tenure structures that limit the ability of a school to pull a poorly performing teacher out of the classroom -- requires nothing less.

"Out-of-school factors matter a lot -- any of the identified factors or just stressful situations like someone in the family dying; all those kinds of things can and do affect students from middle, working, or any class," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, recently told me. "Educators aren't here to make excuses, but it's ridiculous to think that teachers individually can overcome every single issue in a child's life."

There's no question teacher accountability for student performance is crucial. But the focus must be on evaluating teachers' performance in the classroom, not strictly on student achievement, which is so compromised by the weight of their outside-the-classroom life.

 

Hatred, hatred, and more hatred of Latinos spilling across the country

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

　

Excerpt from just one of the many letters I received after having included the phrase "the current anti-immigrant atmosphere" in a recent column:

"Unfortunately you are mistaken in using the phrase ‘anti-immigration atmosphere’. Many American citizens with brown, black, white, or even yellow skin are angry with ILLEGAL immigrants and the damage they have done to our country. If the millions of ILLEGAL immigrants, Hispanic/European/Asian etc, would have entered through the "front door" instead of the "back door", much aforementioned damage to our country would have been avoided. Now we have governments in bankruptcy due to these cheaters, and people are rightfully angry. You need to tone down your inflammatory rhetoric and see the issue realistically."

　

My standard response has been that while it’s easy to say that the anger and hatred currently aimed at Latinos is about "ILLEGAL" immigration, the fact of the matter is that I, my family, friends, and neighbors have all gotten called terrible names, sent hateful emails or been otherwise snubbed not based on citizenship or residency status, but because we "look foreign."

　

The actual news reflects a growing number of violent acts against Hispanics. In Baltimore for three weekends in a row Hispanic men have been victims of violent crime, one just died from his shotgun injuries, another was beaten to death with a 2 x 2 wooden plank.

　

Baltimore officials arrested a 19-year-old man Saturday night after he gave　a taped confession to police saying he "hated Hispanics."

　

Let me clarify here: he didn’t say he hated illegal immigrants – he said he hated Hispanics.

　

Not convinced? Here is a teeny-tiny selection of emails – some just subject lines – that find their way into my inbox, none of which make any reference to citizenship status:



"Immigrants are the scum of the earth. Latinos are the worst of the worst. Execute this scum. Enforce the freaking law. Kill this vermin - DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!"



"Mexico is a malevolent machine of evil malice. Why won't my country declare war on this evil menace - Mexico. Death to Mexico. Death to Mexicans."



You are a spic slut whore"

　

Hatred is, in fact, boiling over in the U.S. against anyone who does not seem to be from this country - regardless of whether they are U.S. born, or legal permanent residents, or illegal immigrants, or not. (Sadly, it’s not limited to those who look Latino, but is starting to boil over onto any brown-skinned individual who looks like they might be – GASP! – Muslim.)

　

So to all of those out there who dare say that the current anti-immigrant outrage is all just about legal residency status: stop kidding yourself because you aren’t kidding anyone else.

　

The fact is that immigrant and non-immigrant Latinos alike are facing pure, bald-faced hatred, ire, and discrimination that goes well beyond perennial annoyances such as being asked how much you charge for mowing a lawn (if you should happen to garden in front of your nice house) or being asked if you "Habla English" for no apparent reason other than the looks of you.

　

The real question is: what are we going to do about 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 reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns: '"Baseball is a precise mirror of who we are"

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2625738,CST-EDT-esther23.article

　

"Latinos making baseball better"

　

August 23, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

　

The United States of America has been buffeted by the winds of transnational change and the storms of our punctured economy. As a nation, we're looking in the mirror and wondering if what we see is the America we all thought we knew.

Times being as tough as they are, there is a growing chorus of people inclined to look at me -- and others whose skin is brown and have the gift of speaking a second language -- and very literally say things like: "I don't know you, why are you here? You're dragging our schools and our job market down. You need to go back home."

Home? I was born in a hospital on the North Side of Chicago, grew up 1.2 miles west of Wrigley Field. Ironic: My soccer-crazy family moved from south of the border to a country where the language is studded with baseball metaphors and settled a stone's throw away from one of the game's crown jewels.

Alas, I never really took to baseball. But I always reveled in its status as the quintessential symbol of Americana -- as patriotic a pastime as kissing your mom and eating apple pie. So when documentary filmmaker Ken Burns swept through town last week to promote "Baseball: The Tenth Inning," a four-hour follow-up to his 1994 Emmy-winning documentary, I sat down with him to talk about that mirror of America we call baseball.

In the first three minutes of the film, broadcaster Keith Olbermann gives this stirring testimonial:

"Other sports have some interest in its own history and will occasionally make reference to it but [in] baseball . . . it's there. You come in the start of the game or the start of the season or the start of your own family, you feel as if you're joining the river midstream and all that has gone before. You can enjoy as much as if you were there, it's as simple as that."

Gulp. That's exactly how I feel about the Latino population's integration into our country -- we're joining the great American river midstream.

Not everyone sees it that way, but even as anti-Hispanic sentiment has geared up in the last few years, there has been no lack of talented Latino players being actively recruited to enliven our national pastime.

Ever since 1928, when Emilio Navarro blazed the Hispanic major league trail by becoming the first Puerto Rican to play in the Negro Leagues, Americans have been able to see Hispanics not just as resource-sucking immigrants, but as sports heroes who make the game -- and our country -- better.

In the new documentary, Burns and his co-director, Lynn Novick, delve into the Hispanic contribution to baseball with great compassion, presenting a fascinating and honest look at the rise of Latino players in the game.

While we're on the subject of baseball, by the way, Burns gave me his take on White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen's recent inflammatory complaint that new Latino players don't get the red carpet treatment that superstar Japanese players get.

"Guillen was absolutely right," Burns said without hesitation. "Sure, it's not economically viable to provide translators to individual players, but we always have to be sensitive to the needs of new players."

When I asked Burns if he thought the current anti-immigrant atmosphere threatened to dull fans' love of the game, he said that hateful nativist sentiments are harming our society in many ways, and he tried to put it in historical context.

"There is this 'otherness' that people fear," he said. "And right now, the Latino population is growing and this is just a continuation of the story, this demonization of the 'others.' "

In time, he predicted, this will pass for Latinos, as it has for so many other groups.

"Baseball is such a precise mirror of who we are," Burns said. "It is the story of immigration -- and assimilation. There were the Italians, the Irish and of course now the Latin Americans; the most common names in baseball today are Ramirez and Rodriguez."

Burns revels in holding up this mirror to America, and in "Tenth Inning" he shows us the America that he sees -- this magnificent, diverse, baseball-loving melting pot.

Closing the digital divide one government app at a time

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Welcome to the brave new world of social (media) government -- a world where you can use mobile phone apps to get information from Uncle Sam so you don’t actually have to talk to him.

On July 2, the White House relaunched its usa.gov website and rolled out 20 sleek new multiplatform apps that allow phones to perform wonders such as reading bar-codes and searching the database of Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls, and getting up-to-the minute travel advisories from the Transportation Security Administration.

Do an (iPhone) App store search and you’ll find "official" tools like apps to get mission updates from NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s UV index app next to "unofficial" ones like the Bailout-Stimulus app that "will help you get a better understanding of money spent on government contracts and grants as part of the $787 Billion Recovery act package."

If you wanted to have recently arrested fugitives, most wanted reports, and breaking news from the U.S. Marshals Service or top stories about the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they too are available on your phone.

It all sounds very trendy – "Federal Government? There’s an app for that!" – and indeed, the winds of change may be at long last sweeping into governmental IT infrastructure, finally breathing fresh life into the strained relationship it often has with its incredibly diverse users.

"Trust in government has plummeted from 1987 to 2007 with the exception of the period after 9/11," said Vivek Kundra, U.S. chief information officer, during a telephonic briefing before the release of their initial app crop. "Today, two thirds of people surveyed believe that if the government runs it, it is not effective. The only way to change that is when people have good interactions with government services."

Kundra went on to stress the dire necessity for government to reach people where they are: in front of their computer screens, on their mobile devices, with easy searches. "The old usa.gov was engineered 10 years ago for the bureaucracy it represented, not the American people it was to serve," he said. "Today we don't go out to a site to navigate hundreds of links and see what the government can offer us, that's why the new site was fundamentally re-engineered using contemporary search technology."

For those of us "netizens" who can barely remember a time when both pleasure and business wasn’t conducted over the Internet, it’s only natural. But the so-called Digital Divide always stands sentry over any debate about the use of technology in delivering government programs and services to "the people."

It is true that the poorest in our communities don't have the kind of unlimited, free access to high-speed Internet and appropriate hardware that would allow anyone to proclaim that there is no digital divide. But the gap is closing fast due to ubiquitous and affordable internet-enabled mobile phones that serve as many families' e-mail and Internet connections. Also, government programs that put laptops in kids' schools – and therefore in their homes – and myriad other community programs offering computers and high speed internet connections to residents are bridging the gap. (Just a few weeks ago Chicago Mayor Daley announced $16 million in federal funds – plus $6 million from other local organizations – would be dedicated to offer low income Chicagoans more access to technology and training in underserved communities. One program run by a non-profit group will be providing free computer and internet access to more than 11,000 people at neighborhood community centers.)

It's easy for me to picture Kundra's vision of an interactive web-based government – in time – becoming the de facto method for residents of all classes and incomes to connect with public programs and services.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a May 2010 report, "Government Online: the internet gives citizens new paths to government services and information." The authors not only detailed the skyrocketing number of American adults who looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in the year preceding the survey (82 percent of all Internet users, representing 61 percent of American adults) but also debunked a common minority myth.

They found that while, yes, high-income and well-educated Internet users are more likely to use government services and information online, it is also true that African Americans and Hispanics are just as likely as whites to use tools such as blogs, social networking sites and online videos to keep up with workings of government and are significantly more likely than whites to believe that government outreach with these tools "helps people be more informed about what the government is doing," and "makes government officials and agencies more accessible."

Despite a growing body of research that African-American, Hispanic, and low-income users are increasingly accessing the web to connect to government services, as well as for support agencies and entertainment, it's still a relatively common opinion that government outreach through the Internet or phone apps is somehow elitist.

Not so, Kundra argues. "A recent study showed that one in three people use mobile apps. So when you talk about priorities ... it's not that we don't care about the other 66 percent - but I think one-third will soon become two-thirds. That's how the American people are conducting their business: on their phones."

Though the General Services Administration opted not to share the cost of the overhaul of the site and the app development, Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director for management, did speak of agencies taking the initiative and working with independent, third party developers to make available a vast array of BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android government apps.

Now if we could only get more African American and Hispanic students into high-tech careers that would put them at the forefront of the government app-building frenzy, we might close the digital divide forever.

Good mentoring: the most important lesson for keeping new teachers in classrooms

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2601652,CST-EDT-esther16.article

　

Good teachers learn by example

August 16, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

　

It's that time again: Teachers all over the country are tingling with excitement about getting back to school to meet and inspire a fresh new crop of students.

This fall, almost 300,000 new teachers will bring their diverse life experiences, plucky creativity and genuine idealism into the nation's schools.

Chillingly, 150,000 or so of them will quit teaching before their fifth year.

Had I not thrown in the towel after just two heartbreaking years, by this time I'd have already pulled out lesson plans to begin tweaking my instruction. Instead, I'm among the wistful who chose not to go on.

The difficulties that grind new teachers out of the noble profession are tragically complex: the socioeconomic challenges of students, lack of teaching supplies or up-to-date books, large class sizes, parental apathy, long hours, low pay and the solitary nature of the work.

These perennial teacher frustrations could easily be blamed on society's inability to provide students with the best circumstances possible or the sometimes stifling culture created by school administrators. But blame never helped a student or a teacher succeed.

Though there's no magic wand to cure the ills, we still have a responsibility to students to slow the revolving teacher door. A good start would be to insist on training programs that properly expose prospective teachers to the harsh realities of today's classrooms.

Most, if not all, teacher preparation curriculums require observations in multiple types of classrooms. What prospective teachers don't get is meaningful interaction with students, parents, peer teachers and administrators.

"The kind of training a student teacher gets in pre-service is almost always a simulated experience in which the expert teacher makes it all look seamless because that teacher has already done all the thinking and practicing," said Ellen Moir, chief executive officer of the New Teacher Center, a California-based organization focused on teacher and administrator initiation.

"There needs to be real, hands-on understanding of the demands of the job," she said.

Though there may be no way to adequately prepare a teacher for some of the heart-rending life experiences students from all backgrounds bring into the classroom (developmental delays, chronic illness, violence and drug addiction were just a few issues that wore me down), it's reasonable to expect schools to provide strong support for teachers new to these realities.

I vividly recall one of my principal's favorite sayings: "I love new teachers because what they lack in experience, they make up for with passion and energy."

Too often that passion and energy is taken for granted; the light that burns twice as bright really does burn half as long.

Those who entered teaching so they could "make a difference" for kids and society often put in 60-hour weeks in the classroom, make home visits and spend their own cash on lessons and supplies.

When this effort is exhausted with little immediate return, disillusionment and depression set in.

With no trained mentor in place to help, you can bet the light will soon burn out.

"The best, most effective way to keep eager new teachers in our schools is to provide comprehensive induction programs so that the minute they get hired they'll receive high-quality . . . on-going mentoring." Moir said. "And not just the old 'buddy system.' "

Chicago, by the way, had been using the New Teacher Center model.

Nearly 1,100 new teachers in 380 schools received intensive mentoring last year. But the program was axed in June, a victim of budget cuts.

All 54 teacher coaches were fired, though the center plans to use private money to hire seven coaches back and is negotiating with the school system to run a smaller program this fall.

High-quality mentoring is being practiced in many schools but the concept needs to gain firmer traction nationwide -- even in tough budget times.

More support is needed if we want to keep idealistic new teachers in our children's classrooms and off the dropout list.

 

 

This dad helps parents grieve for their departed babies

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2577928,CST-EDT-esther09.article

Grieving dad helps others bear loss

August 9, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

 

In the decade since my daughter, Wren, died at birth, not much has changed for parents who have to endure such sorrow. There are still no iron-clad preventative measures mothers can take to guarantee their baby will make it through what is commonly an effortless pregnancy.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, every year more than 25,000 babies between 20 and 42 weeks of gestation are stillborn in the U.S. -- a shocking 10 times the number of deaths occurring from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. This clocks out to about one stillbirth every 20 minutes.

Though advances in prenatal care have had a deep impact on infant mortality rates over the last 30 years, obstetricians are at a loss to explain why stillbirth rates remain as they do, or why the complex mystery continues to cut across geographic, racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

One thing, however, has changed dramatically since I simultaneously said hello and goodbye to my stillborn baby girl: Economic times have gotten a lot tougher.

Today the Great Recession is increasingly squeezing stunned parents who thought they'd be struggling to pay for diapers and formula but instead are both grief-stricken and financially unprepared to deal with the expenses of burying their infant.

Enter the Dempsey Burdick Memorial Foundation, which provides headstones for struggling families who can't afford to buy proper grave markers for their lost babies.

It began in 2003, when grieving dad Kevin Burdick noticed the many rotted and broken plastic markers on the baby graves surrounding his own daughter Dempsey's memorial in an Arizona cemetery. He believed helping other parents complete the grieving process would be the best way to honor his daughter. "We've had a lot more requests this year. . . . We helped as many families in 2009 as we did in the previous three years," Burdick told me. "Families who have had this devastating loss, they're out of work, they don't have health insurance, they lose a baby and when you add the medical bills, funeral expenses, then consider a tiny marble stone that typically starts at $600 but can top the thousands -- forget it!"

The still-nascent foundation takes heart-rending written and e-mailed requests from all over the country, primarily through its website, and has so far helped 21 families in 13 states. The tiny staff, under Kevin's leadership, verifies need and vital records with agencies in each parent's home county, then negotiates with the cemetery and local monument companies to create and install a customized headstone.

Kevin began the foundation with his own money, but this year's increasing demand requires fund-raising efforts. The waiting list, which includes a Chicago mom hoping for a marker to place on her daughter's grave in Mount Hope Cemetery, is swelling.

As it turns out, those efforts also provide healing experiences for families who've had to face the agony of losing a baby. For instance, Malory Jimenez, a 26-year-old mother of two from Boston who lost her baby, Janessa, in May 2009, told me she encourages her family, friends and Internet support group peers to donate to the foundation so other grieving families can begin the healing process by memorializing their baby's brief life.

"When Janessa passed away we were devastated," Malory told me. "Though my husband and I had scrounged up $300 after the funeral, we just couldn't afford the marker. To think we couldn't give her the one and only thing she'd ever need, the one thing the grief counselors said we needed to cope with this loss . . . to think that there would be nothing to mark her grave . . . it killed us."

Of Dempsey's foundation and the headstone it provided, Malory says: "They were the light in the darkness that allowed me, my husband and son to go on."

Amazingly, some things -- the human capacity for both pain and benevolence -- also haven't changed in the decade since my Wren fluttered away. Though not long enough, she briefly lived in a world where even amid a symphony of unimaginable grief, there still ring notes of generosity and grace.

 

 

 

The 'View' angle Obama ignored: an open call for Latinas on mainstream TV

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2556194,CST-EDT-esther02.article

　

The 'View' angle Obama ignored

　

August 2, 2010

ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times columnist

President Obama has made history yet again, this time for the dubious distinction of being the first sitting president to appear on the daytime television chatfest ''The View.''

Millions of people watched to see if he'd reveal some juicy personal tidbit or say something controversial. To the contrary, his well-scripted topics were designed to boost his all-time low approval ratings by gabbing with The Ladies about the benefits of the economic stimulus, Wall Street reform and a strong presence in Afghanistan.

But I wasn't interested in any of that. I spent my morning before air time fantasizing that Obama -- who chose the popular program to connect to everyday American women because it's a show "Michelle actually watched" -- would pitch this important question at The Ladies: "Why don't you have any Hispanic women on your show?"

I know, I know -- a pipe dream. Obama, in fact, went out of his way, when asked about the Shirley Sherrod race debate, to say he's "less interested in how we label ourselves" and "more interested in how we treat each other."

But because I live in a world where labels often determine how we treat each other, the question was at the top of my list.

A few weeks ago, CBS announced that when the long-running soap opera "As the World Turns" ends in September, it'll introduce its own estrogen-infused daytime talk show. It is a massive understatement to say I was disappointed when I read the proposed lineup of the new mom-centric show.

Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson-Peete, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Leah Remini and Julie Chen are without a doubt all gorgeous, talented, dynamic and interesting women. They are younger, older, Asian, African-American, Caucasian and gay (Sara Gilbert has a partner, compared with the other hosts' heterosexual spouses) moms. This is wonderful.

But ... where's me?!

No, I don't literally mean me. I mean a Hispanic woman. Any Hispanic woman. There are plenty of U.S.-born Latina stage, TV and screen actors --old ones, young ones, gay ones -- and even a few broadcast journalists who could chitchat with the likes of a Sharon Osbourne.

The omission bugs me. It bugged me back in 2007 when ''The View'' was looking for a smart, sassy, fun new face to replace Rosie O'Donnell and they even considered a man -- but not a Latina -- and it bugs me today.

Latinos are already the nation's largest minority group. We'll account for most of the population growth from 2005 through 2050, when census data predict our numbers will have tripled. Of the 50 million or so Hispanic adults counted in this year's census, about half are . . . drum roll, please ... women.

And I don't mean just poor, Spanish-speaking immigrant women who don't watch ''The View'' -- or ''As the World Turns,'' for that matter -- because they're too busy working in apple orchards or in factories cleaning toilets. I'm talking about educated, 61.9 percent U.S.-born, English-fluent, dollar-spending Latino women who know how to TiVo a daytime talk show if their mommy duties or professional day jobs make it impossible to watch the gabfest live.

If the people who create these programs ever read ''The View'' website's message board, they'd find impassioned requests for Latino representation. It would be plain old good business: Consider that many of the top 100 consumer brands either have an English-language Latino marketing campaign or one in the works to reach out to what is the nation's second-largest consumer market.

Those products underwrite TV shows.

This is a win-win situation, folks!

No, I fear Latinas are simply in a blind spot. For years, their roles on TV and film have been limited to that of nanny, maid or super sexy fill-in-the-blank.

Just imagine the ratings a network would enjoy if it were brave enough to add an intelligent, all-American, professional Latina to its stable of coffee talkers!

Too bad the president didn't think to bring it up to The Ladies on ''The View.''

　

　

Hiring goal: Aiming for merit and diversity

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2509282,CST-EDT-esther19.article

　

Hiring goal: Aim for merit and diversity

July 19, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA  Sun-Times Columnist

Last week, my Sun-Times colleagues Fran Spielman and Rosalind Rossi reported that Mayor Daley is considering Mary Ellen Caron, founder and former principal of his daughter's Catholic elementary school, to be the Chicago Public Schools' chief education officer.

My eyebrows raised. An administrator with little experience with the expansive, highly political bureaucracy of the country's third-largest public school district as chief education officer? Could Caron scale her past experience at an elite private school to the daunting tasks of eliminating achievement gaps, increasing academic rigor, managing meaningful evaluation processes and building capacity among teachers and administrative staff in a system beset by poverty's ills?

Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, two sentences in the story raised the eyebrows of many online readers: "If Mary Ellen Caron is tapped as chief education officer, she would be the first white and non-CPS educator to assume that post since Daley won control of the city's public schools in 1995. Over the last 15 years, the top CPS education post has been held by three successive African- American women, all former CPS principals in a system that is 45 percent black, 41 percent Latino and 9 percent white."

The comments board lit up:

"White? Oh my gosh, she's being judged by the color of her skin, and not based on character? Maybe this is what you Black and Hispanic people should know: RACE has no bearing on her qualifications. I'm sick of the race card."

Another reader wrote: "You mean Chicago has become so bad that black people only must fill positions previously filled by black people. That is racism! Come on, if someone said only white people can be governor of Illinois there would be protest marches in Springfield, and the media would be jumping up and down yelling racism."

And so on and so on.

I agree the position shouldn't be a black entitlement -- nor should it be a Latino entitlement, though 41 percent of CPS students are Hispanic. Every CPS student is entitled to the most qualified person for the job, regardless of political viability, personal relationships or skin color.

As it happens, diversity hiring has been at the top of my mind lately. When President Obama chose Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court pick, she was criticized for her racial hiring record at Harvard. As Boyce Watkins, a prominent African-American scholar, put it: "Kagan did not hire a single African American tenured or tenure-track faculty member. This says, very clearly, that Elena Kagan doesn't care about black people, at least when they are applying to be professors. . . . With all the applications that poured in every year from top black attorneys, she didn't feel that one single black, Latino or Native American scholar was qualified to teach at Harvard university?"

I have discussed both of these news items -- the Caron story and the Kagan story -- with a wide variety of people, and their reactions have been passionate. Dividing into two camps, some insisted that hiring of any kind should be a strictly merit-based, color-blind affair, while others insisted that strong measures must be taken to get people of color fully integrated into every workplace at every level.

Because I agree with both camps, I blew in a call to Gloria Castillo, president of Chicago United, a group that promotes equal access to professional opportunities, to help me square these seemingly opposing views.

"Yes, there has to be a commitment to accessing great talent, and there has to be a commitment to casting a wider net in order to find it," Castillo told me. "For doubters, I'd say do the research. Read Scott Page to learn how diversity of all kinds leads to more positive outcomes."

Page is the author of The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies.

And that, it seems, really is the best way to reconcile the two camps: Go the extra mile to find the very best applicants, including minority ones, for any position, and then be truly color-blind in making the final decision.

That won't necessarily diversify an organization as quickly as anyone would like, but it is the best way to ensure that diversity is equitably practiced in every workplace. And it does so in a way that no one feels discriminated against, unfairly assisted or disadvantaged or a victim to ethnic or racial entitlements.

　

　

English fluency a necessary step to immigration

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2487696,CST-EDT-esther12.article

　 

English fluency a necessary step to immigration

July 12, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

Now that President Obama has given his definitive immigration law reform speech -- he said we need it but he didn't task anyone with making it happen -- and the Justice Department has filed its legal challenge to Arizona's law on grounds that state law should not preempt federal law, let's take a look at another, related topic: English language fluency.

It's one necessary ingredient in garnering popular support for any immigration reform.

The issue of not being able to easily communicate with newcomers to our neighborhoods, schools and businesses is one bone of contention people love to chew on, and it transcends any particular ethnicity or language.

The following comments from a widely circulated chain e-mail I received are representative of a popular opinion: "Today's American is not willing to accept today's new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 . . . people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home. They had waved goodbye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture."

Concerns that newcomers don't want to become "real Americans" who will fully commit to our language -- much less our culture or values -- underlie the battle to reform our ineffective immigration system. Any reasonable reform plan must make English language fluency a required stepping stone on the path to legal residency.

Surrounding this touchy subject are two myths to be busted: that immigrants don't want to learn the language and that there aren't enough people to teach them. The truths are, of course, more complicated.

It's no secret that it's tough for immigrants of diverse nationalities to take classes to improve their English skills. Each day is a struggle for survival before adding impossible class times, money for books or supplies, child care issues or other barriers.

It's up to us as a nation to take a long honest look at how we -- merchants, marketers, customers, employers, neighbors -- can break down those barriers and encourage English-language fluency for all our residents. This effort would create both a sense of shared community and a multi- language bilingual work force that will help the U.S. compete in an increasingly global economy.

Then, we need to find ways to help organizations who already provide these resources to scale up for the massive task of helping those learning our ridiculously difficult language and find the skilled teachers and eager volunteers who can make it happen.

Mano a Mano Family Resource Center -- a tiny organization in Round Lake -- has hundreds of people on its waiting lists for all levels of English-as-a-second-language classes.

Carolina Duque, the center's executive director, says that in her neck of the woods -- a small town where in the last 10 years Latino immigrants have flooded once-exclusively middle-class, Caucasian neighborhoods -- there's also a waiting list of people ready to volunteer to help sharpen English skills.

"Both community leaders and residents get frustrated by feeling they can't talk to their neighbors, but we're really lucky that the community is working together to overcome those frustrations," Duque told me. "We mostly work with volunteers who don't speak Spanish -- they get so much joy from being able to help others learn English and they want to do more. Unfortunately, we just don't have the capacity to train more volunteers, hold more classes or service all the people who need the help or want to give it."

Round Lake is just one little town where the swirling torrents of immigration, language and culture are coming together with little rage or angst.

If the bipartisan immigration law reform architects can learn from this town's ability to address this critical cultural issue -- and put some muscular incentives behind uniting the country via the English language -- we'll be on a pathway to true reform.

What will be impact of Spanish-only preschool classes on young Latinos?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2465168,CST-EDT-esther05.article

 
What will be impact of Spanish-only preschool classes on young Latinos?

July 5, 2010

BY ESTHER J CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

Hold your breath for Latino members of the Illinois high school class of 2026. Who knows what recent changes in how they are to be taught will do for them.

Or to them.

New rules requiring pre-school English Language Learners (ELLs) to be educated according to the same standards as for kindergarten through 12th grade ELLs were adopted last month by the Illinois State Board of Education. The rules, which are expected to sail through the final legislative process in time for the 2010-2011 school year, will make Illinois the most prescriptive state in the union for identifying and educating English Language Learners.

This will affect hundreds of thousands of ELL students -- the fastest-growing segment of the study body in Illinois.

The overwhelming majority of these students come from Spanish-speaking households, and if they have 20 or more peers in the same grade level, they're entitled to a classroom with a Spanish-speaking teacher. Children whose native languages are not Spanish also must have 20 or more grade-level peers to qualify for language-specific instruction and, therefore, are rarely isolated in non-English-speaking classrooms the way Spanish-speaking kids are.

The thought of 3-, 4- and 5-year-old Hispanic kids getting stuck in Spanish-language classrooms so they can be taught beginning literacy skills in their parents' native language before being taught the basic tenets of English makes me want to poke my eyeballs out. Despite widely accepted research that says teaching literacy skills to a child in his or her native language leads to better English-acquisition, I -- like Arizona, California and Massachusetts, who've turned away from this educational philosophy -- am skeptical.

Why? Mostly because I know that what works modestly in the lab does not always transfer to the classroom -- especially when there already are too few qualified teachers for the many non-English-speaking students.

Plus, in my short time as a bilingual teacher, I witnessed horrors such as underqualified teachers who never felt the need to address their students in English. And teenage U.S.-born students still confined to Spanish-only classrooms because the "transitional bilingual" program had never made them truly bilingual or transitioned them to mainstream English-speaking classrooms.

Because I've had such experiences, I turned to two less-emotional experts to soothe my fears that Illinois' educational system is about to disintegrate for children who happen not to speak English by the age of 3.

"This goes back to the bilingual education laws put on the books back in the '70's, before 'preschool for all' was popularized," said Reyna Hernandez, a policy analyst at the Latino Policy Forum. "This isn't really a new idea. The state was looking at where there needed to be cleanup in the legal language that had artificially limited rules to K through 12."

She also stressed that "starting in 2014, these rules will mean students will be taught by teachers that are certified in language acquisition" and she said this is "one of the greatest points."

Nancy Wagner, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Arlington Heights' multinationally diverse School District 59, says there are always risk and costs -- in this case to teachers who must get additional education and to school districts that must pay for that upgraded expertise -- but this definitely is a step up.

"The laws regarding preschool used to not have anything regarding English instruction; teachers weren't specially trained and could basically screen all the kids, identify them as ELLs and teach them in whatever language they wanted," she said. "There are many factors to take into consideration when you're talking about such young children, but no program wants its bilingual students to be the lowest tracked program. The goal of the program HAS to be English language proficiency."

Gosh, I hope so. Better-trained preschool teachers who can effectively address the special needs of English language learners sure can't hurt.

Still, the proof will be in the pudding, so keep your fingers crossed for Latino members of the Illinois high school class of 2026.

Town that banned illegal immigrants could teach lesson

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2438470,CST-EDT-esther28.article

 

Town that banned illegal immigrants could teach lesson

June 28, 2010

BY ESTHER J CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

When I consider the illegal immigration dilemma in this country, I always come back to the feeling that we just don't have enough good data on which to base sound policy decisions.

I find no bipartisan or nonpartisan authoritative reports that include a good quantified estimate of the impact of the wide variety of anti-illegal immigrant measures that have been floated either by national legislators or local governments -- all those proposed alternatives to a federal government that just hasn't gotten around to dealing with it themselves.

So here's a thought. Let's for a moment set aside any outrage or disgust that might well up when you think about the recent ban on illegal immigrants in Fremont, Neb., and consider the opportunity this presents.

Last week the townsfolk of that burg voted to banish illegal immigrants from town by requiring landlords to deny rental property to those who can't prove they are legal residents and by requiring city businesses to run database checks to catch illegal immigrants.

The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a raft of other immigrant and refugee rights groups have pledged to file costly lawsuits to block the decision. They fear the new laws will create an environment ripe for every type of discriminatory mischief against anyone who merely looks like an illegal alien.

The people of this deeply divided town freely admit that the expense of defending their community against the lawsuits would cause great hardship to all its resident -- legal and illegal alike.

So why not do this, all you civil liberties groups: Stand down.

As painful and contrary to instinct as it might be, stand down. Don't file a single lawsuit, just sit back and watch.

Instead of deploying eager, fresh-faced lawyers to fight the new local laws, send in eager, fresh-faced sociologists to observe the laws' impact with a scientific eye.

What might they see?

If you're from the "illegal immigrants are helpless and downtrodden" school of thought -- which imagines that the same people who risked everything to travel from a crummy town south of the border all the way to Nebraska won't get out of Dodge and move on to the next opportunity -- then you might anticipate mass violations of civil liberties against indigent, terrorized victims who will be herded away to some scary immigration gulag never to be seen again.

But if you're like me and happen to think that illegal immigrants may be monolingual but aren't stupid, you might anticipate a mass exodus from a town that doesn't want them to some other town that might, in fact, welcome warm bodies to work at whatever jobs are available and spend their money at local businesses.

It might be a place where immigrants are assimilated and made proud Americans, regardless of their legal status, because there is hope that someday the federal government will find a way to ship back the losers and hold on tight to the stars.

That would be the beauty of rolling with Fremont's plan: We'd get to see what would really happen.

Would Fremont become a thriving, citizens-only zone that offers legal residents a safe, clean place to live and work, enjoying unburdened schools and social service agencies? A sort of present-day Mayberry, where you could take a walk at sunset without feeling threatened by unfamiliar people?

Or, would Fremont become a shadow of its former self -- a quiet town where stores close every week because there just aren't enough people to keep business going? A place where the Metropolitan Community College is no longer bursting at the seams with English-language learners, but there really aren't many students of any kind around anymore.

Or might Fremont find some bizarre but natural equilibrium, some balance in between?

I don't know, but I'd sure like to.

Let the lawyers stand down.

Send in the sociologists.

 

 

A Modest Proposal for a morbid society

editor's note: this definition of satire comes from en.wiktionary.org/wiki/satire "A literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. Humour is often used to aid this; A satirical work."

And, NO, the subject of ridicule is not obese people, but rather, society's passive acceptance of a debilitating and deadly disease.

Now, back to our program...

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2413320,CST-EDT-esther21.article

 

Time to turn up the heat on folks who are obese

June 21, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

Obesity is hot these days -- it's all over the news. Take the unprecedented media coverage of Michelle "Let's Move" Obama's continuing war on childhood obesity: She's (thankfully) getting a ton of play in her quest to end the malnutrition devastating the lives of millions of American kids.

And did you see the April report from the nonprofit group Mission: Readiness, which laments that 9 million young people ages 17 to 24 -- 27 percent of all young adults -- are too fat to fight in the military? They say obesity is now a national security issue because being overweight is the leading medical reason for rejection from the military.

Add to that last week's report out of Britain that says more people are not only too fat to fight but also too fat to . . . um, make love. The study concluded that women with a body mass index greater than 30 reported having fewer sexual partners and less sex in general. And they were so generally embarrassed about their bodies that they were less likely to talk to their doctors about reproductive health, a big reason they were more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases and have unwanted pregnancies than less-heavy women.

I'm not going to copycat my tall and thin Sun-Times colleague Laura Washington, who used her space in this paper to become the "Fat Nag" -- a proud African-American woman brave enough to take her dear sisters to task for allowing killer obesity to be culturally accepted in the black community.

But just for today allow me to be the "Skinny Grumbler." Join me in rallying against a society that pretends morbid obesity is socially acceptable. Some of us would like to enjoy summer.

What am I getting at here? I'm cold! C-O-L-D!!

Cold on a sunny morning when I have to wrap myself like a mummy in my three morning newspapers to stave off hypothermia from the overblown air conditioning that Metra needs to keep its well-padded clientele from melting in its packed cars.

Cold on a pleasantly warm day when I must wear my parka into the supermarket, which blasts the A/C to keep the store at 50 degrees so that all the over-stimulated and over-served customers can buy food without breaking a sweat.

Cold on a hot summer night when my restaurant's water glasses have icicles forming on them because all the already-health-challenged chow hounds are working up a sweat while overdoing it.

Hey, it's not just me. I've seen thick, sturdy women and men -- innocently wearing tank tops or shorts on a hot day -- walk into these same places and immediately shrug their shoulders and cradle their elbows in the universal body language for "Whoa -- why is it so darned cold in here?!"

I've witnessed complaints to managers over icy coffee shops, clothing stores, and locker rooms -- and I'm begging all of you out there to do the same.

Enabling people who are challenged with the burdens and risks of obesity by making them more comfortable in public situations where, under normal circumstances, they'd be uncomfortable only reinforces the idea that their ill health is bearable. Why do we accept our public spaces masking unhealthy people's natural body signals that something is very wrong?

You should be outraged that your hard work in supporting a loved one's quest to make healthier choices is undermined by a society willing to make them feel more comfortable. And shouldn't others get to be comfortable sometimes, too?

Stand with me, non-obese people, and revolt against the freezing-public-space status quo.

Skinny Grumblers unite!

 

 

Latinos following Irish immigrants' path to power

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2388916,CST-EDT-esther14.article

Latinos following Irish immigrants' path to power

June 14, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist 

DUBLIN, Ireland -- This column is a love note to the country that has -- more than any other -- made Chicago what it is today: a city defined by a group of immigrants who came to the U.S. tired and poor but overcame institutionalized discrimination to become a politically empowered majority.

 

Yep, I'm on the Emerald Isle, and everywhere I go I see a little bit of home. In addition to the Bulmer Vintage's thrilling billboard which cheekily asks "North Cider or South Cider?" there are the two stunning Santiago Calatrava creations -- the Samuel Beckett and James Joyce bridges over the River Liffey -- which make me long for the Chicago Spire to come to life.

 

Let me assure you, based on my admittedly unscientific but in-depth research, that your favorite Chicago Irish bar is a darned good replica of the pubs all over Dublin. And also, I met your Irish uncle; almost everyone I've spoken to in my travels has either been to Chicago or has a relative in our fine town.

Oh, and Dublin -- like the rest of Ireland and much of Chicago -- is filled with Polish immigrants whose ethnic grocery stores dot the town, displaying "mowimy po polsku" signs.

From the sparkling glass high-rises built during the tech boom to Ireland's standing as a top beef, lamb and dairy exporter (hog butchers to the UK) and the dueling Old St. Patrick's churches, there are a million similarities.

I've spent time here learning about Ireland's history of struggle, uprising, independence and migration. What impresses me the most is how these people made names for themselves in the U.S., and how their success could be a model for the Hispanic community.

The Irish started showing up on U.S. soil en masse in the 1830s. They spoke English, sure, but with an accent and were ridiculed, marginalized and discriminated against.

When they weren't being denied work just for being Irish, they generally were used as cheap, disposable labor. Unlike today's Latin American immigrants, they weren't singled out as "illegals" but were demonized as "immorals." Take your pick as to which could be considered worse in historical context.

The key to the eventual economic empowerment of Irish immigrants was a heavy involvement in the political process: They networked, building powerful organizations, then set out to work successful alliances with non-Irish ethnic groups.

That's the inspiring part, the part that makes me feel I'll be writing a similar success story about Hispanic immigrants in a few decades: The Irish came here poor, uninvited and uneducated. They were hated, used and abused, but they worked hard, found their own political voice and eventually became part of the landscape -- just another ethnic minority taking a fair shot at the American Dream while melting down in the great assimilation pot.

Latinos in the U.S. are getting there. For all the angst and gnashing of teeth the Arizona anti-illegal immigrant laws are causing, what cannot be denied is that today's divisive immigration anxiety is successfully uniting the Latino community into an all-American subgroup that can and will come together to have a strong voice in the U.S. It's a community that's starting to flex real political muscle and simultaneously create alliances with Asian, European and other immigrant groups on the rise.

Like the Irish, Latinos and their multicultural offspring will grow up to become just another part of the landscape, with representation in all walks of private, public and civic life. Oh, it'll take a while, but those days are coming.

Like the Irish, Hispanics will achieve complete assimilation through politics.

I can almost hear the cheers at the someday presidential inauguration: "Kiss me, I'm Latino."

 

 

We aren't alone in the world in struggles over immigration

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2361858,CST-EDT-esther07.article

　

We aren't alone in struggles over immigration

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

June 7, 2010

　

LONDON, Eng. -- The beautiful thing about traveling the world isn't so much in getting to see how different other cultures are from ours. (In England they call soccer -- that game played with the ball and the foot -- football. Crazy, huh?!)

No, the truly cool thing is in seeing how similar we are. London, and Europe in general, is every bit as racially and ethnically diverse as the United States, every bit as dependent on legal and illegal immigrants, every bit as troubled by how many there are and how they're treated, and every bit as worried about how they're to be integrated into the larger society.

Last week, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's attention was pulled away from the White House's analysis of the constitutionality of Arizona's new immigrant legal status law (he's now on the BP oil case), 16 illegal immigrants from various eastern countries attempted to sneak into Britain by hiding in the top of a truck transporting a $1.5 million Aston Martin racing car returning from the Monaco grand prix.

Everywhere I went in London, I was welcomed with thick Polish, German, French, Indian, Vietnamese and Spanish accents. The fair-eyed tended to front desks with computers while the east Indians ran souvenir shops with a billion miniature red telephone booths. Thankfully, I didn't have the opportunity to see if Chelsea and Westminster Hospital was chock full of Filipino nurses, but I'm willing to bet they're there.

During a trip around Kensington Palace, one London tour guide -- explaining London's congestion -- told my group, "We don't know how many illegal immigrants we have in England, we've no way to count them." The city's mayor has been considering an amnesty that could produce an increase in tax revenue, which has gone over like the proverbial lead balloon. Sound familiar?

And there'll be no abatement to the congestion. Despite the global recession, the Migration Policy Institute has found that migration all over the world has diminished far less than originally expected and the amount of money "sent home" has remained relatively steady -- the World Bank said the tune was $316 billion last year.

Arizona is not alone or unique in its varying degrees of populist, protectionist angst among the natives. It's to be found in all the places dealing with the pleasures and perils of new immigrants. I never hesitate to point out that Mexico itself has long been criticized by its neighbor to the south for the terrorizing brutality illegal immigrants are submitted to once they cross onto Mexican soil.

A European example: In January, Italy had large race riots when African migrant farmers fought back after an unprovoked attack by white youths who prey on them for sport.

Still, in lots of places across the United States, there's just quiet acceptance and meaningful attempts at assimilating new arrivals. Immigrant aid organizations in Trenton, N.J., have begun issuing identification cards that city and county government agencies are recognizing in the service of fighting crime, treating the sick and increasing trust in local law enforcement.

On the other side of the globe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has waived rules so that companies hiring foreign workers no longer are subjected to quotas for work permits and visas, and they won't have to submit diplomas to prove a candidate's qualification.

Simply by doing that, says Ernst & Young, Russia has moved "from one of the least welcoming to one of the most positive immigration systems in the world for top talent."

Yes, the true beauty of getting away from home is that you can really appreciate that we're all in this big global boat together, facing the same issues, floundering and flourishing.

But those who flourish are those who look at legal and illegal immigration as both a challenge and an opportunity, not just a roadblock.

May brings high risk of suicide among high school and college students

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2307606,CST-EDT-esther24.article

　

May brings high risk of suicide among our youth

May 24, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

It's that time of the year. The time of the year when the pressures of grades, final papers, home stresses and uncertainty about the future combine with youthful angst to create life-threatening hazardous conditions.

The time of year when my teacher and professor friends are happy the school year is almost over but lamenting the number of students in their classes who are missing finals because they've been hospitalized with stress-related ailments or full-blown depression.

It's not something that people like to talk about -- teen and young adult suicide -- because as a society we mostly like to think about happy, carefree, post-graduation summer days with the whole world on a platter and all of life ahead of us. But May is one of the deadliest times of the year for high school and college students alike.

Incredibly, suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students -- 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students a year -- and the third leading cause of death among all youth 15 to 24 years old in the United States. Only accidents and homicides claim more young lives.

I wouldn't have known that if Kate Maloney, a chapter coordinator with Active Minds, a national nonprofit organization operating on college campuses to educate people about the warning signs of suicide in students, hadn't reminded me about my own classroom experiences with depressed teens.

The seven Active Minds chapters on Illinois college campuses, like the other 200 campus chapters, are singularly focused on making honest talk about mental health issues a socially acceptable thing.

"More than half of all college students have had suicidal thoughts, and one in 10 seriously consider suicide," Kate told me, "but only half of those who seriously consider suicide ever get counseling."

At a north suburban high school district, my closest teacher friend saw no fewer than three of his own students hospitalized for depression in the week before finals -- and, arguably, those students were the lucky ones, the ones who got help.

Who can blame these young people for feeling so desperate? The pressure is on: To hear adults tell it, college will either be the key to their success or the architect of their financial ruin.

They're watching their own parents struggle with the devastating effects of the worst recession any of them have lived through: unemployment, home foreclosure, stress-induced divorce.

These students are either terrified of not being able to pay for college or of graduating into a completely decimated job market. And even among those students who are not graduating yet, those same pressures make them less likely to finish.

Am I painting a grim enough picture for you?

Good, because awareness is half the battle.

"The most troubling thing about suicide is that it's so preventable," Kate told me. "It's just a matter of looking for the signs and reaching out."

Top suicidal warning signs include talking about suicide or death in general, talking about "going away" or feeling hopeless, and an observable change in normal behavior like losing the desire to do favorite things or be with close friends or family.

And if you're worried?

"Most schools have help available in the school or on campus," Kate said, "but the best thing to do is call the National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1 (800) 273-TALK, where they'll connect you to a local crisis center in your area."

It's May, the sun is finally staying out past dinnertime, and the flowers are in bloom, but there is still much darkness -- and it's all our jobs to look for it.

It's wrong to use schoolchildren to play immigration politics

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2280690,CST-EDT-esther17.article

It's wrong to use schoolchildren to play politics

May 17, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

 

The latest casualty in the war against illegal immigration is not the Highland Park girls basketball team, it's -- drumroll please -- reason. You know: the sense that God gave a goose.

How else to explain the flat-out immigration madness sweeping this great nation?

Take the Highland Park High School decision to pull out of the Holiday Invitational girls tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., in December, which they happily committed to back in March before Gov. Jan Brewer decided to sign the infamous SB 1070 bill. That's the law that critics say legalizes racial profiling against Latinos based on vague gut reactions as to who might or might not be an illegal immigrant.

School District 113 decided to pull out for so-called safety reasons, but Assistant Supt. Suzan Hebson threw in that the trip "would not be aligned with our beliefs and values" because of the recent Arizona legislation.

OK, how tacky was it to let the Arizona organizers of this school-sponsored event, who had nothing to do with this state law, find out about the rebuke via the Thursday morning news? Very.

But not nearly as tacky -- scratch that, make it senseless and borderline cruel -- as using the hopes and aspirations of a team of plucky young basketball-playing, cookie-selling schoolgirls who actually won their first conference title in 26 years to make a national political statement.

A national political statement that, by the way, lit a fire under Caribou Killer Barbie Sarah Palin and gave the rest of the hysterical Mexican haters who pose as strict defenders of immigration laws a unique opportunity to actually be 100 percent right about something.

This e-mail message from one such constant complainer -- who proudly begs for "CINCO-DE-PORTATION!" -- hit my inbox first thing Thursday morning: "You probably heard by now . . . Well i [sic] myself thinks [sic] this is totally wrong, and has broken these girls [sic] hearts. They played their hearts out to win and qualify for the tourney. They worked so very hard, with bake sales, car washs [sic] etc. to earn the money to finance the trip also. Only to have the politicly [sic] correct liberal idiot administrators say they can't go. If you would, please email the school's administrator and tell them they are WRONG."

When you're right, you're right, buddy -- and congrats on the coup.

Just as Arizona has blurred the line between what's under the purview of federal law and state law, so has Highland Park High School blurred the line between politics and educational experiences. Sadly, they won't be the last.

The backlash against Arizona has become a national movement. Local governments across the country are suspending travel to the state and banning future contracts with businesses headquartered there, and masses of people are in some way or another boycotting the state in hope of getting the law repealed.

Now that Brewer has signed yet another bad bill into law -- this one aimed at ensuring that no Arizona schoolchildren receive instruction in classes that are designed for students of a particular ethnic group or that advocate ethnic solidarity -- Arizona will surely continue morphing into a national joke.

I don't know if this new law banning ethnic studies classes will uphold its stated desire to teach Arizona's schoolchildren "... to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people." More likely it will legislate that no non-Caucasian child can learn about his or her family's heritage.

What I do know is that all this immigration-related craziness should, as much as humanly possible, be kept out of school classrooms and playgrounds. We can't let our country get so hysterical over a single issue that we lose sight of how wrong it is to play politics with kids.

 

 

Immigration issue revs up the hate mail

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2199570,CST-EDT-esther26.article

 

 

Immigration issue revs up the hate mail

 

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

 

I'm not ashamed to admit that lately I've been finding myself hard-pressed to

find positive ways to deal with all the hatred around. It seems like everywhere

I turn, there's hatred. It's a bummer.

 

Sure, there's your usual level of hatred:

  

Iran continues to wave its uranium in the air, sneering nah-na-nah-na-boo-boo

at the world. The French are waging war on women who choose to wear Islamic face

veils, the Tea Party movement's fringe seems to be trying to overthrow the U.S.

government. And, of course, babies whose only crime was being born to

gang-banger daddies are being killed in the streets of Chicago.

 

I don't pretend that this wave of oppression is anything new under the sun,

but it sure stinks when it's aimed at you.

 

Yep, it's that time of the year where I dread opening my e-mail because of

the venom I find in it. Vile messages with choice phrases such as "kill the

wetbacks," "send Mexicans home" and "send all illegals straight to

hell!!!!!!!"

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, I get them all the time, but it's the end of April,

which means that the annual May 1 marches for "human immigration reform" are

gearing up all over the country. In tandem, the anti-illegal immigrant champions

are frothing at the mouth way more than usual.

 

This year it's all happening in the shadow of the State of Arizona's new law

allowing authorities to check the legal status of people suspected of being

illegal immigrants. Most groups opposed to the law consider it legalized racial

profiling. That this is coming from the state whose House of Representatives

refuses to accept President Obama's birth certificate as proof he's a U.S.

citizen is a joke -- what's a poor Columbian immigrant on Arizona's streets to

expect in terms of scrutiny of legal papers?

 

That aside, it's tough to be hated just because you merely might be a

lawbreaker -- you just look or sound like one. Or you are despised for having a

"Spanish" last name.

 

It's one thing to hate a blue-eyed man for wearing green socks every single

day of his life, but quite another to hate all blue-eyed guys who sort of look

like they might have non-white colored socks on.

 

I bring up this ridiculous analogy because it's April 26, and I've had

several weeks of angry blog comments and poisonous e-mails begging me and my

"kind" to "go back to Mexico" and take my "anchor babies" and "leprosy and

sickness" with me. Nice, huh?

 

That I was born in the good old U.S.A, that my parents are here legally --

one from a country that is not Mexico -- and that I'm in perfect health and have

no mixed legal status kiddies is completely beside the point because there are

plenty of people in Chicago, its suburbs, and the rest of this fine country who

are not as lucky as I am. These are people in real danger of being racially

profiled, targeted for senseless violence and maybe even thrown in immigration

jail by accident -- it has happened.

 

And let's not forget the millions who are as lucky as I am and,

frankly, just tired of being harassed for having a Hispanic surname.

 

I've decided I'm not resigning myself to this -- which, too, shall pass --

but, rather, just sucking it up. I vow today to just accept that it is what it

is: There's a lot of hatred out there for Latinos.

 

I'll keep doing my best to be a voice of reason in a sea of crazy talk, but

I'm not going to let any of it get me down.

 

 

 

Kids need more financial lessons

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2172682,CST-EDT-esther19.article

 

 Kids need more financial lessons

April 19, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

It's Money Smart Week in Chicago, that annual event sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and -- if nothing else -- the city is accented with portraits of a robust Benjamin Franklin winking knowingly from the center of a $100 bill.

Catchy marketing materials aside, I wish Money Smart Week were not just an annual springtime community outreach effort to increase awareness about the importance of financial education, but rather a matter of national law. One of those pseudo-oppressive nanny state jobbies that turn people into stark-raving lunatics about being "force fed" something that's good for them.

I can see it now. Wouldn't it be cool if those replica Ben Franklins roaming the streets of Chicago in support of Money Smart Week were carrying functional revolutionary-era firearms and were allowed to shoot anyone who couldn't differentiate simple from compound interest?

I'm kidding, I'm kidding!!! But only because most people would fail that one and the Chicago Police Department would be working overtime to pick up bodies. What with all the money troubles the city has, that just wouldn't be a financially sound way to incentivize people to learn about the power of the cash they work so hard for every day.

So anyway, financial literacy. It's not a sexy topic to most people, though in some circles it is considered the next civil right. The fact that my very favorite founding father greeted me at the train station the other morning didn't hurt, but what really inspired me to write this column was not a hand-wringing "oh, the children of this country will never learn to manage their money" moment. Quite the opposite.

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite young pals asked me if I would take him to the bank.

"What for?" I asked, wondering if there was a local bank giving away some sort of kid-friendly tchotchke.

"I want to open an interest-bearing checking account with the $220 I've saved up," said the 11-year-old boy, whose first name is Stimpson.

Yes, this kid, who attends school in a financially struggling suburban school district where about 60 percent of students live at or below the poverty line and 20 percent of kids are considered limited in English proficiency, had learned all about the power of interest-bearing bank accounts at school. Having taught high school math in this very district, I know that as recently as four years ago the average high school student didn't have a clue what an interest-bearing checking account was.

Unlike the average kindergarten through 12th-grade child in this country, Stimpson -- a strapping young fifth-grader -- is getting familiar with money topics that have made it clear why putting your money in a bank is preferable to cashing your check at the currency exchange and will ultimately help him decide whether and how to take out car loans or student loans.

Yep, Stimpson is one of the lucky ones because some visionary at his school district decided to partner with Junior Achievement, a nonprofit that goes into schools to "teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to young people all over the world."

Their work is sorely needed. According to a recent article in the New York Times, only 13 states require students to take a personal finance course or include the subject in an economics course before they graduate from high school, up from seven states in 2007, according to the Council for Economic Education. Only 34 states (including those 13) have personal finance education in their curriculum guidelines, up from 28 states in 2007.

It's too bad more elementary school kids aren't itching to get their very own financial adviser. And too bad there aren't enough Benjamin Franklin costumes in the basement of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank to personally reach all of the kiddies in the state to teach them how to manage the money they'll earn and spend throughout their lifetimes.

But Money Smart Week is a good start.

 

 

 

Your country is counting on you: Fill out census form

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2152740,CST-EDT-esther12.article

Your country is counting on you: Fill out census form

April 12, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

So I finally did it last week -- I filled out my census form.

It was mostly a piece of cake. The darned thing had been lying around my house for almost two weeks and I was actually considering just making the census people come out to my house to harass me for it, but it costs the government 135 times more cash to send out live bodies than to get the form in the mail (42 cents vs. 57 dollars) and I just can't bear to waste.

What precipitated my desire to get it filled out was that my parents haven't gotten a form yet -- never even got the letter telling them the form would soon arrive at their house. Being the good citizens that they are, they were asking all sorts of concerned questions about how to get one.

That made perfect sense. Back on April 1 -- "Census Day" -- the Pew Hispanic Center released a report that said foreign-born Latinos are more positive and knowledgeable about the 2010 U.S. Census than are native-born Latinos.

I love it! I'm not a contrarian by nature but I do enjoy it when stereotypes are shattered in favor of fact-based realities. Back in August, when I started writing about the effort being poured into educating the Latino community about the importance of filling out the census form, I got pushback for reporting that even Spanish-language community organizers agreed that it was regular old garden-variety lack of awareness -- rather than some overblown fear of malevolent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents -- that would be the big challenge.

In the months since, the U.S. Census Bureau has dumped almost $28 million into Hispanic media advertising for the 2010 Census, compared to the $19 million they spent for the 2000 Census. Bottom line: All that cash bought an awful lot of Spanish-language network infomercials to make sure Hispanics aren't undercounted because of fear or ignorance.

And it worked. The same Pew Hispanic Center Survey, "Latinos and the 2010 Census," noted that "while majorities of both groups say that the census is good for the Hispanic community, the foreign born are significantly more likely to feel this way." (Last time they checked, among Hispanic adults 18 and older, 47 percent were native born and 53 percent were foreign born.) "The foreign born are also more likely to correctly say that the census cannot be used to determine who is in the country legally; more likely to trust the Census Bureau to keep their personal information confidential; and more likely to say they have seen or heard messages encouraging them to participate in the census."

Go figure.

Too bad the form confuses this same key demographic. Of the 46.8 million Hispanics counted in the U.S. in 2008 (that's 15.4 percent of the total U.S. population -- up from 35.3 million in the 2000 Census), I wonder how many of them were baffled by question No. 9?

Yep, after the relatively easy No. 8, which asks if you're of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin and then requests a specific type, question No. 9 asks, "What is the person's race?"

So many of my Mexican-descended acquaintances e-mailed or called me inquiring about this and I was amused to say, where appropriate, "I hate to break it to you, but you're white!"

It just goes to show you that people know even less about the difference between race and ethnicity than they do about the arcane origins of our national census. They need not sweat it, though. Though you can't fill out your census form online, anyone can call (866) 872-6868 to deal with their mini-identity crisis or get other assistance filling out the form.

That number is the same number to call if you didn't get your form, which I hope Mama and Papa Cepeda take note of because their biggest fear is not whether their favorite government will somehow use this census information against them, but rather, if it will accidentally forget to count them.

Feds have to stop inhumane treatment in deportation

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2140090,CST-EDT-esther05.article

Feds have to stop inhumane treatment in deportation

　

April 5, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

 

Boneheaded. Ham-handed. And let's not forget tone-deaf. These are the only adequate ways to describe the Obama administration's bungling of the issue of illegal immigration.

Forget politics for just a moment, forget the oh-so-important "Latino vote" and forget the activists pushing the family togetherness agenda: You don't pony up 100 million bucks in aid to a country devastated by an earthquake in what is described as "one of the largest relief efforts in history" only to allow Haitian refugees to be thrown into an American gulag immigration detention system by our very own Immigration and Customs Enforcement Keystone Kops.

If you didn't catch last week's New York Times' latest immigration revelation, here it is: Survivors of January's Haiti earthquake who were escorted onto planes by our very own Marine Corps landed in Florida and were immediately arrested and held for deportation -- even though deportations to Haiti were suspended almost immediately after the gravity of the quake was known. Letters and calls for their release went ignored, as were offers of free trauma therapy for these law-abiding victims of a natural disaster who were -- and some still are -- held as criminals in the sometimes bottomless pit of immigration jails.

Let's throw more on the pile: The New York Times heightened awareness of a new study by the Texas Appleseed public interest law center that documented the egregious treatment of mentally ill individuals trapped in federal immigration jails.

The Washington Post uncovered private Immigration and Customs Enforcement memos that encouraged agents to meet "deportation quotas" by going after the low-hanging fruit of those who can be deported quickly -- a k a illegal alien workers -- instead of the violent or otherwise dangerous criminals whose cases take longer to litigate.

But I've gotten carried away ... Let's not get caught up in the myriad ways that the federal government's responsibility to humanely treat even those awaiting a swift farewell from the U.S. for good reason is routinely ignored. Let's focus on boneheaded, ham-handed and tone-deaf.

Look, we all get it: The lip service coming out of this administration says immigration is important, even though month after month after month the issue has been put on the back burner. Immigration law reform never gets mentioned as a major White House agenda item. The moment health-care reform was passed, the talk started about Social Security overhaul, not immigration. And that's fine, it's really not the most pressing issue facing the country at the moment. How about they just come out and say it, though?

OK, so stark honesty from the Obama administration on setting a timeline for a rigorous national conversation on the issue of illegal immigration might be too much to ask this year, but how about some good old-fashioned competence in the meanwhile?

String the ardent supporters along if you must, White House. Go ahead, demand prerequisite Republican support for meaningful, comprehensive immigration law reform -- before the ball even gets rolling -- with a straight face. Keep throwing one-line references to the issue into nationally televised speeches while you're at it.

But in the meantime, run our federal system for processing illegal immigrants with the professionalism that befits this country of immigrants.

No bells and whistles, no red carpets -- just follow the letter of the law when it comes to the dignity and physical well-being required in processing, housing, transporting and caring for such people while they're on our glorious American soil.

And before the administration's left hand points to exemplary humanitarian aid to Haitian earthquake victims, let's make sure the right hand isn't choking the immigrants we deliberately flew here, treating them in the same rough manner as the ones who show up uninvited.

 

 

Why warning labels on restaurant menus are a welcome idea

Why warning labels on restaurant menus are a welcome idea

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2127734,CST-EDT-esther29.article

March 29, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA Sun-Times Columnist

I'll be the first to admit, I've never ever once met a person who likes to sneak an occasional smoke that was dissuaded from buying a pack of straights because of the warning label.

How long has it been since every new car manufactured or assembled in the United States rolled off the line without a warning ironed to the front visor practically begging parents not to buckle an infant car seat in front where an air bag could crush it? Yet, just the other day, I saw a knucklehead who obviously can't read simple pictographs doing just that.

Really, who among us can say that the now-ubiquitous nutrition fact labels even once kept us from a late-night binge of chocolate milk and Twinkies? No one who isn't a liar.

And yet public health measures, however pointless or counterintuitive, aren't failures because they fail to completely eradicate unhealthy behaviors. They succeed because a million little behavioral changes add up to something bigger.

Who will question that smoking labels have proved effective in at least killing the plausible deniability that ciggies aren't good for you? Most people now understand that you stick junior in the back seat. And those nutrition labels have without a doubt made an impact -- good or bad depends on what your scale said this morning -- on consumers' decision-making when it comes to buying packaged food.

That said, I'll admit I'm practically on my knees in ecstasy that the new health-care legislation -- cue the villainous music -- will require calorie counts to be posted on menus at restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets.

No more Googling "cinnamon twist calorie information" 15 minutes after I've swallowed the freshly deep-fried and sugar sprinkled sticks to see just what the damage was. No more asking the chick behind the counter if they have one of those calorie booklets so I can gauge from the largest size of onion rings how far my next run will have to be. No more borrowing a pal's iPhone calorie counter app at lunch to estimate how many calories I have left for dinner. No more excuses when I go for the hot fudge sundae (with nuts) that I couldn't quite remember whether the ice-cream was actually low-fat yogurt -- or not.

I adore an old-fashioned doughnut -- or two -- in the morning, several beef soft tacos with a sidecar of sour cream for lunch, and scoops of rocky road and vanilla ice cream on a plain cone for dessert after dinner. Even more, I love the fact that all those calorie counts will soon be out in full view for me to confront as I prepare to order.

Why? Like every other Hispanic in the United States, I'm at high risk for Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Type 2 would only be more prevalent in my immediate and extended family if any of our various Chihuahuas were diagnosed with it (and judging from the size of some of them, that's not out of the question).

So what do I do about it? I exercise a bare minimum of 30 minutes every single day of my life and really watch what I eat closely. Very, very closely. Every day is a balancing act: lone eggs in the morning so I can have the tiramisu at lunch, or salmon salad midday when I know the evening promises a large slice of birthday cake. I eat whatever I want -- just never all on one day.

Forget complaints about "The Evil Nanny State." I couldn't be happier about restaurants being loud and proud -- or getting that way -- about how much energy you'll get in exchange for your cash. If, as a side benefit, a few million people stop for a second to consider what they're about to shovel into their faces, well, that's just the cherry on top.

Coffee or Tea party? Whatever your cup, roll up your sleeves

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2089107,CST-EDT-esther08.article

Coffee or Tea party? Whatever your cup, roll up your sleeves

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA, Sun-Times Columnist

March 8, 2010

I remember my first Tea Party invitation. The "hosts" were a group of loosely federated regional anti-illegal immigration groups, the occasion was Tax Day, and the call to action was to "protest to demand the end of taxation without representation."

The particular bone of contention was Gov. Quinn's then-proposed tax increase, described thusly: "Governor Quinn says he must raise your income tax because he doesn't have enough money to pay for all the social welfare benefits demanded by the illegal alien invaders."

Fast-forward nearly a year and the Tea Partiers are going strong -- strong enough to have stumped some and horrified others. I've read big, epic pieces in several different publications alternately describing the Tea Party Movement as being one big quasi-Ku Klux Klan hate group, or the representative conglomeration of an America so fed up with our government they're ready to bear arms against it, or a young, dynamic collection of diverse individuals -- from liberal, nose-ring sporting actresses to frustrated middle-class professionals -- simply exercising their rights to free speech and peaceable assembly in support of controlling their own destinies. Pick yer favorite.

That's the thing that makes the Tea Party movement so fascinating -- and scary to some -- it isn't monolithic, it isn't easy to sort into a neat category and it isn't easy to dismiss out of hand, especially if your perfectly rational neighbor or friend can say they agree with a lot of what they stand for -- mainly an end to government's fiscal irresponsibility.

Might there be an alternative for those sick and tired of the mess that decades of waste and corruption hath wrought but who aren't anti-government?

Enter the Coffee Party movement. According to the New York Times, it is a burgeoning national movement for those hoping to work the system rather than eliminate it. Taking a quick Facebook jaunt over to the "Join Coffee Party Movement Chicago" page, I found their official mission statement: "We recognize that the Federal Government is NOT the enemy of the People, but the expression of our collective wills. As voters and volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them."

By Thursday night, they had picked up an additional 95 fans on top of the 627 present and accounted for a mere 20 hours earlier when I first checked. Not bad for a group that had been alive for about the blink of an eye.

It's still in the infancy stage, and the postings on its discussion page have, so far, ranged from micro-narratives of hustling the local coffee shop for meeting space, complaints about meetups not being near enough to home, joyous woo-hoos, suggestions for tangible goals and long tracts wondering if they've bitten off more than they can chew.

About what you'd expect from grass trying to lay down roots.

Will the Coffee Party Movement grow into the populist political force the Tea Party groups are trying to become, or will the cups-o-joe get bitter after they've been around a while? I don't care either way -- it's all good.

Though the snarky among us would say, if nothing else, that President Obama can be credited with uniting people in their hatred of him, that's too cynical for me. I'd rather look at the bright side of the discontent and frustration boiling over across almost all economic classes, in cities, suburbs and on farms, among people of all ages, races and colors -- the muscular rise of a mass of civically engaged people.

Enraged, yes -- but primarily engaged.

Coffee or Tea, both movements are engaged, passionate, energetic and willing to roll the old sleeves up and put in the time and work toward reshaping their country in a way they think will serve their self-interests -- and their country -- best.

It's a beautiful thing, this season of hot and tasty parties. So much passion, so much energy, so much desire to just "do good."

It warms the soul!

Volunteers help make tax time a little less taxing for low-income

Volunteers help make tax time a little less taxing for low-income

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/2048043,CST-EDT-esther15.article

　

February 15, 2010

BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA

Me? I'm as nice as the next guy. I'll help people pick up dropped parcels, shovel the elderly neighbor's walk, drop a buck in the donation jar, that sort of thing.

But I'm not that nice: I've never once volunteered in a soup kitchen or spent time hanging out with the grannies in the nursing home -- it takes a very, very special person to give away their time or talent to others. Especially when that talent is highly in demand and can be charged at a premium.

For instance, it's now that time when the organized and money-savvy in our midst are reaping the rewards of an active left brain. And the very, very special ones have geared up -- in the shadow of the most financially troubled year in decades -- to help the neediest tackle that which makes even semi-organized chumps like me quake in my boots: tax returns.

Take John Kintner. As a volunteer for the Center for Economic Progress' cadre of tax and financial experts, he is giving up two evenings a week from mid-January to mid-April to help low-income people file their tax returns. Since 1990, the center, with more than 1,200 volunteers across Illinois, has been helping needy folks make the most of the Earned Income and Child Tax credits -- and probably a bunch of other ones most of us wouldn't understand. About 230,000 families have gotten $340 million back from Uncle Sam.

When he started nine years ago, Kintner could have made a sweet dime on the side of his CPA day job turning around tax documents for those of us able to pay for such expertise. But no, Kintner _-- jealous of his wife's volunteer work for a different social service organization -- decided to put his skills to use by getting trained to serve others.

"It's so satisfying to help people who work really hard and don't make a lot from it during the year," he told me. "When they come to us, we're making available something they would not have known about, and getting great service."

Can you imagine?! Why don't we all serve like this?

Of course, Kintner isn't alone. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says 63.4 million people volunteered for an organization at least once between September 2008 and September 2009, and they're all a breed apart.

To hear these people talk you'd think that the clients they serve are doing them the favor by uniting them with like-minded volunteers and providing a few fun nights out of the house to help others count their beans.

But Bill Barltey of Bloomington, a volunteer for eight years, does admit to delighting in seeing people's relief at getting the dreaded task over with and walking out with a few extra dollars, too. "It's a good thing to do, we really are accomplishing something and people walk out very grateful and pleased, very happy to get help," he said.

If you've been wondering about being called to serve others -- and you needn't limit yourself to financial volunteerism -- Jerry Inguagiato is great inspiration. As tax-prep volunteer for the center, he has been doing this work for about nine years on the Truman College campus in Chicago, helping people from all over the world. He shrugs and says it's simply an "easy" way to make the world a better place for people one day at a time.

"I do it just to give back to society because I'm really blessed in my life," said Inguagiato, a full-time CPA from the suburbs. "My ancestors came on a boat from Sicily. Truman has a very diverse client base, a lot of people new to the country, and it's a way for me to give back to my grandparents. I hope someone helped them when they got here."

Wow. Maybe we should all consider being nicer than the next guy by giving of our time and talent. Let's join the breed -- we'll be in good company.