Day: June 13, 2010

The Reality Of The Future: A Majority “Minority” Country Is Emerging!

The Census Bureau has made evident what has been known for a long time, but is apparently accelerating: America is becoming a majority “minority” country by 2042 estimate, and has already become so among children under the age of 15 in nine states and the District of Columbia!

The nine states where the young are already more than half “minority” are Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas! Minority births nationally could overtake white births as soon as next year by some estimates!

This indicates the need to recognize reality, and to stop the promotion of discriminatory legislation, such as has occurred in Arizona, as it will only exacerbate tensions between the different ethnic groups that make up America!

Urgency Of Spending To Prevent “Double Dip” Recession!

President Obama has asked Congress to agree to emergency spending this summer and fall to promote economic recovery, and prevent a “double dip” recession!

The spending would provide $50 billion to help state and local governments to avoid cutting educators, fire fighters, and law enforcement personnel, all areas that face the greatest cuts since the Great Depression! It is not just job losses that are the issue, but also service reductions that people take for granted, but would be lost if there is no federal stimulus money!

Also, more extension of jobless benefits, and tax credits and accessible credit for small businesses to allow them to expand and hire workers, would be covered by $80 billion of additional spending!

It will not be easy to convince a deficit conscious Congress to enact such measures, which were proposed earlier, but have reached an emergency level, with planning moving ahead for the new school year, and the realization that the earlier economic stimulus is running out, but was an important part of the slowly reviving economy!

But to do nothing would be acting like an ostrich with its head in the sand–refusing to have vision as to the short term emergency, but also to the long run effects of standing on the sidelines while conditions become worse!

Poverty Growing Among America’s Children!

A recent USA TODAY article details the fact that more than one out of every five children in America in in poverty, and that it is the highest such percentage in two decades! 🙁

Eighteen percent do not have a secure source of food, and a half million are homeless! 🙁

This is, unfortunately, a state of affairs that leads to more health and education problems long term! Poverty also has a long range effect psychologically on children who suffer from it while they are growing up! 🙁

One would think that this would be an issue of urgency, but at least to the conservative Heritage Foundation, it is not, as one of its researchers states that poor families receive food stamps and housing assistance, although he does not point out that these aids are far from adequate! But the same researcher claims that government programs are ineffective in making lives of children better, and are just an excuse for more government programs and spending!

Somehow missing from this researcher’s assertions is any compassion for the harm done to children who are in poverty, and instead the emphasis on attacking government, even though private charities and groups have been proved inadequate in dealing with the problem of hunger and poverty!

The Afghanistan War: A Cause That Cannot Be Won!

The Afghanistan War has recently become the longest war in US history, surpassing the Vietnam War, and the news coming from the war front is not positive! 🙁

Just this week, on ABC’s THIS WEEK, which lists all those who have died, almost all of the names listed were of young men in their early to mid 20s, who had their lives snuffed out in an interminable war in which the Taliban seem to be getting stronger, and the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai seems more resistant to the influence of the NATO allies fighting there, amidst reports that Karzai and his brother, who has been involved in the cocaine trade, are looking toward an eventual deal with the enemy!

The Afghan government has never really been interested in the plight of the average Afghan civilian, and the corruption and scandal in that country is endemic, and makes one continue to wonder how we can continue to sustain a war that has already cost more than 1,000 lives, plus even more than that number severely wounded! 🙁

This war is costing more every month in lives and cost, and it seems as if the best opportunity to win, back in late 2001, botched by the Bush Administration, has now made the commitment of President Obama to win there seemingly a pipe dream!

And meanwhile, young Americans continue to die for a cause that is not just, by any means, when one examines the facts! 🙁

The Righteousness Of The Passage Of The DREAM Act!

A major problem area on the subject of “illegal immigration” are the children of “illegal” immigrants who are brought to this country, grow up in this country, and wish to receive a college education and begin a career in this country, but are dogged by their “illegal” status through no fault of their own!

A present case on this involves Eric Balderas, a Harvard student, with plans to become a cancer researcher, who was detained at the San Antonio airport this week, and given a date for a hearing at which he is faced with immediate deportation to Mexico, a country he has never lived in, and where he knows no one!

The proposed DREAM Act is cosponsored by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in April, calling for a moratorium on deportation of young people who could be saved from such action once this legislation were to pass. The DREAM Act would allow a path to citizenship for undocumented young people who serve in the military or attend college.

The DREAM Act is the acronym for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

The fact is that young Balderas was brought into the United States at the age of 4 to escape a domestic violence situation in Mexico, and this is the problem with the hardline “illegal immigration” crowd that just calls for the deportation of millions of undocumented people , most of whom have never committed a crime, have been law abiding citizens since they entered illegally, and are now living in fear and trepidation as to what their futures might be!

So it is good time to grant Balderas a waiver and to pass, as soon as possible, the humane DREAM Act, and have the President sign it in a public ceremony!

The Sad Ending Of The Career Of Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas had a long, distinguished career at United Press International, and was the dean of the White House Press Corps, always allowed in recent years the opportunity to ask the President of the United States the first question at White House press conferences. She has reported on every President since John F. Kennedy took the oath of office!

She entered the journalism field in 1943 when she was 22 years old, and therefore, had a run of 67 years in journalism, certainly the longest career anyone has ever had in print journalism, with only a few exceptions such as Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite, and Daniel Schorr in electronic journalism able to match her longevity!

But Thomas made a fatal mistake when she was recorded, and later spread on You Tube, asserting that the Jewish population should leave Israel for the Palestinians and “go back to Poland, Germany, America” and elsewhere!

This statement bordered on being anti Semitic, and it brought up the Lebanese Christian heritage of Thomas’s parents. It was a totally inappropriate and outrageous declaration by Helen Thomas, and it led to a firestorm of protest coming from such people as Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary to President George W. Bush, and the present Press Secretary to President Obama, Robert Gibbs.

Very quickly, Thomas profusely apologized, but the damage was done, and the Hearst News Service, her most recent employer, announced the end of her service with them, and she announced her retirement.

It is certainly time at age 89 for someone to retire, but not under such circumstances! It brings up the issue of how does one recognize it is time to leave any job or profession, and in a graceful way! Unfortunately, there are many examples of people unwilling to deal with retirement, including politicians of both parties who, like Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd, resist the inevitable!

This is a growing issue for the future as America ages, and the need for counseling to understand when it is time to give others a chance to enter as you leave gracefully!