Elenamary

Children Services looking for a few good foster homes
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Franklin County also hopes to recruit more prospective foster parents from the growing Somali and Latino communities. “We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve there,” Cobb said.

Ohio leaders dealing with immigration issues visit border
KVOA.com - Tucson,AZ,USA
He says he’s seeing large amounts of drugs coming in from the Tucson sector of the border, along with an increase in illegal immigrants in his county. He says they hurt the local economy…. “My intent is to go back to Columbus, Ohio and say ‘I’ve been there, I know what it is. And until you see it, you don’t have a clue,’” says Ohio State Rep. Courtney Combs

Employers accused of not paying Latinos
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Complaints that bosses are cheating immigrants out of pay are undoubtedly increasing, state officials say.  Some companies refuse to pay workers, expecting that they won’t complain to authorities. One Latino advocate said some subcontractors hurt by the housing slump are underbidding jobs, leaving them without enough money to pay workers.

State Hispanic commission to launch Web database
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte,NC,USA
A new online database set to launch in November will give Ohio Hispanic groups a new avenue to stay connected.  It’s also giving the group creating the database, the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, a high-tech opportunity to fulfill its own key mission.

Investors startled by sudden demise of Centro Mexicano
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
A center that was to have been a gathering place and source of help for the Mexican community has filed for bankruptcy even before it opened, leaving those who invested in it feeling burned.  Many blame Centro Mexicano promoter German Trejo-Caballero.

More minority students graduate in Ohio’s big cities, analysis finds
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA
Columbus — Black and Latino students in Ohio’s big-city high schools have a better graduation rate than minority students elsewhere in the state, a new analysis shows.

MUNICIPAL COURT Illness, ethnicity issues in election
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
Joseph Mas says his 28-year law career and Latino background make him more qualified for a seat on the Franklin County Municipal Court than Judge Amy Salerno, a former state representative who has been on the bench for 2½ years.

He is fluent in Spanish and said Ohio courts need more certified court interpreters and bilingual lawyers to protect the rights of foreign-speaking defendants.  “The vulgar fact is there is only one Hispanic judge in the state of Ohio, and yet, Columbus has become an immigration destination city,” he said.  He noted that, as a judge, he would not be interpreting for defendants, but he said, “I would bring a sensitivity to that community.”

GOP losing battle to win Latino loyalty
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
“The fact of the matter is that Latino values — God, family and country — line up best with the Republican Party. But we’ve gotten a lot of black eyes from this administration and Congress, and the immigration issue has really hurt us.”  Ohio Latinos are largely concentrated in northern and central Ohio, with second-generation Puerto Ricans dominating in the Cleveland region and Mexican-Americans in the Toledo and Columbus areas. Historically, they have tended to vote Democratic.

One of my phrases I often repeat is “I am fornicating, gay advocate, planned parenthood working, pro-choice, Catholic”.

I really dislike it when people think that because I am Catholic, I am not liberal. Or that because I am liberal I am not Catholic.

A formerly Catholic friend of mine who now calls herself an atheist, laughed when I told her I was Catholic.  Without pause she said “You are a bad Catholic”, I grinned “No, I am the best kind of Catholic.”  I view my Catholicism the same way I view my patriotism and my commitment to the democratic party.

My government, my country, may be funding a war in Iraq, abstinence education, enlisting undocumented immigrants to fight wars, and commits war crimes, but this is still my country and I am still an American.  I do my best to make my country better, not by giving up on it but by declaring loudly I am an American.  I am an American who voices her opinion against her appointed president, against unjust laws, against misappropriated funds.

I may not agree with the democratic party but it is still my party.  I work within it not to give up on it but because I want to make it my party.  I want government officials who truely represent me.  I want my Catholic Church to be my Catholic Church.

I have not given up on my party, on my country or on my religion because I love all of them and want them to truly represent me.  I want them to represent me because I believe in the end, they can be good and helpful institutions.

I am tired of hearing “He is a [insert adjective–handsome, wealthy] man, he could have any woman he wants.  It makes you wonder why someone would accuse them of rape.”  MSNBC just had someone on saying that about David Copperfield.  We heard the same thing about Kobe Bryant.  I believe innocent until proven guilty but what I do not believe is that a man is less like to be a rapist based on his attractiveness to women.  Rape isn’t about haveing sex with someone you are attracted to, it is about power.

Get with it mainstream media.

In honor of Blog Action Day I will write a short post on a local environmental issue.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

I will put enviornment on the mind of my fellow Columbus, Ohio readers. Upper Arlington, a suburb of Columbus, charges residents $3.10 per trash bag collected. Residents must purchase bright orange stickers, again $3.10 each, and put a sticker on each trash bag in order for it to be collected. However, items to be recycled and placed in recycling bins, are picked up at no charge. The city of Columbus has this a little backwards in that it charges residents $5 a month for those who choose to participate in its recycling program, and does not charge residents anything for picking up waste.

That said, if you would like to have curbside recycling at your Columbus home follow this link to get yourself signed up.

I had read  the book Steppenwolf and Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, when I picked up his book Strange News From Another Star.  It was one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.  The imagrey was so amazingly beautiful that I began to sob with the realization that if it was this beautiful in translation what was it like in the original?  How much was I missing.  So I put the book down and swore I would never read Hesse again until I learned how to read him in German.  Needless to say I haven’t read him since.

I was trying to explain to someone last night the difficulty in both translation (written word) and interpretation (spoken word).   The person I was speaking to was a native Spanish speaker and I gave him this example; a young woman had a miscarriage and explained that with the miscarriage it had looked as if  “se me habia salido todo mole”.  The man grimaced and I explained, see you knew immediately what that image looked like you can almost feel it can’t you?  How would you in a literature piece translate “mole”?  Unless you really know mole and its consistency, its texture, its vibrant color, unless mole is commonly familiar to you, you can’t translate that without losing something in the translation.

On Friday night, I was standing on my porch waiting for a friend to come up the front steps when instead a VERY intoxicated man did.  He was a young male in his mid-twenties, Caucasian, wearing a polo shirt  ball cap, and blue jeans.  He was on his phone trying to figure out how to get to the party.  He swayed with drunkenness up to my front porch, asked the person on the phone to hold while he got directions.  He then asked me how to get to campus.

I told him to head four blocks north and then hang a right and go two blocks east.  Really though, he needed to go four blocks south and two blocks west.  I knew I was giving him the wrong directions and I did so out of anger.  I was pissed that he was walking around my neighborhood drunk with alcohol and white privilege.   It wasn’t his fault.  It isn’t like I myself didn’t walk around my neighborhood, that very same night intoxicated.  I regret it.  So, if you are that dude, I am sorry.   If you are out there wandering around Clintonville, turn around and head south you’ll hit campus no problem.

Fairfield County contains the suburbs of the city of Columbus, including Pickerington and Canal Winchester.

School districts changing to accommodate increasing Hispanic Population
Lancaster Eagle Gazette - Lancaster,OH,USA
There were 136 Hispanic students in the district during the 2003-04 school year, according to statistics from the Ohio Department of Education…

Multi-cultural festival held at Springfield ( Ohio ) USA
PunjabNewsline.com - Mohali-Chandigarh,Punjab,India
At Culture Fest the choices included Mexican, Greek and Italian foods; bluegrass, jazz and Andean music; and African, Indian and Celtic dancers…

Ohio students get solid marks in ‘nation’s report card’
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com - Cleveland,OH,USA
Ohio’s public school students were near the top of the class in national reading and math scores released Tuesday. In addition, black and Latino students posted the largest gains in the state and significantly narrowed the gap between their test scores and those of white students.

Good test scores not good as ‘gold’
Columbus Dispatch - Columbus,OH,USA
“In eighth-grade reading and math, Ohio is one of the highest-performing states for Latinos,” Hall said.
However, the average score for Latino eighth-graders still ranked below NAEP’s definition of “proficient.”

Hispanics still low in leadership roles
Youngstown Vindicator - Youngstown,OH,USA
YOUNGSTOWN — Hispanics have made great strides when it comes to graduating from high school, but more needs to be done to help reverse a 45-percent dropout rate among Ohio’s Hispanic students.

Bad News: Hispanic Teens Hurt Least by Parents’ Marital Woes
Newswise (press release) - USA
New research suggests that Hispanic teens aren’t as affected by their parents’ marital disruption – including divorce and separation — only because they already face a host of difficulties and disadvantages before the breakup.

Divorce affects Hispanic teens less
United Press International - USA
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 18 (UPI) — Many Hispanic adolescents in the United States aren’t as affected by the divorce of their parents, because their life situation is already poor, a study found.

Ohio: Inappropriate E-Mails Probed
Forbes - NY,USA
“Would he give a female or a Hispanic a fair shake in his current position?” Evans asked during a June 5 interview with ODOT investigators. “I don’t know and I think this is why it is an ODOT issue.”

I hate it when local Police think their job is to investigate and enforce federal immigration laws, and I hate it even more that they decided to do it because someone didn’t speak English.

Police Arrest Three Illegal Aliens in Wheeling
WTRF - Wheeling,WV,USA
WHEELING — Wheeling police said they picked up three illegal aliens Saturday night at Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center. Authorities were called to the track about 10:30 p.m. on a report of a woman who could not speak English.

I wish I could include this image here but I’ve got to respect the photographer and blogger for which it originally appeared.

Go take a look at that image and then explain to me why it is that the GOP didn’t go to the debate hosted by the NAACP, the debate hosted by Univsion, the debate hosted by historical black college Morgan State University. The GOP blew off blacks and Latinos, just completely rejected to debate in forums that would reach these communities. Where were you GOP presidential candidates?

Sure you can’t make some events but for you to miss a debate by a big organization like the NAACP or Univision? And for all of you but one to fail to show up the the NAACP debate tells me that as a group you really just don’t care. My question to you, GOP, is where are you?

To the Democratic party I ask the same thing, Where are you? Why aren’t you screaming the truth from the hills? Why aren’t you letting voters know that they should look at the actions of the GOP? To take note that not one of those white men bothered to show up to a debate that would reach black or Latino voters! The GOP isn’t the party of the minorities, and you should be reminding the nation of that.

A friend of mine learning English, asked me this evening:  “What is the difference between ‘pee’ and ‘piss’?”.  Zero responded that “When you pee on someone it’s consensual, when you piss on them it’s rude.”

I love my friends.