Long after killings are no longer headline news, Arizona will continue contending Read more…
Commentary
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<p> As a professor of ethnic studies, I feel under assault.</p>
<p> At the beginning of this year, Arizona’s HB 2281 targeting ethnic studies in Tucson’s public school system went into effect. For those of us who teach ethnic studies — for all educators — this ban represents a call to arms.</p>
<p> Of course, I mean that figuratively. HB 2281 apparently does not.</p>
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<p> The 2010 election represented a historic victory for center-right principles and candidates. Voters across the country responded positively to a message of low taxes, responsible spending and individual freedom, effectively rejecting some of the major policies enacted over the past two years. As we look ahead to a new year brimming with excitement and possibility, we cannot simply rest on the success of 2010; the conservative movement must commit to a long-term outreach strategy to ensure our message is being heard.</p>
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<p> Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just asserted for a second time that our Constitution does not protect women against discrimination. That was one of the arguments for passing the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and ironically, people of Scalia’s “conservative” persuasion often countered that the ERA was not needed precisely because women are already protected by the 14th Amendment.</p>
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<p> For as long as can be remembered, San Diego County was home to a Western-European descendant population that politically and economically controlled the region. The other ethnic and racial group minorities were tolerated, as long as they were passive in their demands and submissive to the will of the majority.</p>
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<p> Despite millions of gallons of blood spilled in the “War to End all Wars” AKA World War I, few political quotes of that war have survived to this day with one giant exception;</p>
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<p> Having been born a year after the Civil Rights Act was signed, I’m disheartened that resegregation of our schools is now an established fact.</p>
<p> In the 2006-07 school year, more than 50 years after the Supreme Court’s landmark desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education, approximately 40 percent of black and Latino students attended schools that were 90 to 100 percent minority.</p>
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<p> As Sacramento prepares to inaugurate Governor-elect Jerry Brown next month, much of the focus has been on the state’s looming budget deficit and how the legislature and Brown plan to bridge that gap. </p>
<p> For years now, Californians have been told that we must choose between cutting public services and public service employees or budget armageddon.</p>
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<p> Last weekend the Senate failed to pass the DREAM Act. It would have provided a path to citizenship for thousands of undocumented, foreign born American youth who have successfully graduated from U.S. high schools and wanted to either go to college or serve in the military.</p>