Last week, the University of Hawaii (UH) football ended the regular season with an undefeated record!
This has been an amazing turnaround for Hawaii football.
Back in 1998, the UH football team was 0-12! It was the boiling point of 6 straight years of loosing seasons. The coach, Fred von Appen, was fired after 3 loosing seasons
This was how bleak the situation was during the von Appen years
!1) many of the top local high school football players chose to play for mainland colleges instead of being humilated as a UH player. Those local high school players who wanted to play for UH were even embarrassed to admit to others, knowing they'll be asked "why would you want to play for a sh----y team?"
2) when one of the college counselors came to my 11th grade English class (1997-1998 school year), and talk about the standards required to attend UH, one girl said out loud "why would I want to attend UH? They have such a junk football team!" This girl didn't play any sports, yet didn't want to attend UH "because UH had a junk football team"
3) Rumors went around that at a local high school reunion, when one of the prizes announced was free UH football tickets, people booed!
4) People joked about top high school football teams beating UH football.
That was how embarrassing it was to be associated with UH football.
However, in 1999, UH had a new football coach June Jones. (Coincidentally, it was my 1st year as a UH student). The situation changed.
After the 2nd game of the 1999 season, people asked "did you see the football game", the common reply was "WE FINALLY WON!" UH also won it's 1st road game in years, had a 1st winning season since 1992, won a WAC championship, and even won a bowl game.
PRIDE WAS RESTORED!
Because of the great 1999 season, most of the all-state high school players graduating in 2000 chose to play college football for UH!
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Fast-forward to this year -- 2007. Sales of UH athletic merchandise went up. The Aloha Stadium had more fans at the games. Even attendance at sports bars went up this year!
It's common to see people wearing UH football jerseys, and UH WAC champions T-shirts! People who usually don't care about football are talking about the UH Warriors!
Now, as the UH football team is going to play Georgia in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, tickets sold out fast! Demand exceeded supply BIG TIME!
----
And that girl in my high school class who said she didn't want to attend UH because of it's "junk football team"?
I wouldn't be surprised if she gathers with friends to watch UH games while wearing a black UH football jersey with Colt Brennan's #15.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Fugitive Slaves and Illegal Aliens
African-American right wingers like Thomas Sowell and Jesse Lee Peterson (as well as some left-wing black supremacists) complain about illegal Mexican immigrants coming to the US to take jobs away from low-income African-Americans.
What irony! When many African-Americans were moving from the South to the North and West in the late 1800's/early 1900's , many European-Americans in the North & West were complaining about African-American migrants coming to take jobs away from low-income European-Americans!
Also, Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina. His parents moved him to New York when he was a teenager. (taking jobs away from New Yorkers). And he has been working at California colleges for decades. (taking jobs away from Californians)
The same irony is true about Iris-Americans like Pat Buchanan, Jewish Americans like Mike Savage, Italian Americans like Tom Tancredo. Their ancestors were seen as taking jobs away from Anglo-Americans. Yet, those individuals are whining about Mexican immigrants taking jobs away from European-Americans!
Here is what I read from a great email from Stuart Hayashi
Lately I've been reading Thomas J. DiLorenzo. I have many strong disagreements with him, but he pointed out something interesting.From the early 1800s to 1860, white Northern labor unions were strong advocates of the Fugitive Slave Act because they were horrified by the prospect that some rich white Northern businessman might hire fugitive slaves to work for him for very low wages. Dr. DiLorenzo writes that Northern states decided to pass laws to fine or criminally prosecute Northern businesses that hired fugitive slaves.
Furthermore, it was argued that the fugitive slaves fleeing to the North were becoming a huge burden, and who's going to take care of them?
So . . . what do we have here? We have a bunch of dark-skinned people who are located South of some border on the Americas. Then these people located in the South choose to migrate Northward. This very migration is a form of lawbreaking. And then the law of the Northern region forces these people to return to that Southern place they came from. This is allegedly to stop those illegal migrators from becoming a burden up North -- to stop them from depressing the wages of the lighter-skinned Northern people, and to stop them from stealing jobs from those born in the Northern region.
Sound familiar?
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Former Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been getting crap for once proposing that children of illegal aliens living in Arkansas get to attend Arkansas colleges at in-state tuition rates.
These children (about to become college-aged adults) DID NOT CHOOSE TO MIGRATE ILLEGALLY!
When a parent and children move, IT'S THE PARENTS WHO MAKE THE DECISION, NOT THE CHILDREN! DUH!
So why not let those teens/young adults attend college at in-state tuition rates?
The anti-immigration fascists say "we can't reward lawbreakers!"
"Cant reward lawbreakers?" So I guess that means we can't give in-state tuition to those whose parents are killers, rapists, drug dealers, drunk drivers, thieves, and all those who have too many parking tickets.
Anti-immigration fascists want to punish people for what their parents did. Why stop there? What about punishing people for having the wrong ancestors? Why not deny in-state tuition rates to the descendants of European conquerors and slave-owners?
What irony! When many African-Americans were moving from the South to the North and West in the late 1800's/early 1900's , many European-Americans in the North & West were complaining about African-American migrants coming to take jobs away from low-income European-Americans!
Also, Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina. His parents moved him to New York when he was a teenager. (taking jobs away from New Yorkers). And he has been working at California colleges for decades. (taking jobs away from Californians)
The same irony is true about Iris-Americans like Pat Buchanan, Jewish Americans like Mike Savage, Italian Americans like Tom Tancredo. Their ancestors were seen as taking jobs away from Anglo-Americans. Yet, those individuals are whining about Mexican immigrants taking jobs away from European-Americans!
Here is what I read from a great email from Stuart Hayashi
Lately I've been reading Thomas J. DiLorenzo. I have many strong disagreements with him, but he pointed out something interesting.From the early 1800s to 1860, white Northern labor unions were strong advocates of the Fugitive Slave Act because they were horrified by the prospect that some rich white Northern businessman might hire fugitive slaves to work for him for very low wages. Dr. DiLorenzo writes that Northern states decided to pass laws to fine or criminally prosecute Northern businesses that hired fugitive slaves.
Furthermore, it was argued that the fugitive slaves fleeing to the North were becoming a huge burden, and who's going to take care of them?
So . . . what do we have here? We have a bunch of dark-skinned people who are located South of some border on the Americas. Then these people located in the South choose to migrate Northward. This very migration is a form of lawbreaking. And then the law of the Northern region forces these people to return to that Southern place they came from. This is allegedly to stop those illegal migrators from becoming a burden up North -- to stop them from depressing the wages of the lighter-skinned Northern people, and to stop them from stealing jobs from those born in the Northern region.
Sound familiar?
-----
Former Arkansas governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been getting crap for once proposing that children of illegal aliens living in Arkansas get to attend Arkansas colleges at in-state tuition rates.
These children (about to become college-aged adults) DID NOT CHOOSE TO MIGRATE ILLEGALLY!
When a parent and children move, IT'S THE PARENTS WHO MAKE THE DECISION, NOT THE CHILDREN! DUH!
So why not let those teens/young adults attend college at in-state tuition rates?
The anti-immigration fascists say "we can't reward lawbreakers!"
"Cant reward lawbreakers?" So I guess that means we can't give in-state tuition to those whose parents are killers, rapists, drug dealers, drunk drivers, thieves, and all those who have too many parking tickets.
Anti-immigration fascists want to punish people for what their parents did. Why stop there? What about punishing people for having the wrong ancestors? Why not deny in-state tuition rates to the descendants of European conquerors and slave-owners?
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