Stupid Political Metaphors

Fox News started out as an alternative to the moderately liberal media outlets like NBC, CBS, CNN, New York Times, etc. (those outlets are not as Far Left as "The Nation", "Village Voice" or "Honolulu Weekly")

Fox News started out by claiming those liberal outlets are "out of touch with mainstream America" or at least the Red States!

1) However, Fox News E.D. Hill is the one who is out of touch with mainstream America!

While describing Barack & Michelle Obama's pounding each other's fist after a primary election victory speech, E.D. Hill described it by calling a "terrorist fist jab".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_vmQrTi3aM&NR=1

A "terrorist fist jab"? GET A CLUE E.D. Hill! Even the college conservatives are embarrassed at your ignorance! Even the most whitest of rural conservatives pound each other's fist when they greet each other!

This is embarrassing for the conservative movement, for a Fox News pundit to express such ignorance!

Even after her ignorant comment, ED Hill still seemed clueless on how young people greet each other! Get with the times Ms Hill!

Another level of idiocy from Fox News!

For example, during a discussion on Michelle Obama, the words "Barack Obama's Baby Mama" appeared on the bottom of the screen!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZEZL2LmA8


To those who don't understand what that means, "baby mama" is used to refer to someone who had a man's baby out of wedlock! Those are fighting words when referring to someone's wife!

"Baby Mama" is what rappers usually refer to their ex-girlfriends, and used in the context of "my baby mama's nagging me for child support", "my baby mama's not allowing me to see my kids", "my baby mama's a ho!"

This is desperate on Fox News part!

While there's nothing wrong with criticizing Barack Obama's policies, that's not what "baby mama" or "terrorist fist jab" is about! It's just desperate smears!

While, at least on ABC NEWS, there's hope. 20/20 co-host John Stossell is a libertarian who criticizes liberal policies on economics, environment, and other issues. He also does so WITHOUT disrespecting other cultures!

So while we can rely on Stossell to point out the policy flaws of Barack Obama & John McCain, he will do so without racial, religious or cultural smears!



2) Back in 2003, I wrote an editorial stating those whole idea of "Europeans being more Open-Minded than Americans" as FALSE, and pointed out the various bigotries existing in Europe! One of them was this stupid metaphor of the "cowboy mentality", which was used as a stereotype of the Rural White American as being "uncivilized Wild West types"

http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2003/04/01/Editorials/Trend.Of.European.Bigotry.Lacks.Respect-2802986.shtml

One of the common immature criticisms coming from the European anti-Americans is the criticism of President Bush and his "cowboy attitude". Think about this for a minute! This type of criticism is promoting prejudice against people who live in rural areas and live the ranching lifestyle!

Many of the people who spew out this anti-cowboy propaganda show extreme prejudice towards rural people of Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Wyoming and other similar states. But that's not all they're insulting! For one thing, they're insulting the paniolos, the Hawaiian cowboys. How does it feel to hear our fellow Hawai'i residents insulted by arrogant European chauvinists?

And who did both the white American cowboys and the paniolos learn the cowboy tradition from? They learned it from the Spanish and the Mexicans! The Hispanics are the original cowboys. I bet that many European chauvinists didn't know that.

And yet, Hissy Fit King (real name: Tobin Jones) defended this European bigotry

http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2003/04/09/Editorials/Letters.To.The.Editor-2802801.shtml

Unfortunately, Pablo W. seems to think that somehow the phrase "cowboy attitude" is meant as a slap in the face to real cowboys. This is all part of a weak attempt to link Hawaiian culture to Gulf War II. Its a METAPHOR, W! The image that most people conjure up of a cowboy is a wild guy on a horse raising Cain everywhere. That probably is not what a real cowboy does, but that sure is what Dubya is doing!

First off, how is me asking people to show the paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys) respect an "attempt to link Hawaiian culture to Gulf War II"?

It's a Metaphor, W? Is that what you're yelling at me, Hissy Fit King? Is, "baby mama" a metaphor? Is "terrorist fist jab" a metaphor?

While the many liberals did the right thing in denouncing Fox News on the "baby mama" and "terrorist fist jab" metaphors, there is still too many people in the Left who promotes the hateful attacks on Rural European-Americans!

There are some (not all) people on the Radical Left who try to stir up hatred and rivalries between Rural European-Americans, Urban European-Americans and African-Americans.

People like Hissy Fit Tobin Jones ought to be ashamed of themselves for defending the "cowboy" smear!

Like Rodney King asked "can we just get along?"

Poverty Here and Abroad

O-Shen, a dancehall reggae artist from Papua New Guinea, has an interesting take on what we call "ghettoes" in the US.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Aug/03/en/hawaii708030313.html

I actually printed the article last year and was going to blog on it then. However, I was distracted by other issues then. But I saw the printed copy of the article again, and now I'll comment on it

But 1st, this is how O-shen describes his song "Neva Seen a Ghetto"

'NEVA SEEN A GHETTO'

"In a lot of American hip-hop, everybody tries ... to talk about how where they come from is so rough and so poor and so rugged. In my opinion, nowhere like that really exists in the United States (compared) to what I've seen in other countries.

"A lot of these people that come (from) places they call ghettos are delusional. They don't know what a real ghetto is. They need to travel outside of the United States and see real poverty. ... The standard of what is called a ghetto in America wouldn't be called a ghetto somewhere else. In other countries, ghettos are where people lean some tin against a tree with a side of the house being a tarp. Here in America, we'd call that (being) homeless."

I expressed something very similar on Ka Leo back in 2001. I discussed the "rich-poor gap" in the US. I mentioned that the USA got the richest poor people in the world.

http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2001/11/01/Editorials/U.s-Not.Best.But.Better-2806056.shtml

I pointed out that the housing projects in Kalihi (where I grew up), people might be struggling to pay the bills, but they have things people in other countries don't have. Even in those housing projects, they got TVs (some of them hooked to cable), stereos (some with very loud bass), microwaves, ovens, refrigirators, running water, telephones (nowadays, they got cell phones) and beds.

However, this one guy I call the Hissy Fit King (real name: Tobin Jones) went all ballastic on me!

http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2001/11/05/Editorials/Letters.To.The.Editor.11.05.01-2806085.shtml

This Hissy Fit King also taunted me on myspace that he's been to more places than I did. (how would he know?)

Did Hissy Fit King ever visit Mexico?(and a few hours in Tijuana doesn't count) I DID!

While in Mexico, I visited Guadalajara, Mexico City and Oaxaca! I took the 3rd class bus ride from Mexico City to Oaxaca, and along the way I've seen rural poverty!

In Mexico City, my dad's childhood friend lived right near the airport's runway (you'd need earplugs there) I've seen urban slums there!

These slums in Mexico make South Central LA (I've been there too) look good in comparison!

While South Central LA isn't the ideal place to live, it doesn't erase the fact that many Mexicans & Central Americans rather move there than stay home!

While South Central LA was once known as the "land of African-American poverty", it is now mostly Latino. (Crenshaw & Baldwin Hills are still mostly African-American, but Compton, Watts, and Inglewood are now mostly Latino)

Why is that?

Because many African-Americans can now afford to live in the suburbs. Many former South Central LA residents moved to middle class suburbs in Riverside.

But Hissy Fit King gets bent out of shape when I mentioned that people have moved up the economic ladder in the USA, even non-whites. If that wasn't true, those African-Americans would've been stuck in South Central LA. And that neighborhood would've still be 80% African-America as it was when the NWA members were little kids!

Even the Latinos are moving up. My uncle once lived in Inglewood (considered part of South Central LA, even though it's not within LA city limits).

In fact, he was living there during the infamous 1992 riots. I still remember the 1st day of the riots, he called my home. I was 5th grade, just came home from school (it was about 3:30 Hawaii Time when he called) when he mentioned about fires in the neighborhood. My brother came home right after, I mentioned about the phone call, and my brother already knew about the riots.

However, now my uncle lives in Highland Park, a middle class Latino neighborhood near Pasadena.

Even places like San Fernando Valley and Orange County, once known as European-American middle class suburbs, now have a large Latino population. Those areas are still middle class, just more brown in it!


I know, Hissy Fit King would claim the LA riots is proof that USA is soooooo bad!

Yet, when I pointed out that there were racial conflict in France as well, Hissy Fit King went ballistic again

My article pointing Europeans aren't more open-minded than US Americans!
http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2003/04/01/Editorials/Trend.Of.European.Bigotry.Lacks.Respect-2802986.shtml

Hissy Fit King's pro-France hissy fits
http://media.www.kaleo.org/media/storage/paper872/news/2003/04/09/Editorials/Letters.To.The.Editor-2802801.shtml

Yet, look what happened a few years after I wrote about the issue.

In 2005, there was a racial riot in Paris, in which those of Arab & African ancestry rioted after a police brutality case.

Here was my commentary on those riots
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html#113158519574206143


The LA riots happened in 1992. The Paris riots happened in 2005.

So that means the Paris riots was more recent!

Yet, Hissy Fit King was upset that I claimed economic progress, and he ranted that there's still poverty & racism in the USA

Yet, Hissy Fit King was upset that I pointed out the same conditions existing in France!

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So why am I still writing about Hissy Fit King. Those who say "let it go", you probably have ZERO clue about what it's like to be smeared on your college's newspaper and on the Internet!

Civil disagreements is one thing! Hissy Fits and Temper Tantrums (Tobin Jone's tactics) is a whole different story!

Even though I am bigger than Hissy Fit King, I never did anything violent to him when I had the chance. I am a non-violent guy and I am able to restrain myself!

I contacted him on myspace earlier this year on civility, he responded back with another Temper Tantrum. If that's how he reacts, I'm just going to continue to vent my frustrations on my blog. I can't hold it in and I got my freedom of speech!

Hissy Fit King got his freedom of speech. SO DO I!

The 2 political Jesse's

The 2 political Jesse's -- Jesse Helms and Jesse Jackson -- represent many that is wrong with the right-wing and left-wing of American politics.


Part 1) Jesse Helms died on July 4th. The editorials on Helms life &death ranged from "he was the hero of freedom" to "that bigot should've died earlier"

The best commentary on Jesse Helms life anddeath was written by Juan Williams. Williams is an African-American centrist who has been accused of being a "conservative" for not going along with the Jesse Jackson/ Jeremiah Wright agenda!

However, Williams is criticizing Helms for being a phony "freedom fighter", and a bigot!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121581690915747421.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

In death, Sen. Jesse Helms is being honored as a conservative hero. My question is why?

Yes, the six-term senator defined right-wing political stands against communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and the former Soviet Union. Yes, he blocked international treaties that limited U.S. sovereignty. And, yes, he was masterful in his use of direct mail to stir contributions to conservative causes. But "Senator No" also created an angry, scolding, close-minded face for the modern GOP, exactly opposite to the sunny optimism of Ronald Reagan.

Helms did not invite people into the party; to the contrary, he seemed to delight in excluding people and played on the anxieties of rural, older Southern whites. But if the modern Republican Party is to thrive it has to get out the welcome mat for young people, specifically the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population: Hispanics and Asians, as well as younger blacks who are more likely than their elders to be politically independent.

Today's GOP needs white men with college degrees and suburban white women with education, careers and children. Helms was never comfortable with this crowd; his worldview grew out of the experiences of a Depression-era young, white man from North Carolina. And he was too comfortable with the ordered world of racial segregation he knew as a child.

To be sure, for Helms the essence of North Carolina values was keeping taxes low, and fighting against big government. That is a great message. It won him a base of support.

But that base was rural working-class voters and white suburban male voters. He rallied this base by letting everyone know he disliked Chapel Hill intellectuals -- the kind of people who protested for equal rights for blacks and challenged U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He showed no compassion for gays coming out of the closet and women who wanted abortion rights; instead choosing to make them demons threatening family values. And he made blunt use of racial politics.

[skipped paragraphs]

Helms also had an answer to charges that he played racial politics. Helms told me that he had never spoken before the NAACP in North Carolina simply because the group always endorsed Democrats so there was no political benefit to addressing their convention. But he added he regularly met with black constituents who needed individual help from their home-state senator. His opposition to affirmative action, he explained, was a matter of his belief that the best qualified people should always get the job. He did not have much to say about his opposition to the King holiday, except that he was suspicious of people who stirred up racial protests. [pablo's note: those racial protests happened because of punks like Jesse Helms]

This was all done with a sly wink. Helms was smart enough to know he was dancing around with rationalizations, simply for political expediency. He was holding on to the past, even as his state and the nation was changing. Today, North Carolina is a state where a black man can win the Democratic primary for president.

Republican leaders in the Tar Heel State and nationally would be wise to tip their hats to Jesse Helms as a man of the distant past who lived long beyond his political era. But the greatest wisdom will be to resist any temptation to make a hero out of him. The demographic shifts sweeping America mean that the key to building a successful 21st-century GOP will be a decisive turn away from Helms's use of the politics of exclusion.

Even though I am disturbed by the Radical Left (and the Democrats who pander to them), the reason why I never joined the Republican Party was because of people like Jesse Helms. Helms is a morality fascist and panders to racists & gay-bashers!

Even many Republicans are repulsed by Jesse Helms! There's a reason why John McCain isn't following the Jesse Helms strategy! Neither did George W. Bush! (and neither Republican governors like California's Arnold Schwarzenegger or Hawaii's Linda Lingle)

But I suspect Helms last few victories had MORE to do with his ability to bring pork barrel projects to North Carolina, and LESS to do with his ultra-conservative ideology!



Part 2) Now for the other Jesse--- Jesse Jackson.

While waiting for an interview to start, Jackson was whispering to the guy sitting next to him about Barack Obama. Jackson claimed Obama was "talking down to black people" and then said he wanted to "cut [Obama's] nuts off"

Cut his nuts off?

Here's Mitch Albom's commentary on that!

http://jewishworldreview.com/0708/albom071408.php3

And if you don't think Jackson is worried about Obama eroding his power base, why was he moved to say, "I want to cut his n—-s off." You don't say that when you disagree with someone's philosophy.

You say that when you perceive a threat.

Jackson feels envy toward's Obama for being the new unofficial leader of the African-American community!

And what is this "Obama was talking down to black people"?

Obama was speaking out against fathers ditching their family, fathers not paying child support, fathers not being there for their kids.

While Obama was addressing the pervasiveness of absent fathers in the African-American community, it is a problem that affects other cultural groups of all races!

This reminds me of Reverend Jesse Jackson having an affair with his employee, getting her pregnant, and getting sued for child support payment! That was in 2001!

That was the begginning of the end for Jesse Jackson. Just the year before (2000), Jesse Jackson had a very high status, being the main guy drumming up support for then- Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore!

However, after the news of Jackson's impregnating a woman through an extra-marital affair, many church-going African-Americans were offended! While no man is perfect, they expected better from a reverend.

It got so bad, that even the gangsta rap pioneer Ice Cube was giving Jesse Jackson a moral lecture on Westside Connection's "Lights Out"

http://www.kovideo.net/lyrics/w/Westside-Connection/Lights-Out.html

So you can tell Samuel L. I'ma keep ac'in
You can even tell that xxxxxxxxxxxx Jesse Jackson
Pay your child suport, keep your payments up
Put a rubber on and don't xxxx wit us

Part 3)

The Obama speech on absent fathers remind me of Bill Cosby!


It was a few years ago that legendary African-American comedian Bill Cosby was speaking out against irresponsible parents. His speech-making tour was criticized as a "Blame the Poor Tour"!

As a person of Mexican-American ancestry, I say the Mexican-American also needs it's own version of Bill Cosby, and it also need it's own version of the so-called "Blame the Poor Tour"

Someone in the Latino community needs to speak up about the problems within the Latino community, including

1)the high school drop-out rate (highest of all racial groups in the US). Some blame the language barrier. Remember, many Asian immigrants also face the language barrier, but they don't drop-out at the same level of Latinos in the US! Even US born Latinos (who speak mostly English) drop out at high rates!

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22692

http://www.centrohispano.org/_pdf/Latinos%20in%20highschool.pdf

2) the high level of Latino youth joining gangs. Too many of us are wasting their potential in violent crime instead of studying and trying to successful in legit ventures! And it's mostly the ones born in the US who are involved in violent crime

3) the hate crimes commited by Latinos against African-Americans and other groups!

It is known that the Mexican Mafia has declared war against African-Americans!

It was only last year when Latino gang members in the Harbor Gateway community in Los Angeles were targeting anyone of African-American ancestry for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. They even shot an innocent 14-year-old girl. Maybe those murderers were too cowardly to fight the Bloods or Crips, so they targeted unarmed citizens

http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/2007/march30-07/gangs.htm

http://www.infowars.com/articles/immigration/mexican_gangs_ethnic_cleansing_blacks_in_la.htm

If there's anyone who needs to be castrated, it's those racist killers associated with the Mexican Mafia!

4) the high rate of alcoholism within the Latino community! Too many of us are involved in drunkeness, and the Latino community has the highest rate of drunk driving!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-10-hispanic-dui_N.htm

According to the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center, 7.04% of Hispanic drivers involved in crashes in the state in 2005 were suspected of driving while intoxicated. That compares with 2.82% of whites in crashes and 2.29% of African-Americans, according to Eric Rodgman, a researcher at the center. Most of the Hispanics involved in crashes are young men, he says.

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We need someone in the Latino community to be blunt on those issues the same way Bill Cosby is blunt with his fellow African-Americans!

We can't blame it all on the "white man", "Anglos", or "gringos"!

Yes, we must continue to stand up to divisive bigots like Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, Michelle Malkin or Rod Tam !

But too many disfunctions within ghetto Latino communities (commonly called "barrios") have nothing to do with the anti-immigration fascists!

It isn't "blame the victim", "blame the poor" or "making the white racist smile"! It's being blunt about what's going on and ringing the alarm!

Too many Latinos lives are wasting in dropping out, gang violence, committing hate crimes and drunkeness! Someone needs to say something!

4th of July

232 years ago today, the United States of America had declared independence.

It was the start of the greatest nation in history.

Unfortunately, there's some haters out there, even in the USA

Haters like Jeremiah Wright and Tobin Jones{my # 1 critic at UH-Manoa}. Nevermind that the USA gave Wright an opportunity to (voluntarily) join the Marines, and become a prominent and relatively wealthy minister!

Nevermind that the USA gave Jones an opportunity to go to college, receive a communications degree and be financially well off enough to travel to 26 states that he likes to brag about. (though he could be exaggerating to give himself a sense of "false sophistication" to rub it in his enemies faces)

In Mexico, there's no self-hatred, no embarrassment of being Mexican, nor any preacher screaming "god damn Mexico", even though Mexico has the same history of bloody conquests, slavery, and oppression like the USA! They recognize their history, but it doesn't stop them from having pride in their country!

Despite the stereotypes perpetuated by Jeremiah Wright and Tobin Jones, many African-Americans don't appreciate the anti-US animosity that comes from Wright or Jones! They love the USA and the opportunity it brings them!

Here's Walter Williams, an African-American economist, expressing disagreement of the pessimists  http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=4217

 

Here’s my question for you: What are we to make of people who preach pessimism and doom to people — telling them that they’re poor because others are rich or telling blacks that they’ll never make it because of societal racism? What are we to make of politicians, media pundits and college professors who preach the politics of envy — telling people lies that the rich became rich off the backs of the poor? I grew up poor in a housing project in North Philadelphia, and those weren’t the lessons prevalent a half-century ago

Every nation has flaws!

But if so many people are interested in representing their neighborhoods, their schools, their  cities, their states, their coasts (or regions), then we can extend that in also representing our country!

Some say Europeans aren't into national pride, but that's nonsense! Europeans scream national pride at soccer games. So do Latin Americans, Africans, Asians, Middle Easterners, Pacific Islanders and everyone else. Even the Canadians scream their national pride at hockey games!

So ignore the haters like Tobin Jones and Jeremiah Wright! Be proud of the USA!

Light rail and Property Confiscation

Earlier this month, I wrote a letter to the Honolulu Advertiser about the possibility of people's property being confiscated to make room for the rail project. It was NEVER a major topic of discussion when the City Council was debating over whether we should build the rail system. The City Council approved the rail project WITHOUT discussing whether it's a good idea to force people off their property to make room for the rail.



Here is my letter to the Honolulu Advertiser



http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080608/OPINION02/806080331/-1/BACKISSUES

Property issue should have been addressed


Last Sunday's article on the possibility of people's property being confiscated to make room for the rail project addressed an issue that should have been addressed long before the City Council voted to approve rail.


I have previously written letters, as have others, warning about the possibility of people being forced off their land to make room for the light rail. I also wrote letters to the mayor and my City Council representative on this issue.


However, we have been ignored by nearly everyone.


I'm not against the idea of a rail system. I am against the idea of people's property being confiscated to make way for light rail (or any other project), and it's a shame very few have addressed this issue.



Pablo Wegesend

Honolulu

Now, here is the Honolulu Advertiser addressing the possible land confiscation to make room for rail.

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/NEWS09/806010355/-1/BACKISSUES



A few weeks later, the Honolulu Advertiser mentioned about the Banana Patch neighborhood in Pearl City that might be demolished to make room for rail

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS09/806160345/-1/BACKISSUES

A corner of old Hawai'i sandwiched between highways in West O'ahu will be converted into a park-and-ride lot based on the city's current plan for its new commuter rail line.

Located near the intersection of Kamehameha and Farrington highways, the tiny Banana Patch neighborhood is a rural oasis that so far has withstood encroaching urban development.

Families still live without county water, street lights or sidewalks in the 20-acre triangle between Leeward Community College, the Pearl Highlands Center and two 43-story high-rises. The Banana Patch encompasses about a dozen homes, a church and a trucking company.

At least six of the families may need to move to make way for a park-and-ride facility planned by the city as part of its $3.7 billion commuter rail system.

The proposed Pearl Highlands park-and-ride has been identified as a key way to funnel North Shore and Central O'ahu commuters onto the rail system. Commuters along the H-2 Freeway could drive to the lot, park and take the train to work, avoiding the congested H-1 Freeway.

Sixty-one-year-old property owner Sam Alipio has lived on a 1-acre lot in the Banana Patch his entire life. He calls it "the place that time forgot" and is not too pleased about being moved out.

"I'm kind of upset. I don't want them to use my property," Alipio said. "We're comfortable here. A lot of people say, 'Hey how can you live there?' Well, that's the way I was brought up."

And here is the City & County's arrogant attitude towards the idea of (gasp) notifying people that their property would be confiscated to make way for rail.

While the city has held numerous information briefings on the rail project, it should do more to notify property owners that they may be affected, said City Council member Gary Okino, who represents Pearl City, including the Banana Patch neighborhood.

"I think the city feels that's enough notice. If you live in the vicinity, it's up to you to find out if your property is affected," Okino said. "To me they should be proactive, and they should notify the property owners."

And here is KSSK's Larry Price on this issue!

http://www.midweek.com/content/columns/therightprice_article/stealing_land_for_the_rail_plan/

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Too bad those articles weren't written before the City Council approved light rail. It might've changed the discussion. Even the majority of the rail opponents didn't address the possible land confiscation.

I did a few years back and you can read it at

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?e801cca5-cbf2-4882-8a14-9a57607c7340

An excerpt from my editorial

They'll build it in locations where real people have their homes and businesses. It could be your home or your business that will be confiscated by the government through eminent domain. Your whole way of life will be ruined, all because of the utopian fantasies of others. It wouldn't matter if the government gives you the full monetary value of your property when they confiscate it. Your home is more than its monetary value; it's your memories, your way of life and a lot of other things that money can't buy.

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I also remember writing an editorial at the Hawaii Reporter against the idea of building an expanded UH West Oahu campus

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?10953863-82d7-4492-aa59-fdfd7286e091


However, since then, I have changed my mind, because I'm thinking, if UH West Oahu reduces the traffic jams on the H-1, then there's less need for rail transit, and less worry about possible land confiscation to make way for light rail! UH West-Oahu will still be highly expensive, but it's better than having people forced off their land to make way for rail!

My editorial on Rod Tam

As I mentioned in the previous post, at a city council meeting on the construction of UH-West Oahu campus, Councilman Rod Tam referred to illegal aliens as "wetbacks". Tam later claimed he didn't know the word "wetbacks" is commonly used to insult Mexican-Americans.

I have written an editorial that have been published in the Hawaii Reporter and the Honolulu Star Bulletin

The Hawaii Reporter version

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/storyPrint.aspx?9f8be17f-3cfe-40c5-8eed-9cdf4e72a86d

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Star Bulletin version

http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/10/editorial/commentary2.html

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They're actually the same editorial, though edited slightly differently by the 2 outlets.

Here is the original versions as I written it myself, though I color-coded some sentences on this blog!

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Last year, bounty hunter Dog Chapman was recorded using the N-word. He later claimed that he didn't know the N-word was offensive to African-Americans.

This year, city councilman Rod Tam used the word "wetback" at a city council meeting, in references to illegal aliens. Tam claimed that he didn't know that the word "wetback" was considered offensive to Mexican-Americans.

The word "wetback" was originally used to mock Mexican immigrants who swam the Rio Grande into the U.S. However, the word is commonly used by anti-Mexican racists to insult and threaten anyone of Mexican ancestry, even those whose parents and grandparents are born in the U.S

It is similar to the history of the word "haole". The word was originally used to refer to "foreigners". Being that the first foreign people to arrive in Hawaii were of European ancestry, it was later used to refer to all those with European ancestry. While some local Euorpean-Americans refer to themselves as "haole", the word is also used by anti-white racists to insult and threaten anyone with European ancestry, even those whose parents and grandparents were born in Hawaii.

It doesn't look good for Hawaii, a state that likes to call itself a "paradise of racial tolerance", to have two prominent individuals to display such ignorance on racial issues,especially when it comes to ethnic groups that don't have as many members here.
--
Hawaii has the highest percentage in this country of multi-racial people (including me, a Mexican-Puerto Rican-Spanish- Portuguese- German), and inter-racial marriages (like my brother's marriage to a Korean woman).

Hawaii also never had the large-scale violent racial riots that have devastated many major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Miami, Detroit, or Cincinnati.

However, that doesn't mean that Hawaii is immune to it's residents having negative stereotypes and ignorance of cultural groups that are new or uncommon here!
While the conflicts between Native Hawaiians and European-Americans have been well documented, an under-reported racial conflict occuring in many low-income urban Honolulu communities and schools involve Polynesians, Micronesians and Asian immigrants. Some of those conflicts have ranged from mockery of each other's speech patterns to violent gang fights!

For many of those immigrants, this is the first time they're expreriencing diversity. The old-Hawaii plantation history is irrelevant to them, because their families weren't in Hawaii in the old plantation days! The insecurity of being in someplace new, the humiliation of being mocked by others, and the need to defend their honor, all contribute to the current-day conflicts in urban Honolulu.

The fame of Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for the President of the United States of America, has exposed the isolation some African-Americans feel in Hawaii. While Obama's life in Hawaii wasn't exposed to the level of hate that was prominent in places like Alabama or Mississippi, he still feel stereotyped or misunderstood growing up here!

My experience as a local boy, born and raised in Hawaii, has many similarities to Obama's upbringing. The difference was that Obama is of African and European ancestry (with the African side being more visible), I am of Latin American and European ancestry (with the Latin American side being more visible). Also, unlike Obama, I am a public school graduate (McKinley c/o 99)

Because I look more like the typical Mexican, everyone assumes I'm from somewhere, despite Hawaii being the only place I ever lived in. Some even refused to believe when I mentioned being born & raised in Hawaii. Usually, I'm stereotyped as being from California, Mexico or Puerto Rico.

Some even said I look "Middle Eastern". While many Latin Americans and Middle Eatern people have light-brown skin(like me), their cultures are very different from each other.

Coincidentally, the day after I learned of Tam's use of the word "wetback", a lady at a bus stop wanted to ask me about what buses pass by. But before she even asked about the buses, she asked if I "speak English".

This reminds me of back when I was in middle school (Kawananakoa, the so-called safe option of Honolulu middle schools), some local Asians assumed I was "foreign". Not only did I "not look local", I had a tendency to mumble when I talk. If a Hawaiian, local Asian or a European-American was mumbling, people would just consider it "mumbling". But because I "dont look local", I was stereotyped as being "foreign". The big irony is if those local Asians were sent to Idaho or Mississippi, they would be the ones stereotyped as "foreign".

Those same local Asians were surprised when I expressed an above-average level of intellect! Maybe because I wasn't Asian!

Some people express shock when I mention that my family eats kalua pork, shoyu chicken, saimin, and other popular local food. Why are people shocked when a Latin American familyadjust to Hawaii culture the same way so many Asians and Samoans adjusted to Hawaii culture?
Now some are expressing shock that many Latinos in Hawaii are demanding respect. Some are expressing shock that we refuse to be soft doormats when being humiliated! How dare we stand up for ourselves?

Some say "it's just words".

To those who say "it's just words" -- would you call your mother a "whore"? Was that "just words"?
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I don't intend to sound like a "victim". I just want to inform the people of Hawaii what it's like to be a Latino in Hawaii.

Despite being part of a cultural minority, I consider Hawaii my home. I was born & raised in Hawaii. Hawaii has a great climate, great culture, great music, great food and many great people! I am a UH alumni, and a UH Rainbow/Warrior/Wahine fan and represent the UH green to the minute I die! 

I hope the Latinos from outside Hawaii don't get scared off by the Rod Tam controversy and I will welcome any Latino to join in the cultural diversity of Hawaii!

Who you're calling wetback, Rod Tam?

City Councilman Rod Tam, at a zoning meeting, expressed concerns about the use of illegal aliens in building the West Oahu campus of the University of Hawaii.

However, he referred to illegal aliens as "wetbacks"

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/storyPrint.aspx?fb0e8250-c179-4448-9d74-dff1ce1d537b

1) Tam claimed that he didn't know that the word "wetback" was considered offensive to Mexican-Americans.

That reminds me of Dog Chapman, who caught using the N-word, claimed that he didn't know the N-word was offensive to African-Americans.

It doesn't look good for Hawaii, a state that likes to call itself a "paradise of racial tolerance", to have two prominent individuals to display such ignorance on racial issues, especially when it comes to ethnic groups that don't have as many members here.

2)The word "wetback" was originally used to mock Mexican immigrants who swam the Rio Grande into the U.S. However, the word is commonly used by anti-Mexican racists to insult and threaten anyone of Mexican ancestry, even those whose parents and grandparents are born in the U.S

It is similar to the history of the word "haole". The word was originally used to refer to "foreigners". Being that the first foreign people to arrive in Hawaii were of European ancestry, it was later used to refer to all those with European ancestry. While some local Euorpean-Americans refer to themselves as "haole", the word is also used by anti-white racists to insult and threaten anyone with European ancestry, even those whose parents and grandparents were born in Hawaii.

3) Before the "wetback controversy, Rod Tam was known as the "snack and a nap guy"

This was due to his proposal, back when he was a state legislator, for the state government to subsidize snacks for state workers, and to subsidize paid nap time for state workers.

Tam's proposal was heavily ridiculed, and it never went any further in the state legislator.

So, anytime Tam said anything ridiculous or controversial, the jokes about the "snacks and nap" come up again!

So, if Elizabeth Hata-Watanabe (a popular Mexican-Japanese woman who owns the O-Lounge nightclub, a prominent community fundraiser, and recently named by Honolulu Advertiser as "Mom of the Year") was to move Rod Tam's district and run for office -- Tam's political career would be over. Then Rod Tam would have plenty of time to enjoy his snacks and nap!

4) I sent an editorial on this to the major newspapers! It has more commentary, and I'll link to it if published!