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Monthly Archive: May 2009

The Great March of Westchester: Support the DREAM Act & CIR

March in solidarity for our children’s future!

When: June 6th
Time: 1pm
Where: Behind the WP public library (Martine Avenue and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, White Plains NY 10601)

for more info contact Arturo – abravo911@optonline.net

http://westchesterdream.blogspot.com/

March for the DREAM Act!

March for the DREAM Act!

DREAM Act: Gaining Momentum

The DREAM Act, introduced in Congress on March 26, continues to gain national and local support. It has garnered the co-sponsorship of twenty-two Senators and sixty-two House members.

Last month, the College Board—composed of more than 5,000 member schools and other educational organizations—announced its backing for this legislation. In the report “Young Lives on Hold: The College Dreams of Undocumented Students,” the College Board notes that the DREAM Act would allow 360,000 undocumented high school graduates to attend college and legalize their immigration status. Every year, approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school, only 5 to 10 percent of them attend college.

Most students who would benefit from the DREAM Act came to the U.S. at an early age. They are educated in our schools and encouraged to succeed, but their immigration status limits their progress. As the author of the report states:

[They] have been raised to dream, yet are cut off from the very mechanisms that allow them to achieve their dreams.

According to Professor Allan Wernick, about 3,000 students at the City University of New York would benefit from the DREAM Act immediately. New York City and State representatives have voiced their support and urged Congress to enact it. On March 17, the New York Senate passed a resolution urging the federal government to take action. Mayor Bloomberg announced his support during Immigrant Heritage Week

The business sector has also voiced its support. Microsoft wrote a letter to Congress endorsing the bill. And just last week, Harvard’s president announced her support.

Our our nation’s economy will benefit from the contributions and skills of these young people. We cannot afford to waste their talents and potential. As Mayor Bloomberg said:

It is senseless for us to chase out the home-grown talent that has the potential to contribute so significantly to our society. They’re the ones who are going to start companies, invest in new technologies, pioneer medical advances.

On Hate and Fear

It is pretty clear that racism exists, and no matter what scientific knowledge says about the existence of race, humans keep dividing themselves on accounts of it. Our movement is fighting this trend of society with our own intellectual artillery and unsurpassed bravery. However, now I ask you my comrades in battle, are you really brave? There is none among you, I suspect, that thinks otherwise. In fact, you may think that the only reason why you are involved in this social outcry is because you are brave. Nevertheless, cowards go into battle, not because they don’t feel afraid at their enemy, but because they hate so much the thing they are attacking.

You hate racism, but as a consequence you also hate the racist. And by hating the racist, you are also proving that you are afraid of it because we tend to ignore the things for which we feel brave about, but we either attack or avoid the things that we fear. Out of fear comes hate. We cannot hate things that we feel brave about, and we cannot love the things that make us shiver. Hate, however, does not always lead to violence. You hate racists, but you have decided to carry on this fight without producing harm to the subjects of your hate. However, this cannot continue.

In the same way it is illogical to hurt a person we love, it is illogical to act with courtesy in front of those people we hate. Nevertheless, strange cases like this happen, with horrible consequences for the perpetrators. Lovers full of rage have brutally murdered the very person they loved. Then, they realized what they had done and there was nothing more than emptiness, sadness, desperation, and anguish. Acting peacefully in front of those we hate will eventually pollute us, lead us to madness, despair and our movement will fall due to its own hate. This dilemma leads us to two ways of responding to racism. One is an old way, and though effective, it many times leads to the destruction of the societies in which it was applied. The other is slow, and probably a new concept for our minds used to the old way of acting.

The old way is hate with violence. In this way we will canalize our fear (turned into hate) through the length of our weapons. Glory and power come when this method is applied because those who fight are viewed by the rest as heroes because it is thought they are bravely advancing toward the enemy. However, as noted before, these so called brave heroes are acting out of fear for their enemy and not out of real bravery. This method is effective because it seeks the destruction of the thing subject of our hate. We fight and we destroy it. We then impose our law and our way of thinking. Depending on how even is the struggle, this method can be a very quick way of changing our present condition as well.

The second method is slow and rather than destroying the enemy, we try to convert him to our side. However, many people would say that the method goes against common sense. This method is love and peace. It is not enough with acting peacefully toward the enemies; it is also about loving them. We will never win the peaceful battle against racism if we keep hating racists. In the same way a fire cannot put off a fire, hate cannot overcome hate. It takes its opposite to neutralize what is harmful and it takes truly brave people to volunteer to love their enemy. If we keep fighting, pushing against something, we will never advance. But if instead, we aim toward something and move toward that objective, we will not meet opposition nor enemy. This should not be a movement against racism; it should be movement for a future where justice prevails.

The racist is afraid of the subject of his hate. The racist hate because that is their human response to fear. Evidently, our enemy fears us and that is the reason why we cannot afford to hate them. Hating them would mean fearing them, and a movement cannot base itself out of fear because those who shiver will eventually fall.

Obama supports the Dream Act in el Piolin

President Obama kept a long time campaign promise to return to #1 nationally syndicated show “El Piolin por la Manana.” In the interview, President Obama talked about the Dream Act urged on by leading questions from “el Piolin”. Below is the summary of the interview followed by a translation.

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Entrevista de Piolin con el Presidente Obama, sobre DREAM ACT..

Por otro lado, Sotelo le preguntó a Obama también sobre el Dream Act, un proyecto de ley que en el pasado se ha estacando en el Congreso pero que, de ser aprobado, otorgaría becas y otros beneficios académicos a estudiantes indocumentados que quieren asistir a la universidad en Estados Unidos.

“Yo respaldo el Dream Act en un 100 por ciento”, reiteró Obama. “De hecho estoy comprometido con la educación… Mi administración ha elevado la cantidad de dinero que se invierte en la educación; porque quiero que más estudiantes tengan la oportunidad de ir a la universidad, que dispongan de más recursos, becas y préstamos”.

Refiriéndose específicamente a los estudiantes indocumentados, el presidente expresó, “en estos momentos estos alumnos son hijos de Estados Unidos y es muy probable que permanecerán en este país”.

Obama señaló que Estados Unidos tiene que tomar una gran decisión: Hacer “que se queden en este país sin educación o trabajar para que aprovechen las oportunidades académicas que ofrece este país”.

El presidente argumentó que más allá de crear los mecanismos legales para que los estudiantes indocumentados puedan acceder a la universidad, había que desarrollar un plan para que éstos puedan trabajar de forma legal en Estados Unidos una vez se gradúen.
“Es necesario que obtengamos al menos 60 votos en el Senado y una mayoría en la Cámara de Representantes… Esto es algo que aún tenemos que lograr”, indicó Obama.

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Translation in English

Interview with Presidente Obama about the DREAM ACT..

Piolin also asked Obama about the Dream Act, a legislation that in the past has gotten stuck in Congress, but if passed will grant sholarships and other academic benefits to undocumented student who want to enroll in college (Editor Note: This last sentence about the Dream Act is not entirely accurate)

“I support the Dream Act 100 percent”, Obama reiterated. “In fact, I am fully committed to education, my administration has raised funds to be invested in education because I want more students to have the opportunity to go to college and have better access to resources such as scholarships and loans”

Referring to undocumented student specifically, the president expressed “in these times, these students are sons and daughters of the Untied States and is very likely that they will remain in this country”

Obama pointed out that the US needs to make a great decision: Asking them “to remain in this country without an education or a right to work without taking advantage of the academic opportunities that this country offers.”

The president argued that it is necessary to create legal mechanisms for undocumented students to enroll in college but also to create a plan for these students to go to work once they graduate.

“It is necessary that we obtain at least 60 votes in the Senate and a mayority in the House of Representatives. This is something we still have to achieve,” Obama indicated.

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