Category: Uncategorized

  • Why Rick Casey Should Apologize

    In a Feb. 8 column, Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle quotes the editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review to the effect that the election-contest hearing in the Heflin-Vo race had not demonstrated fraud BY Democrat voters of West Houston, but instead had “served up a fine public record of practices by Republicans and unknown others that would suppress their rights.”

    Casey then goes on to show that “unknown others” included folks who were not Republicans. On that basis, Casey concludes that the sentence written by the editor of the Texas Civil Rights Review is false. But the sentence above expressly admits that some parties to fraud perpetrated against voters of West Houston would NOT be Republican, and that’s why we called them “unknown others.”

    So we conclude that the purpose of Casey’s column was simply to discredit the work of the Texas Civil Rights Review. But we will not be deterred. Thanks to our prodding, Casey’s column addresses issues that did not previously appear in the Houston Chronicle’s coverage of the Heflin-Vo hearing.

    We’re not saying we’re perfect here. Like any editor or reporter, I wish I never made a mistake. But when we put in more hours than anyone else on an issue, and when we take the time to point out what is not being covered in the corporate media, and when we make claims that are logically sound, we expect a fair hearing.

    We certainly expect introductory level logic. When we claim that Democratic voters of West Houston have been wronged by Republicans and unknown others, and when Rick Casey proves that West Houston voters have in fact been wronged by unknown others, then we expect the decency of admitting that we were right, not wrong. Otherwise, there is nothing going on in Rick Casey’s column beyond a blatant use of his corporate space to suprress other voices around him, which is a misuse of his power.

    We picked no fights with Casey, and we feel he owes us an apology. Either in the form of a direct apology or in the form of serious attention to our continuing work on the Heflin-Vo docs, this time by name.

  • Portales: Why We Must Insist

    via email
    March 5, 2004

    I dislike being so insistent, but sometimes

    one
    has no choice–given where we have to go.
    Did others notice yesterday’s [Mar. 4] Houston

    Chronicle
    editorial titled “For Green”? The editors wrote
    that they recommend Paul Green and

    not Steve
    Wayne Smith to serve as Place 5 justice on the Texas
    Supreme Court.

    They

    point to the fact that they prefer Green because
    Smith is credited with the Hopwood lawsuit

    that
    “injuriously halted” race as an admissions factor in college admissions, which lost financial

    aid for countless students in Texas. If students were injured by Hopwood almost 8 years ago this

    March 18th [1996], what can we say today about our admissions policy at Texas A&M?

    We

    continue to follow Hopwood’s color-blind policy.
    In GRUTTER (June 23, 2003), the Supreme

    Court
    allowed institutions like Texas A&M, who are
    struggling to recruit minority students, to

    tailor race as one of other accepted factors in college admissions.

    We have, in short,

    now a LEGAL tool–just as Hopwood
    WAS legal–to recruit more minority students, but we
    are not

    using that tool.

    Indeed, our administration refuses to avail itself of that

    tool.

    Why? Because it basically does not want to. For there are now no constitutional

    grounds for embracing Hopwood’s failed color-blind policies, especially when there is a perfectly good

    and legitimate tool for recruiting the minority students that Texas A&M so badly

    needs.

    I believe that we now have no choice but to challenge the administration to

    provide legal support for not considering race when that option is now legally acceptable. Not to do so

    would make us remiss in our responsibilities to the changing demographics of the state of

    Texas.

    So, how should we proceed?

    Sincerely,

    Marco

    Portales, Ph.D.

  • Task Force Docs at Downloads

    View crucial documents that were considered by the
    summer 2003 Task Force on Admissions,

    appointed by
    Texas A&M President Robert Gates.

    The following documents in pdf format

    (5.0 or higher)
    have been added to the Downloads section at the Texas
    Civil Rights Review.

    Please go to Downloads, then to
    “A&M Task Force

    Documents:

    https://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke

    *****Aug. 6 Agenda

    “Lite”

    Description: Six pages of the Aug. 6 agenda (excluding
    the sample copy of the

    “Texas Common Application”.)

    *****Aug. 6 Task Force Agenda

    Description: Agenda

    for Aug. 6 meeting of the 2003
    Task Force on Admissions at Texas A&M, discusses
    options,

    including the one eventually adopted by the
    TaskForce, favoring affirmative action in

    admissions.

    *****Confidential Laycock Analysis

    Description: On July 1, 2003,

    Univ. of Texas Law
    Professor Douglas Laycock issued this 7-page analysis
    of the Supreme Court

    opinions in Grutter and Gratz. It
    is marked “Confidential” as legal advice, but was
    divulged by

    Texas A&M in response to an open records request.

    *****July 18 memo from Gates

    Description: 2-page memo from Texas A&M Univ.
    President Robert Gates, inviting participation in

    the
    2003 Task Force on Admissions.

    *****Nixon Peabody Analysis
    Description: In

    June of 2003, the law firm of Nixon
    Peabody issued this 7-page analysis of the Supreme
    Court

    opinions in Grutter and Gratz. This document was divulged by Texas A&M in response to an Open Records

    request that asked for materials considered by the 2003 Task Force on Admissions.

    The

    final report of the Task Force is posted at “Open
    Records” under COLLECTION

    B.

  • Javier Iribbaren, Activist for Psychological Health

    Email from Javier Iribarrren.

    Dear Greg,

    I read today in Counterpunch your wonderful article about the walk to Haskell. As always, I feel it is a privilege to have you covering this shame and giving it exposure. Jay is doing substantial work at a very personal level, and you are giving it the public venue so that it resonates with the average citizen. For that, thank you from my heart.
    So I am writting to thank you for this, and also to correct the fact that I am not a psychiatrist. My doctorate is in clinical psychology, so the correct way to describe me is as a doctor of psychology (i.e., a psychiatrist is actually a medical doctor-M.D.-and I am not one of those). In fact, I cannot even call myself a psychologist, since you have to have your license for that, something that due to my professional commitments, I still have not gotten around to do it.

    Take care and keep up the good work!

    Javier Iribarren

  • Mexicano Cultural/Spiritual Vemmana (Sacrifice)

    Enclosed are writings from Ramsey Muniz, which cite sources about our ancient spiritual roots. Please forward to advocates and friends.–Irma L. Muniz

    "What do you want, mi gente? For me to do the work that will be applauded on earth, or for me to live, gnawed by rancor, without the sound of applause, without the profits of one who bows low and serene and doing the work whose applause we will not live to hear?"

    –Tezcatlipoca 2/19/06

    Mexicano vemmana (sacrificio) does not ever reject any form of struggle movement. Even in this mode of dark imprisonment I move with it. At the end, when the sun sets and the dawn rises, it will matter because my sacrifice for my people is revolutionary
    in a cultural and spiritual manner. It is written and verily I
    say unto you that Mexicano cultural/spiritual power is greater
    than power on behalf of present day tyranny and oppression because our power from the very beginning of our creation as a race, as Mexicanos from Aztlan and our Holy Land of Mexico, real power comes from conviction which produces uncompromising action from our hearts.
    It also produces vemmana "sacrifice" against the oppression in everyday aspects of nuestra gente. Only through the rising or our cultural and spiritual power will we as a people will end oppression in the present 21st century!

    Our ancient Mexicano history reveals that throughout our struggle to the present, our vemmana never takes a step back. Our sacrificio for liberation, justice, or the present day demands the return of our land (Aztlan). It doesn’t back up in the face of a threat, confinement, or when the political odds are against us in America. Historically, it is not the nature of vemmana (whether through traditional Latino/Hispanic leadership or their Anglo-American sponsors) to back up in the face of anything when it pertains to our liberation as humans in this world of ours.

    Mexicano history reveals that because of our sacrifices it recognizes only cultural/spiritual power of today’s movement. De cierto les digo, "Paradise is under the shadow of our Mexicano cultural/spiritual revolution." Our Mexicano present day cultural/spiritual holy struggle is la raza’s most positive form of prayer. Yet the greatest Mexicano holy struggle from the past to the future is the spreading of truth. This is our 21st century Mexicano holy struggle for liberation, land, and justice. En verdad, from the dungeons of America les digo, "Mexi kan yn neltihuani, neltihua Mexi. Esto quiere decir, "El soldado Mexicano/Mexicana (Kan) de Dios (Mexi) representa la verdad (Neltihuani), la verdad de Dios (Neltihuamexi).

    In our ancient writings and manuscripts we find in "La Monarquia Indiana" (p. 293 del primer tomo), declara Torquemada que "los mismos naturales afirman que Mexi (God) es el Dios principal." For those who continue to deny who they are and/or where they come from or what they should be called, refer to "La Monarquia Indiana" p. 79. See where it is written, "Ya estais apartados, y segregados de los demas y asi quiero, que como escogidos mios, ya no os llameis Aztecas, sino Mexicas (Mexicanos). Why is it that all races on this earth can refer to their ancient past in confirming the truth of who they are and the origins of their name?

    Yet we have been labeled, named, and branded with every possible name except that which reflects what we truly are and were from the beginning of our creation of the mighty race that we are * Mexicanos! Until we return to who we really are we will continue to be oppressed and divided by those who seek to oppress us in all facets of life. This is the reason that throughout all Aztlan and in our Holy Land of Mexico our spiritual/cultural revolution has become a reality in that we are finally accepting and confirming that we are one * todos somos uno!

    The one great spiritual/cultural embracing quality that is
    absolutely necessary for the task of restoring our land of Aztlan to its original state of creation is the consciousness of such a mission.

    Hermanos y Hermanas, the consciousness of such a mission cannot come from human resolve. It can come only as the emanation of a super personal Mexicano soul, the organ of a higher destiny – a spiritual divinity. That super personal soul is referred to as Mexicayotl (consciousness), our divine Nahuatl organ. Nahuatl power, from its ancient creation to the present, is spiritual in origin. In our history, going from the spiritual to the political is but one step. Solamente por medio de Mexicayotl podemos realizar la unificacion espiritual de Aztlan.

    The Nahuatlan will to power, is destined to shield against the
    mighty oppression confronting Mexicanos in Aztlan and Holy Land of Mexico. The blow that the oppressor historically has dealt the Nahuatlan organism is well known. The values of this nsymbiosis are purely anti-Mexicano spirituality, anti-raza, anti-culture, anti-heroic, anti-Mexicayotl. They appeal to the worst element in the Nahuatlan race and to the worst in every individual Nahuatlan. With the spiritual ethical values of "Maya-illusion," the oppressor symbiosis is planning
    to oppress the Nahuatlan organism, which is la raza. But the past can never destroy the future — nunca. It can only attempt
    to thwart it. That means that oppression imposing the anti-cultural interregnum on Aztlan and therein lies the possibility that for Aztlan will follow decades of degradation, chaos, darkness, stultification, miseria, and wasting away. Mi gente, que vamos hacer? Mis Hermanos y Hermanas Mexicanos, remember that our most powerful Mexicano spiritual mobilization is Mexicayotl (consciousness)!

    The motivation of the global power struggle in our age of
    absolute politics lies in cultura! The time has come for us to return to our spiritual/cultural power within the masses of our people. The oppressor and so-called leaders used by the oppressor must come to understand that we of the 21st century have decided to seize the time of our cultural liberation and land. Speak to us about our freedom, our education, justice, and about a plan for the ultimate return of our land. The issue of Aztlan will never cease to be forgotten until it is resolved by the masses of our people here in America and our sisters and brothers from our Holy Land of Mexico. We must never forget
    that we are and were Mexi’s (God’s) chosen people from the beginning.

    In exile,

    Tezcatlipoca
    *************
    http://www.freeramsey.com