Posted on 04/14/2006 6:20:35 AM PDT by Borax Queen
Labor activist's speech gets attention of 'O'Reilly Factor' - A politically focused speech at a local high school in which the speaker said "Republicans hate Latinos" is gaining national attention as Tucson Unified School District officials struggle to defend the event.
A day after Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer issued a formal response to questions from a state lawmaker who has been critical of the speech, he and others appeared on cable news to discuss the controversy.
On the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," Pfeuffer, Republican state Rep. Jonathan Paton and a Tucson High Magnet School student also debated lingering questions about how the district has dealt with student walkouts and protests over immigration reforms with Bill O'Reilly, the most-watched personality on cable news. Fox devoted two segments to the issue.
The controversial comments were made by labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers of America, during an April 3 speech at Tucson High, 400 N. Second Ave.
Huerta said she wanted to start a postcard campaign with the theme "Republicans hate Latinos." She also talked about abortion, the war in Iraq and other controversial issues. She did not return calls Thursday to discuss her comments.
Pfeuffer is scheduled to appear in front of a bipartisan legislative committee next Thursday to explain the speech as well as his decision to bus students back to school from the Downtown protests.
Pfeuffer responded in writing Wednesday night to questions from Paton about both issues. In his letter, he said Huerta was allowed to continue after the comment about Republicans because she's "a national icon and her words offer an historical perspective that is consistently left out of our history books."
Further complicating the issue is that students who chose to opt out of going to the speech were sent to the library, which was locked because the librarians had not seen a memo from the school principal.
The student who appeared on the show, Mon-yee Fung, is president and founder of the school's Teenage Republican Club and also will be testifying at next week's hearings in Phoenix. She told O'Reilly — who said he hadn't previously heard of Huerta — that she chose to attend the speech despite her disagreements.
"I heard that she was a cultural icon and because everyone was saying that Republicans don't understand the other side, as a Republican I wanted to show that I do want to understand the other side," said the 17-year-old senior.
After Huerta's "Republicans hate Latinos" comment, Fung tried to leave but was stopped by school personnel, which Pfeuffer said was unfortunate. "My teacher told me to sit down and listen. There wasn't really an explanation," she said.
Fung thinks the comments made an impression on students, who she believes might view her differently even though she supports setting up a system for illegal immigrants to become legal.
District officials have argued that the speech was educational, not political. But Pfeuffer acknowledged Thursday that the speech had, in fact, become political in nature.
And Huerta's speech touched on more than just immigration. During the roughly 30 minute speech, she talked about some of the most hot-button issues in the country, such as abortion, U.S. Supreme Court appointments, gay marriage, the war in Iraq, taxes and labor unions.
Huerta said that Spanish radio hosts "told the people what was happening on these immigration laws. I wish the Anglo-speaking press would do the same with the American public and tell them what's happening in Iraq and what's happening with our tax dollars that are going to the wealthy."
The speech came amid thousands of student walkouts over national immigration reform. It was billed as a forum to highlight the issue but was scheduled before the protests, which landed most students at the Downtown Federal Building.
In the letter to Paton, which was released Thursday, Pfeuffer said roughly $2,600 was spent transporting students from the protests back to campus. Of that total, about $1,000 was spent on overtime. The district has spent considerable time explaining that students were not driven to the rallies — only back to campus to keep them safe, Pfeuffer said.
That strategy emerged "after we saw the scale of the walkouts, the temperature that day and requests from the Tucson Police Department to remove students from the Downtown area," Pfeuffer said in his letter to Paton. TUSD decided not to provide transportation on April 10, when some 11,000 students were absent from school. Pfeuffer has invited Paton to speak at Tucson High, an offer he says he won't accept.
"They shouldn't be having political speech on campus," he said. "My whole point was that it's not an appropriate venue for high-school students. So they're going to spend another whole hour on another whole political speech? For what?"
Pfeuffer said he doesn't agree with Huerta's comment about Republicans. "You cannot paint a whole group with the same brush as she did," he said. But he does support having controversial speakers in schools.
Was anyone else aware that the IRS is taking our tax dollars and forwarding them to the wealthy???
Slightly different from the afternoon paper story posted last night - hate speech toward Republicans ping.
I live in the Houston area and can attest that there is a definite element of hate toward white women expressed from our local population of Mexican women.
I, and many of my 'white' lady friends, have noticed that many Mexican women dislike us before knowing us and refuse to 'warm up' toward us no matter how nice we are to them.
As the Mexican population in our area grows this hatred is more apparent and seems to be expressed more readily.
I'm not prejudiced, I feel no negative emotion in any way toward any person because of his or her ancestry, nor do I treat any person differently because of his or her race. I abhor racism.
I have people of Mexican ancestry in my family. I have many people of Mexican ancestry as friends.
I'm not biased about this. It's simply the way it is and I am continually faced with this when interacting with many Mexican women.
Tucson High School has the lowest test scores for any school of its size in Arizona.
Why can't the Leftist educational establishment stick to reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic and leave left-wing political indoctrination to others?
That's terrible and I know exactly what you mean. There has long been an arrogance within a certain insular community here in Tucson like that.
Within the last couple of weeks, during this period of semi-anarchy, even in other parts of town, I know 'white' women who have had their car hoods beaten by people chanting hateful things toward them.
I'm sure the bleeding hearts, illegal aliens, and their supporters find this perfectly fine and think it's time to end so-called 'white oppression.'
Who knew all "Latinos" support abortion on demand?
This is widespread in the Houston area because the invasion is very visible here.
I stopped by a Wal-Mart in my area the other day - one which is on a major freeway - and the clerks couldn't speak English.
One of them managed to communicate to me that I should not put my purse in the shopping cart because many are stolen in that store.
She obviously isn't one of these hate-filled Mexican women.
I'm beginning to think she's an exception to the rule, however.
Public schools promote welfare. Welfare promotes socialism. People on welfare "work" for the government and vote for the left. Your taxes are used to buy votes that keep the system going.
Your comments are interesting.
A captive audience, eh? Reminds me of college.
I'll stick my neck out and respond with a "thank you."
Except for participating on funny or silly threads, I seldom post on FR unless I feel like I can add something to the discussion.
I've lived in the same small town (but within a half hour of a major city - Houston) for my entire 45 years and so it's given me a rare perspective for observing changes in this formerly classic small-town-USA community.
I don't like the effects on my hometown of this mass immigration movement, and the most destructive element I see is their lack of interest in assimilating into the existing culture. As a matter of fact, I will go so far as to say that there is a hostility to our culture and that many are proud and antagonistically determined to force their culture on us.
I studied spanish in high school and college, but, as much as I dislike feeling this way, am now finding myself more and more repulsed by the thought of speaking it.
I am sorry for you and your small town and agree. The effects of immigration legal and illegal are overwhelming regions of our nation to such a degree that is unprecedented. But the Mexican illegals seem particularly hostile!
No. Spanish radio hosts lied to people and eganged and helped the Marxican government organize mobs to break more of our laws.
Thank you.
Honestly, I'm very open to new peoples and new cultures bringing positive change to this country which I love so much, but, as you've so truthfully said, "the Mexican illegals seem particularly hostile," and that's impacting us negatively.
I substitute teach in a local public high school and so I see their youth up close almost every day.
Overall, I'm not impressed and am, honestly, disappointed.
There's a huge amount of gang activity, drug use, jail/prison sentencing, and what may have begun in their culture as "family values" has evolved into reproducing too soon and too often.
Really? You're just now coming to this conclusion? I thought you had a lot more Mexicans in Texas, but I guess your population is just a drop in the bucket compared to California. I live around and work with Mexicans, and I have Mexican friends and neighbors, and I can tell you that they are just a racist as everyone else and a lot more cliquish. As I said, I have Mexican friends and they will freely admit this. It's not a big deal in and of itself, except that they try to protray themselves as the victim of racism, when they prejudiced themselves, and, unfortunately, no one calls them on it.
I didn't say when I came to this conclusion
A lady friend of mine, an American of Mexican ancestry, told me that she believes the illegals will become even more hostile if their freebies are taken away, that with all the entitlements they've gotten used to, they have literally found the pot of gold (at our expense), and they like it and will fight to keep it.
I find it unbelievable that President Bush continues to lie to the American people. He says that the hold-up on "immigration reform" is against the will of America. That is clearly NOT true, as evidenced by every poll and the talk on the street. Americans are sick of the sense of entitlement, and the in-your-face demands, from the invaders.
This is a first in our history, and America is ANGRY that our politicians continue to lie down and take it and continue to force us to pay for this big mess they've allowed to happen. The coming elections will bring some surprises to these cowards. This President doesn't seem to care about his legacy.
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