Posted on 05/02/2006 9:03:17 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Twelve-year-old Alejandra Martinez missed school Monday, but that doesn't mean she didn't learn.
Her parents, Rafael and Ruby Martinez, took their three daughters and 4-year-old son to the immigrants' rights demonstration that took over downtown Los Angeles to show them the power of peaceful protest.
"I learned when people stick up for each other good things can happen," Alejandra Martinez said.
Ruby Martinez, a 33-year-old third grade teacher, said she was supposed to write sick notes for her daughters but refused because they weren't sick.
"We all come from an immigrant family," said Ruby Martinez, a U.S. citizen born in Mexico. "It's important that they have to speak out for their rights."
The Martinez family was among thousands that opted to pull children from classes Monday in favor of a real-life civics lesson. Downtown was packed with children who held a parent with one hand and an American flag with the other. Children blew horns and waved signs, and one toddler in a stroller chanted "Si se puede."
Local leaders and immigrants' rights activists were split on whether children should protest or go to class, with some authorities urging students to wait until after school to protest.
One of every four Los Angeles middle and high school students never made it to school, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is the nation's second largest and is 73 percent Hispanic.
Some parents planned in advance to bring their children to protest, including Raoul Salgado, 36, who wrote to school officials to say his sons, 10 and 13, would be spending the day with him.
"They're really impressed because they've never seen so many people like this," said Salgado, who stood wrapped in a large American flag. He said it was important that his sons see people of all races standing up for immigrants.
Catalina Hernandez's niece and nephew grew tired during the long walk through downtown to City Hall, but she told them it was important to keep walking to make a statement that immigrants contribute to society.
"All these people didn't just appear," she told a reporter, waving a hand over the crowd. "We've been here all along."
Let's take the kids to the protest so they can see how the professionals organize rebellions. They don't seem very excited about going to school anyway.
The family that protests together, deports together.
Very good, put that on a huge banner!
The lesson this kid learned is that mob rule is the future of America.
I don't understand what "rights" they've all been denied.
Illegals get free schooling K-12. Free medical treatment. They work under the table, and I know that any given illegal has more disposal income than I have.
They rarely pay taxes; if they do, it is with fraudulent SSNs which means a two-fer: tax fraud and identity fraud. Those crimes are rarely prosecuted among illegals, let alone the original crime of being here illegally.
But then, why work when Uncle Sam can be your daddy? Illegals in most states are allowed to collect all sorts of state benefits, from welfare and food stamps to housing, heating stipends, subsidized daycare...it's sounding like working Americans might be better off renouncing their citizenship, going to Mexico, then sneaking back in.
On par they have a pretty sweet deal all round. What "rights" do they not have?
Nice to see the news is still saying it like it is /Sarc
Illegals are "immigrants". Suicide bombers and terrorists are called "insurgents" or "resistance fighters".
I'm so tired of this Politically correct BS.
I guess in PC speak a "rapist" would just be "sexually hyper-enthusiatic".
It's always a good thing when these freeloaders stop using government services.
At least they'd be able to speak English.
Exactly. Let's call it what it is.
Ya gotta wonder if the majority of these people even understand the reason for the marches.
I had to run errands yesterday at dinner time so I was going to take the kids to Johnny Rockets for dinner. They were closed and I presume it was in support of the "illegal" immigrant protest. Max's diner was also closed. It seems like a good way to advertise to the INS that you are employing people who are in the country illegally. I'm going to think twice about patronizing businesses who knowingly help support people who are breaking the law......
Midwest News
Minn. Officials Look for Ways to Teach Immigrants What Tornado Sirens Mean
May 2, 2006
Officials in Minnesota are looking for ways to teach new immigrants what tornado sirens mean.
Mao Thao had no idea when it meant the first time she heard a tornado siren go off. The recently arrived Hmong refugee spoke no English, and she grew terrified when the loud wailing erupted.
Thao thought she was about to be arrested. She dropped her bicycle and ran all the way home. "I thought the cops were coming after me,'' she said.
As tornado season returns, emergency officials statewide are increasingly concerned that some of the state's newest residents may not know that the loud wail means seek shelter immediately.
Many immigrants have no idea what a tornado is or how deadly Minnesota storms can be.
Selena Lee of the Neighborhood House community center in St. Paul said one of her clients was killed in a thunderstorm last year in Minneapolis. He was unaware of the dangers of being outside in the storm. He left his car and died when he was struck by a falling tree branch.
Lee said the man was one of many Hmong immigrants who don't know what to do during a storm or what the sirens mean. In many cases, new immigrants speak very little English so warnings on the television or radio don't help.
In Stearns County, officials are preparing for a severe weather drill designed for the growing numbers of recent immigrants.
The drill is planned for late May at a St. Cloud-area mobile home park. It will test how management and emergency workers are able to communicate with the estimated 300 residents who don't speak English.
Bel Clare Estates has more than 800 residents and would be one of St. Cloud's most vulnerable areas if a tornado hit, said the park's general manager, Vern Larsen. He said the residents don't always use the park's shelters.
Marv Klug, Stearns County director of emergency management, said local media have been contacted to develop Spanish-language announcements for TV and radio. But different approaches may be needed with other languages, Klug said.
The Somali language, for example, has a relatively new written form, so literacy rates vary, Klug said. County officials plan to identify major contacts in an immigrant community, such as restaurant owners, to start a chain of disaster communication.
In Redwood County of southwestern Minnesota, where many Hmong work in food processing plants, officials are taking a different approach.
County officials are working on translating severe-weather brochures into Hmong, Sheriff Rick Morris said. But, he said, the most effective way to get out information is through the students who speak English and can bring that information home.
Some immigrant groups are also getting involved to help alert new residents about severe weather.
Thao, the woman who was frightened when she heard her first tornado siren, now works with Emergency & Community Health Outreach (ECHO). She has hosted several short public TV programs in Hmong. One tackled severe weather. One bit of advice she gives: Look at the colors on radar screens.
With such a vast array of cultures in the state, new immigrants and refugees can come up with unusual misinterpretations of the warning sirens.
Abdi Warsame, a Somali refugee who works at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis, said a woman he knows thought the first tornado siren she heard was one of the great horns signaling the apocalypse.
.
Find this article at:
http://www.claimsguides.com/news/midwest/2006/05/02/67834.htm
Darwin award candidates
A 3rd grade teacher allowed her kids to skip school for this protest? That's some lesson!
Anarchy is more important than what I'm doing in the classroom, kids!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.