Posted on 03/30/2006 11:38:23 PM PST by beaversmom
Tensions over immigration reform heightened in the Phoenix area's East Valley Thursday when students raised a Mexican flag over Apache Junction High School and then other students yanked it down and burned it. "I know (they) shouldn't have burned the Mexican flag," said Jacob Stewart, a 16-year-old sophomore. "I heard it was raised above the American flag and that just irked me."
He said the turbulence was tied to debates going on in the state Legislature and Congress, where ideas ranging from offering illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship to making them felons are being floated.
Freshman Chelsea Garcia, 15, and junior Brittany Ramage, 16, said the unrest had more to do with long-running racial tensions at the school.
The week's events might have sparked some anger, Ramage said, "but kids aren't too deep about that stuff."
The Hispanic student who brought the Mexican flag said he was responding to a remark directed at him Wednesday. The flag-raising, flag-burning, and shoving match that followed happened before most students arrived at school.
Six students three Hispanic and three white will be disciplined, Principal Chad Wilson said.
Officials with the Apache Junction Unified School District would not specify what punishment the six face.
Wilson did say in a letter sent home to parents that there would be "increased supervision, including additional police officers, on the campus over the next couple of days."
School flagpoles have been lightning rods across the country this week, including an incident in which a Houston high-school principal was disciplined after he flew a Mexican flag underneath his campus' U.S. and state flags.
A new political awareness among students has also been grabbing attention, as thousands have walked out on classes to join rallies in Phoenix and elsewhere. More than 100 students from Mesa's Carson Junior High and Westwood High schools marched in protest on Mesa streets Tuesday.
"Well I am hoping those outside this radical fringe thats in the picture start listening. Again maybe he is talking but its gotten no national airplay."
In Los Angeles this is not the radical fringe.
Perhaps you need to talk to those who are truly inflaming this issue...
...you know, the ones you are defending.
Memo to Senator McCain: That's how we do things here in AZ!
But don't you worry slick, cus' you'll get yours come 2008!
Oh I forgot to say - welcome to FreeRepublic!
Thank You antceecee!
I've got German friends from when I used to live there that love the U.S. and are smarter and more productive than most people I know, yet they can't immigrate. Go figure on that one.
Thank You!
LEt me say this. I have no clue how it is in LA. However, My wife is from Mexican American descent. Through marriage I have a few relatives that couldbe classifyed as anchor babies. What you are seeing on the street does not represent all Mexican American thought. There are many divergent opinions out there in that ethnic community. It gets really confusing when these symbols such as the Mexican flag get used. To my wife its a symbol of ethnic pride and thats it. However, I know there are radical groups out there that have some reclaimation radical agenda that it has different symbolism for them.
I am just saying that the pictures of some these rallies can be quite misleading because it paints a picture that a "whole group" thinks a certain way.
Damn! I was going to check that sign up date but forgot. No wonder I've been wasting my last hour. Well, I hope not anyway.
Oh thanks, I actually have been a lurker for years but decided I wanted to get the pings on the Catholic stuff and some other local issues
Thats cool quote I will have to remember that one.
Man, we definitely know that!
It's all about illegals, not Mexicans, OK!
In your case with your ties, I can understand where you come from.
I live in Virginia and I've got some cool Mexican friends who are not illegal. I don't want them deported.
In my case (I speak for no other FReeper or 'civilian' :-)) I've been researching a lot of things for a lot of years when it comes to geopolitics and probably came off as extreme in my posts.
Our country was founded on 'extremism'.
There is a lot of frustration with regular folks because what The Founders envisioned has been hijacked.
That's my perspective anyway.
Welcome to FreeRepublic and I hope we can educate each other.
Boy, that is a great quote. I haven't seen anything like that from Mencken.
I don't normally think of myself as an angry person, but between the islamofacists and the mexicans, it's just about all I can do to not be angry all of the time. Much of the time, I feel like my whole world, and the world I had hoped to give my son, is gone.
Oh I agree with you there. I mean there are freakin people that are great citizens we just were barely able to get on our Olympic teams. Esp a few Russians that love it here and make a great contribution. Many Indians to that have a great education that would love to come here in the high tech sectors and actually make it their homes. If the situation in Europe worsens we might have another wave of immigration from there.
I don't know (or care) how any particular ethnic group views this, but as a citizen of the US, I take the act of replacing the Stars and Stripes with a foreign flag as prima facie evidence of insurrection. Anyone who doesn't want to be associated with that kind of activity need only issue a plain and simple condemnation of it! But we hear little of that kind of sincere condemnation from anywhere in the Latino community (much like we hear very little outright condemnation of terrorists from 'moderate' Muslims).
If there is an image problem, may I suggest it is up to the Latino community to mend it -- and not by trying to make others feel guilty about what they can plainly discern with their eyes and ears.
Where are your "group's" retractors??? I have not heard them in the media. The presupposition of RIGHTS by those who have broken our laws to come here is the cause of this strife. US citizens who are outraged by this 'citizenship grab' are rightfully outraged. There is no confusion. You are either here LEGALLY or here ILLEGALLY. Very simple, not hard to understand. If you are here ILLEGALLY and wish to ultimately obtain LEGAL status, you need to follow the rules, go home and apply through the proper channels. Sorry, the fact you chose to have and raise your children while you were here ILLEGALLY is not the fault of the American people. IT IS YOUR FAULT! Take some responsibility for your actions, quit blaming others and do the right thing. Instead of protesting you should be hat in hand asking the forgiveness of the American citizens you have scammed for free health care, schooling and a tax-free income. Perhaps then as is typical of the over-generous people of the USA - they will give you the golden ticket to citizenship! Now THAT would be reasonable! Actually admit you were wrong, ask for forgiveness and ask for consideration for citizenship.
What is there to be "deep" about? This is not Mexico. This is not conquered territory. The kids got it right.
It is the adults that cannot see the emperor's nudity and fawn over the wardrobe.
I always loved that story.... The Emperor's New Clothes...
Leave this one alone. I'm a former IT guy. The same a-holes who are lobbying for illegals have created a fake 'shortage' of tech people to drive the wages down just like with the more menial jobs.
This subject is a whole different thread and I'll rip anyone a new one on it.
Ping.
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