Mexico, Losing America, Getting a Grip

Life was simpler when I was young.

No, that's not true. But in my 'good old days,' there were folks who lived in a fairly simple world. For some, the virtues of Mom, Apple Pie and America were threatened by commie plots. For others, the forward-looking peoples' revolution was thwarted by the military-industrial complex and Yankee imperialism.

That was then, this is now. Some folks haven't gotten the memo that the fifties and sixties are over; that disco's dead; and that Russia's leaders are digging their way out from under the wreckage of the worker's paradise.

For the most part, though, I think many - maybe most - people know what decade they're at. Which is a good start.

Mexico: Beyond the Sombrero and Rotten Teeth

Remember when Jennifer Wilbanks said she was kidnapped and sexually abused by a Mexican with rotten teeth? ("Runaway Bride's Tall Tawdry Tale," thesmokinggun.com) She wasn't: she had decided to join a fairly large group of Anglos who used a fictional Hispanic man as a fall guy.

It's true: some folks who are Hispanic also commit crimes. A teenage girl was raped not too many miles from here - and, as it happened, the man who was convicted was no Anglo. That conviction I'm inclined to believe, by the way, on the basis of evidence of testimony.

But let's get real: people with complexions as melanin-deficient as mine rape, steal, and murder, too. We're all human beings. Which is another topic.

Particularly considering a real problem that's brewing south of the American southwest, I think it's high time that Americans review what we think about Mexico.

Like any other place in the real world - it's a place in the real world. Mexico is not

1. An exotic location for stories
   • Colorful
   • Sleepy
   • Populated by
     • Beautiful young women
     • Men with bad teeth
     • Some guy under a sombrero who's been sleeping against the same wall for years
2. A glorious land of revolution
   • Against
     • Oppressors
     • Superstition
   • Striding forward into an enlightened tomorrow
3. A breeding ground of foreigners who
   • Don't look like 'real Americans'
   • Are criminals
     • All of them
   • Sneak into America
     • To get welfare
     • And mow the lawn
       • For less money than 'real Americans' demand

Assumptions 1 and 2 are, I hope, less common these days. Number 3? That stereotype is still with us. ("St. Rose of Lima, Decisions, and Being Catholic," A Catholic Citizen in America (May 29, 2010)) Illegal immigration/undocumented aliens/whatever is a real issue - but I do not like the emotional baggage that some 'real Americans' bring to it.

Sadly, Mexico is a place that has earned a place on the Committee to Protect Journalists's Impunity Index - that select group of nations which are least likely to look into the death of a bothersome journalist, and reveal who is responsible.

It's also a nation which may not have a functioning government soon. Along with Pakistan, it's been cited as among the 'most likely to collapse.' (January 14, 2009)

The good news is that Mexico doesn't seem to be as badly off as Somalia. But then, few nations are.

At least, Mexico has a central government that says it's trying to control the drug lords. Which is a nice gesture, I think. And certainly makes more sense than denying that the drug wars exist - or are some kind of CIA plot.

And some of the violence in Mexico may be the result of Mexican governors and the Mexican national government getting around to making an effort to enforce their own laws.

The War on Terror? Yeah, It Connects

All of this may seem very off-topic for this blog. I don't think so.

I'm pretty sure that Mexican nationals could spot someone who'd been born in, say, Yemin or Saudi Arabia, and was trying to 'act Mexican.'

Just as someone in northern Minnesota would probably be able to spot the Frenchman who's trying to act just like the locals: you betcha. We're 2nd, 3rd, and up - generation Scandinavian Americans, with a mix of German and Irish. It's not the ethnic differences that'd give the Frenchman away: it's the dialect and customs.

But, getting back to Mexico - I think it's likely enough that Americans, particularly 'real Americans,' might very well not notice the Middle Eastern national who's claiming to be a Hispanic immigrant.

Ethnic profiling? I've discussed this before.

Radical Islam isn't the Only Threat

The potential real threat on America's Mexican border hasn't been Islamic and/or Middle Eastern terrorists trying to get across the border. We've had small-scale incidents of piracy on Falcon Lake, which runs along the Texas-Tamaulipas border. And a bit under five and a half square miles of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge has been off-limits to visitors since October 6, 2006. ("Media Advisory," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (June 6, 2010))

The reason was that the Mexican governments were either unwilling or unable to control illegal human trafficking and drug running along that section of the border - and American governments had decided that it was too much trouble to enforce our laws, on this side of the border.

I'm not happy about the situation on either side of the border.

Mexico's lawlessness, coupled with America's perhaps-reasonable unwillingness to control activity at the border, is as real a threat to the safety of American residents as crazed Muslims. (Not all Muslims are crazed - another topic.)

I rather hope that the folks who are making decisions for the official state and national units in Mexico decide that, on the whole, it's best to bring Mexico up to speed with those nations that enforce their own laws and don't let inconvenient reporters get killed. That would be nice.

I also hope that America's state and national leaders get it through their collective skulls that there's a real problem at the borders (Canada, too - that's another topic).

Reality Check?

I'm afraid a change of direction on the American side will take a serious reality check. The impression I have is that the current situation, where illegal immigrants/whatever provide a source for easily-fired, cheap labor, is just too comfortable for our leaders.

Some state and national leaders are decent folks, and in many cases are - not poor. I have no problem with people being wealthy. But when you've got an estate that requires a domestic staff for proper maintenance: The temptation to maintain a pool of unpeople who will work for a fraction what you'd have to pay an American resident must be extreme.

Enough with speculation.

Mexican Schools, American Wildlife Land

What got me started on this post? Two news article:

"Violence closes schools early in Mexican state, governor says"
CNN (June 16, 2010)

"Elementary and middle school classes in the Mexican state of Nayarit will end Friday, three weeks early, due to concerns over safety, the governor announced.

"Saying that Nayarit faces difficult days, Gov. Ney Gonzalez Sanchez also announced that his administration is taking over command of the state police, the official Notimex news agency reported.

"Gonzalez also denied on his Facebook page a media report that he has faced death threats...."

Apparently, Mexican media has reported that Governor Gonzalez said that he's certain he'll be assassinated and that he'll laugh at his killers from Heaven.

Governor Gonzalez says, on his Facebook account, that he's not threatened and that he doesn't make "bravura" statements.

"U.S. Parkland Bordering Mexico, Shut Since 2006, Remains Off-Limits As Violence Escalates"
FOXNews (June 17, 2010)

"Four years after federal officials quietly surrendered thousands of acres of America's border to Mexican drug gangs and illegals, there still are 'no plans to reopen' the taxpayer-owned national park lands.

"Roughly 3,500 acres of taxpayer-funded government land in Arizona have been closed to U.S. citizens since 2006 due to safety concerns fueled by drug and human smuggling along the Mexican border, according to a statement posted on the website for the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge...."

3,500 acres is a little over 5.4 square miles: not a huge tract of land.

Although I think I understand the park officials' reasons for closing that section of the wildlife refuge: I am also not happy that a swatch of American land is now off-limits to Americans.

I also think that it will be a very bad idea to effectively cede more territory to the criminal organizations which appear to be the practical rulers of parts of Mexico at this time.

Related posts:

• "Falcon Lake, Texas: Sometimes Terrorists aren't 'Terrorists' "
  (June 3, 2010)
• "Pirates Aren't Good for Business: or, Views From Zapata, Texas"
  (May 30, 2010)
• "Holiday Inn Raid in Monterrey, Mexico? What Raid?"
  (April 24, 2010)
• "Raid on Monterrey, Mexico, Holiday Inn: Bad News, But That's about All We Know"
  (April 21, 2010)
• "The 90% Solution: American Guns, Mexican Raids, and Common Sense"
  (April 2, 2009)
• "Pakistan and Mexico Collapse Possible: Why I'm Glad Somebody Else is President"
  (January 14, 2009)
• "Committee to Protect Journalists Unveils the Impunity Index"
  (April 30, 2008)

Equality? Rule of Law? Limited Government?!

This isn't, as I've said before, a political blog. On the other hand, politics is inextricably enmeshed with the War on Terror - and nearly every aspect of contemporary American life.

I'd just as soon that Western civilization win the War on Terror - although I look pretty good in a turban - but I'd also just as soon that there be something left of the America I knew when the dust settles (decades from now, is my guess). And yes, I think that it's time for a change.

"America's Survival Guide (That's 'Survival,' not 'Survivalist')"
Apathetic Lemming of the North (March 14, 2009)

Apathetic Lemming of the North is a blog where I generally deal with topics that are about as heavy as cotton candy. But the Lemming does get serious now and again. I ran into an online advertisement that said, among other things, "Contrary to popular wisdom, the most serious threat to America does not spring from overseas adversaries. Because the threat is from within, it is much more subtle and ignored...."

As a history major and recovering English teacher, I know that there's quite a bit of truth to the wild-sounding claim that America's "history and First Principles have been cast aside and denigrated by the public, educators, mainstream media, legal profession, and politicians."

As far as I can tell, the book that's being sold does not claim that there's some kind of plot going on. I don't think that's the case, either.

I do, however, think that history is full of heavy, hard, sharp edged facts that don't fit at all well into the way many of the 'best and brightest' in American see the world.

And, when you're in the class that controls what gets taught in the schools: it's awfully easy to leave out awkward details, or dump history entirely. After all, "Social Studies" is so much more relevant.

Indonesia, "Allah Akbar," and Muslim Tolerance

I still hope that Islam really is a "peaceful religion," and that a region in which Muslims are a majority can tolerate people who don't measure up to whatever Islamic standards the local imams say are 'true Islam.'

What's happening in Indonesia isn't helping me maintain that assumption.

For 20 years, students the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology in Jakarta have been praying and singing hymns. What news services call 'hard line' Muslims, naturally, don't approve. They feel that it's proselytizing. They say.

So, the Muslims used bamboo spears and Molotov cocktails to drive the Christians out.

Indonesia's reputation for tolerance isn't entirely gone. The Christians were allowed to live, and even permitted to move into a small office building on the other side of the Indonesian capital.

Those Thieving, Singing, Burglarizing Christians

Well, singing, anyway.

From one point of view, the Christians must be at fault. After an attack on the Christians on June 26, 2008, east Jakarta district chief, Murdani, blamed the Christians for the raid, saying that both "warring" parties should stay calm.

Besides, there was a rumor that one of those Christian students stole a motorcycle from a neighboring village.

A July 25, 2008, attack began when stones fell on the school's dormitory roof. At the same time a voice on a nearby mosque's loudspeaker cried "Allah Akbar." "God is great" in Arabic.) It's hard to shake the notion that the Allah Akbar/incoming rocks was more than mere coincidence.

This time, the rumor was that a Christian student had broken into a residence. Police dismissed the accusation, but the Akbar bunch didn't.

Making Nice with Radical Islam, and Leaning on Property Owners

There's a possibility that recent attacks on the school were more about economics than religion. Someone made the school an offer to move out, and the school refused.

It's not hard for me to see the attacks as an 'offer they couldn't refuse.' Particularly since the school can be torn down now.

A few years ago, locals had burned construction shelters, when the school tried to build on new land. More land for the school meant less land for the Muslims, so naturally someone torched the construction equipment. Makes sense, in a lawless sort of way.

There doesn't seem to have been much done about whoever forced the school out. Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology's chairman, the Rev. Matheus Mangentang, said, "Why should we be forced from our house while our attackers can walk freely?"

Part of the answer may be that there's an election coming up. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government doesn't want to seem anti-Islamic, by treating attacks on Christians and other minorities as crimes.

A Jesuit priest, Prof. Franz Magnis-Suseno, has lived in Indonesia for a half-century. "People are still tolerant, but there is a growing suspicion among Muslims of others," adding that police haven't prevented attacks on minorities, and forced closures of both Christian churches and nontraditional mosques. "The state has some responsibility for this growing intolerance, namely by not upholding the law," he said.

Equal-Opportunity Bigots

Muslims have burned several mosques of the Muslim sect Ahmadiyah. The firebugs feel that the Ahmadiyah sect is heretical.

Indonesia has been a good example of how a largely Islamic nation can tolerate diversity and freedom. I sincerely hope that the country does not begin running its affairs along "Islamic" lines, as Saudi Arabia does.

Indonesia intolerance in the news:

• "Attack forces Indonesian Christians off campus"
  Associated Press (August 22, 2008)
• "Indonesia's Growing Intolerance of Christians"
  DigitalJournal.com (August 22, 2008)
• "Christian students driven out by Muslims find refuge in parliament"
  AsiaNews.it (July 31, 2008)
• "Muslims storm Protestant school in Jakarta, scores of students injured"
  AsiaNews.it (July 28, 2008)

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.

Juashaunna Kelly's Track Suit Disqualifies her: Islamophobia? an Official on a Power Trip? or Bureaucratic Cluelessness?

I vote for Bureaucratic Cluelessness.

Juashaunna Kelly is a Senior in Washington, D.C.'s Theodore Roosevelt High School. She's also the fastest runner this winter in her district, for girls' mile and two-mile.

And, she's been disqualified because her track suit accomodates her Islamic standards, not what an official says the rules mean.

A track meet director said that her suit violated National Federation of State High School Associations standards, since it (allegedly) wasn't "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches."

The official says that it's a simple matter of uniform rules. Juashaunna Kelly's mother says that it's not that simple: "First, they said she had to take her hood off," Sarah Kelly said. "Then, they said she can't have anything with logos displayed. Then, they said she had to turn it inside out. When I told them that there weren't any logos on it, they said she had to put a plain white T-shirt on over it."

There's a decent photo of Juashaunna Kelly and her track suit at FOXNews.com. I'll admit that it doesn't look like the hot pants and clingy tops that those long-stemmed high school track girls usually wear.

And, it wasn't one color.

It's possible that the Kellys decided to spark a confrontation by putting that suit together.

I think it's more likely that this track wonder was trying to accommodate the needs of a foot race and her Islamic standards: and missed the monochrome requirement.

I also think that it's not likely that the track meet director, and other officials involved, were displaying an anti-Islam bias. It's possible, of course, but if even part of what what Juashaunna's mother is accurate, this sounds more like a bureaucratic snafu. To me, at least.

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.

Islam vs. the Blasphemous Teddy Bear

Gillian Gibbons discovered that Sudan isn't Liverpool. She
committed blasphemy, by letting her class of seven-year-olds name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

She was teaching in a private school, teaching Muslims and Christians.

Is This What It'll Take to Get Along?

I think I have a way for western women teaching in Islamic regions to avoid committing blasphemy.

• Put a cloth over your head, hemmed to reach the ground
• Say nothing
• Do nothing
• Hope that you're mistaken for a coat rack

Unless coat racks are blasphemous, too.

Posts on "British Teacher Home from Sudan: Gillian Gibbons, Muslim Clerics, and a Teddy Bear named Mohammed"

Related posts, on Islam, Christianity, Religion, Culture and the War on Terror.
Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred.

Common Sense in School! Ramadan Joins Halloween, Christmas

Elizabeth Zahdan helped put up holiday decorations at an Oak Lawn school last year.

Then, she asked if Ramadan could be added to the school holidays.

What the news politely calls a "debate" seems to have been sorted out now. Along the line, the Oak Lawn schools almost lost all their religious and sort-of-religious holidays.

At this point, Ramadan, Halloween, and Christmas are on the recognized holiday list. That makes sense, considering that about 30% of the kids are Muslims.

"'I want everyone to be equally acknowledged. I never demanded that no one can celebrate. I never said take Christmas away,' Zahdan said at the meeting before the board went into a closed session."

Hats off to the Chicago suburb's school system. It's nice to see common sense break out here and there.

Facts from

• "Ramadan added to school's holidays, " Chicago Tribune, October 3, 2007
• Fox Cable News

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