Amigos,
It is okay to get angry with public servants and politicians who use derogatory and offensive terms. Get mad and demand for Republican Don Young to resign. During 2011, a freshman Republican lawmaker resigned because his wife sent “an offensive and racist” email to the Democratic state Senate campaign of nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis.
As many of you may already know, most Mexican-Americans know we are indigenous to this land, and it appears we have to educate and remind politicians that those of Mexican descent are natives to this land.
It is now 2013, and it has been almost 7 years since the ousted Arizona Republican Sen. Russell Pearce has used the “wetback” term — and he continues to use that term. Yet, Pearce is still in an influential position with access to Arizona Republican Precinct Committeemen as he is still the 1st Vice Chairman of the Arizona GOP today. The National Republican Committee and Chairman Reince Priebus have done nothing in the way of leadership, nor have they initiated educational seminars that would prevent discriminatory or offensive environments. All public servants and politicians should receive the same training military GI’s receive in order to prevent offensive discriminatory environments.
Since Rep. Don Young claims to have grown up on a farm in California, we believe he should have known the real history of the California-born Mexicans [post-conquest California] as it relates to who the real “immigrants” were when the 10,000 Californios (pre-conquest Mexican Californians) soon found the territory swamped by Anglo-American migrants and foreign immigrants.
These California-born Mexicans would automatically be come U.S. citizens under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. But according to the United States National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior, “The state anti-vagrancy act of 1855 was so obviously anti-Mexican that it became known popularly as the Greaser Law. Possibly the most blatantly anti-Mexican law was the 1855 act negating the constitutional requirement that laws be translated into Spanish.” Already suffering from heavy taxes and lacking capital, Chicano landowners had to go through the slow, expensive process of legally confirming their claims, and often were forced to borrow money at high interest rates to cover the costs of the legal struggle.
The anti-Mexican rhetoric continues to be fueled by Republican lawmakers, and since the National Republican Committee Chairman Reince Priebus states he wants to spend million$ in “minority” outreach — we believe he can start by asking Don Young to resign. It will not cost $1.00 for Priebus to make Don Young an example. Priebus should also explain why the GOP has not yet reversed its protectionist and restrictionist anti-immigrant platform of 2012.
We have witnessed Republicans rebuke Don Young, however, the rebuke ought to come from top. It is a reasonable idea for the RNC Chairman to rebuke offensive and derogatory terms used by Republican officials. More importantly, they ought to be more responsible in conducting educational seminars in order to educate their members/leaders on how to avoid offensive and derogatory remarks. Republican politicians like Don Young and Russell Pearce undo what the Father of the GOP via Abraham Lincoln intended.
Abe Lincoln rebuked President Polk for the Mexican War
Indeed Abraham Lincoln showed real leadership when it was unpopular to do so.
As a Congressional freshman, Lincoln got on the floor of the House on January 12, 1848, when he defended the vote of his party given a few days previous “declaring that the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President.”
Will Reince Priebus declare war on continued Republican bigotry against Mexican-Americans?
Will he educate his Party members and leaders with regard to discriminatory terms that we consider offensive?
Please tweet Priebus and suggest the resignation of Don Young today @ReincePriebus or send him an email
at: [email protected]
Remind Priebus to how many Mexican-Americans / Latinos have fought and died for American wars and why we continue to be in support a “United” States and not a divisive one.
Con Safos
C/S
DeeDee Garcia Blase
