Cinco de Mayo

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo,

Cinco de Mayo ("The Fifth of May" in Spanish) is a national, but not federal, holiday in Mexico which is also widely celebrated in the United States. It commemorates the victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin over the French occupational forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

According to this site http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm,

The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas.
Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.

And, further (y'all are going to love this):

...[after Gettysburg]...Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.
It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?
In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.

So think about THAT, all of y'all who think Mexicans are such a drain on our economy.

Families In Prison

There are rules about how children must be treated in day care. OK, T Don Hutto is exempt from that.

There are rules about how children must be treated in schools. However, if they are not having classes and upholding the educational standards of the state, I don't think they can be considered a school.

There are rules about camps, such as Girl Scout camp, but Hutto is not a camp.

There are rules about the treatment of children in foster care, but they can't say Hutto provides foster care.

There are rules about how children must be treated in Youth correction facilities (well, we've seen how that goes, haven't we?), but such facilities exclude parents, by definition.

There are no rules about how children must be treated in prison when the parents are there with them. And, to write such rules gives credence to the situation. That is, it presupposes that it is OK to keep children in such a place.

(insert air horn noise) WRONG!!

Unbelievable!

Alert!!!

We just got word from a reliable source that Chertoff is denying access to the Hutto prison camp to the UN Human Rights Commission independent inspector, Sr. Jorge Bustamante....who was to inspect human rights violations against the innocent children and their mothers from some 30 different countries.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4773525.html

And we know why!!! Immoral and criminal conduct!!! Sleazy, callous and greedy exploitation...and child abuse...committed by the corporate controlled state. The military-industrial complex is committing its atrocities on innocent children and their mothers...right here in Texas. Taylor, Texas.

For years, we've criticized other dictators for refusing UN inspections. We even go to war over their refusals.

The State of Texas Department of Family Protective Services exempted CCA...actually exempted itself from Texas supervision over the child abuse being committed by Chertoff at Hutto.

Is it not time for a national outrage?

Will you join our outrage? Will you help?

Jay (J Johnson Castro)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edited to Add (from Jay):

Mr. Bustamante was encouraged that grass roots Americans would hold a vigil in support of his visit...and to FREE the CHILDREN of Hutto. We will not let him down. We will not let ourselves down. We will not let the children and their mothers in Hutto down. Sure...they can bully the UN inspector...but WE will not be bullied...let alone by cowards. They can stop Mr. Bustamante from seeing the inside of Hutto...but they cannot stop our voice of outrage. Their decision to prevent Mr. Bustamante will sting them like the scorpion that stings itself with its own tail. Even the national media will cease to suppress this shocking atrocity. Now...the child victims of Hutto will now come to the light of America...and the world. We may finally see the likes of Geraldo Rivera, Anderson Cooper, Keith Oberman, Cris Matthews. Maybe now Oprah, Angelina Joli and Chuck Norris will weigh in. Maybe even Dan Rather?

Regardless...we WILL proceed with our Hutto Vigil VIII this coming Monday...May 7th...just as we resolved. Chertoff and ICE will not...and cannot...dissuade us by their impeding Mr. Bustamante. What Chertoff and ICE are trying to hide from the UN...we already know. Either way...we have won this battle.

Hutto Vigil VIII will take place all day in front of the Hutto prison camp. We'll start at 10am. We'll stop after sunset. Come any time during the day that you can. Feel free to share this invitation. Please feel free to bring your friends, family, neighbors...and members of your faith or organization.
Our statement to the leaders of this country?

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BARS

FREE the CHILDREN

Invisibility

Ponsa ponsa time, I sat on a log just off a Stanley Park path in Vancouver. I sat there for a long time. There was a huge stump next to me, with a scattering of oyster and mussel shells. I realized that it must be a place that seagulls drop the shellfish in order to break the shells so that they can eat the critter inside.

People walked back and forth along the path, within three feet of me, and nobody saw me. After about an hour, a small child came caroming around the bend, and stopped at the stump, picking up a shell.

"Mommy!" he yelled, running back down the path. "Mommy! Look what I found!"

Mommy came along, pushing a stroller and talking with another mommy.

"Oh," she said. "That's dirty. Throw it away!"

Sadly, the child threw down the shell. Another child, offspring of the other mommy, ran up to the stump and bent down to pick up a shell.

"Stop it!" yelled the first child. "It's dirty!"

And the group moved on.

Did You Know...

...that the U.S.A. is the only country, with the exception of Somalia, that has not ratified the international "rights of the child". Attached is that resolution...that was adopted by Congress but rejected by George Herbert Walker Bush. Now...his son violates virtually every right of a child that the rest of the international community protects.

This coming Monday, UN inspector, Jorge Bustamante, will be visiting the T. Don Hutto prison camp in behalf of the Human Rights Commission. When was the last time that a UN, Human Rights investigator has come to America to inspect human rights violations? In our months of fighting to liberate innocent children here on American soil...not one national television network has reported it. We, on the grass roots level, tend to feel that the silence is willful...complicit. Why else would there not be a rush by the media to expose such a crime against humanity that is being committed against innocent and helpless people...and for profit...right here in America.

To imprison a child is an international crime. And…will someone PLEASE look at the attached Rights of the Child document and tell me what part of that United Nations resolution IS NOT being violated with depravity by Bush, Chertoff & ICE?

Here is the document in question:

http://mail.google.com/mail/?attid=0.1&disp=vah&view=att&th=1124ddd64e0a3912

Read it, and see if you think imprisoning children is OK with you. Because it's not OK with the rest of the world. The US used to lead the world towards Democracy and Freedom. why are we allowing that to change?

Do we own the land, or does George W. Bush?

Thoroughly Modern Millie

I just saw a middle school production of the Broadway musical, "Thoroughly Modern Millie." The musical was first produced in 2002, and based on the 1962 movie. The story has been updated a bit, and the music completely redone.

The production was done by St Andrew's Episcopal School, a pricey private school in a pricey area southwest of Austin.

It's a beautiful campus; more like a little college than a school. The campus includes the Middle and Upper schools. The performance took place in the Dining Hall (that's lunchroom, to us hoi polloi). I was surprised that such a privileged educational edifice did not include a theater.

The performance was good enough that I frequently forgot I was watching middle-schoolers. The girls were great singers, the boys may need a bit more work. Several of the kids had a good grasp of character, and the dances, though simple, were well-done. The music was very good. I enjoyed the show. Kudos to their teacher and director, Jason Kruger for a job very well done. As far as the costumes went (Ramona and I did them), I will always wonder how all these little boys manage to wind up with their legs measured six inches longer than they actually are.

Still, I must say that the children of the wealthy are no better behaved than public school kids when it comes to audience etiquette. There was a group sitting behind us that talked throughout the performance. At one point, an adult hushed them, but that didn't last long.

The ladies' room had better toilet paper than RRISD provides, also.

May Day

From Infoplease:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/mayday.html

Bringing in the May
In medieval England, people would celebrate the start of spring by going out to the country or woods—"going a-maying"—and gathering greenery and flowers, or "bringing in the may." This was described in "The Court of Love" (often attributed to Chaucer but not actually written by him) in 1561:

And furth goth all the Court, both most and lest,
To feche the floures fressh, and braunche and blome;
And namly, Hawthorn brought both page and grome.
With fressh garlandes, partie blewe and whyte,
And thaim rejoysen in their greet delyt.

Another English tradition is the maypole. Some towns had permanent maypoles that would stay up all year; others put up a new one each May. In any event, the pole would be hung with greenery and ribbons, brightly painted, and otherwise decorated, and served as a central point for the festivities.
May Day was also a time for morris dancing and other dances, often around the maypole. In the 19th century, people began to braid the maypole with ribbons by weaving in and out in the course of a dance. Other later traditions include making garlands for children and the crowning of the May Queen.

When I was a child in England, we used to make little baskets of flowers and put them on the doorstep of any special friend or mentor.

At the Catholic school, we formed a parade out to an outdoor grotto where there was a statue of Mary, and placed flowers there. It is one of my favourite memories of that school; singing "Ave Maria" as we put the fragrant blossoms in that lovely place.