I'm Back

It’s Wednesday, May 24, 2006

I haven’t written a blog in quite a while, my apologies to those who read loyally and have been missing them. I doubt that there are many of you out there though…

I’m watching the Senate vote on numerous amendments to the Immigration bill, a bill I hope will not ever be signed into law.  This blog will be a rant of sort of top few items that have made me happy or bugged me lately.  I’ll start with the bugging things…

1. Lemuel Martinez (running for Attorney General in the Democratic Primary against Gary King and Geno Zamora) released a piece of literature with an incredibly horrible picture on it. There are a group of young men, ages 20s I would say, who are all men of color. Mostly Black, a few are Hispanic/Latino/Chicano all carrying guns, baseball bats, or knives, trying to carjack someone.  Now, there are many reasons he has this literature, mostly because he is trying to play off that fear that the republicans have used to make people afraid of crime, in order to win votes in this election.  After being asked by the NAACP to remove the picture or pull the lit, his response was “I’ve already paid for it, I’m not pulling it.”  This is ridiculous; we don’t need people to continue to push that stereotype that young men of color are all criminals. This literature will only further that idea, and it is not only unnecessary, but quite frankly its insulting coming from a so called “Democrat.” From now on, I will refer to Lemuel Martinez as the Republicrat in the race.


2. I went to the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health-Advocacy Weekend conference this last weekend in DC. It was amazing (more later) but a part of the conference was a day on the hill, lobbying congress about issues including immigration, sex education, reproductive choices, and others.  We met with Heather Wilson who voted against the horrible Immigration Bill that passed the house. Thanks Heather. But her staffer allowed us to focus the conversation on Sex Education. We were told among other things, that Heather PERSONALLY intervened in the Sex Ed funding for NM.  It happened like this. The Federal Gov’t offers Abstinence only Sex Education Money to the states as a grant to the Departments of Health or Public Education.  This money has been refused by many states, and we were, quite frankly, hoping it would here as well. The Governor however, believed the state couldn’t afford not to take the money, and so the Governor and Secretary Grisham (Secretary of Health for the state of NM) decided that the money would be taken, and used in a creative way. We would use the funding to educate grades 6 and under with abstinence only education, and then give grades 7-12 (with state funding not federal government funding) a comprehensive sexuality education.  This plan did not break the rules of the HHS (Health and Human Services Department) process for spending the money.  So essentially we had a state government supporting the right way to spend the money. We had a federal agency saying this money was going to be spent appropriately, and then we had Heather. Heather Wilson (R-NM1) decided that she personally felt this was a poor use of the money. She then intervened personally in the HSS regulation process, and had them send a new letter, disapproving the funding.  State said it was ok. Feds said it was ok. Heather said it wasn’t. HHS listened to her. Thanks Heather, for again, putting New Mexicans at risk for sexually transmitted infections and diseases, as well as higher pregnancy rates. Thanks Heather, you’re really in touch with New Mexicans.


3. The US Senate approved an English only amendment to the Immigration Bill. Essentially their thinking was that we are encouraging Immigrants not to learn English by offering forms and services in other languages.  They obviously targeted Spanish.  This is a horrible thing. We are a nation of immigrants, as has been said many times. And seriously, this country NEEDS other languages. I refer to another blog that said if you don’t want our languages spoken here stop using our words.  (Thankfully both the senators from New Mexico voted against the amendment.) But this is still bad. I can’t believe this is where we are at now.  Think of the thousands if not millions of American born citizens who speak horrible English because they grew up speaking another language. My grandparents can barely speak English, they will now have to file their taxes, social security forms, etc in English- a language they can barely speak let alone read and write? This is horrible. Thanks US Senate. English only? No mas enchiladas, cerveza, tequila, agave, adobe, mole, or mojitos for you!

Well there is one thing I’m happy about, two even.

1. I started hanging out recently with a friend I’ve known for a long time. We are getting along great, and having a wonderful time. He is politically interested, leftist, a chef, incredibly sweet, and gorgeous. I’m happy and excited about the possibilities.


2. I went to the NLIRH Advocacy Weekend this last weekend in DC. It was amazing! Incredibly overwhelming and very exciting. We got trainings on many things, and followed it up with a day of lobbying on the Hill.  I met so many amazing young women (I was the only hombre) who are doing so many things to help their communities around Reproductive Justice and Health.  We’ll be seeing lots of conferences on Latinos and Sexual Health in the next year, and I’m hoping to be able to make it to all of them.  I met some good new friends, and made some new connections that I’m excited to be working with on a national level in the future.  

Thanks to you all for coming back after such a long time!!! I’ll be writing more often now, I’m making a commitment to 4 times a week.