Not everything I’ve written has an online link. Even the Waybackmachine wasn’t helpful in finding preserved URLs. But here are a few links I found that are still live. And I’ve uploaded a few via Google docs. It’s just a sampling of the work I’ve done during my career.
Columns:
“Illegal’’ as a noun breaks law of reason
When figuring ways to shape public opinion, the first thing any savvy strategist does is craft phrases that will elicit a desired response.
Want people to have a more positive reaction to dead Iraqi civilians? Call them “collateral damage.” Want to get Americans to feel good about government spying? Name your law “The Patriot Act.”
If you can control the words people use, you can frame the issue. In effect, you control the way people view it.
That is exactly what is happening with the immigration debate.
To avoid dealing with complex problems in our nation – crumbling public schools, senior citizens who have lost their pensions, a shrinking middle class – some politicians are taking the easy way out by focusing on undocumented immigrants.
Those politicians are being goaded by nativists, racists and brainwashed people who are confused in our culture of fear.
Their term of choice: “illegals.”
That shorthand term for “illegal immigrants” – which they use as a noun, making linguists cringe – is being used repeatedly by reactionary commentators and politicians in every venue available.
Read the rest here: “Illegal’’ as a noun breaks law of reason
Teen learns why men leave Teacapan, Mexico
Lily Bresee, a Glendale teenager who listens to indie rock, plays lacrosse and has a pierced lip, never paid attention to the topic of illegal immigration. “I wasn’t really interested,” the 17-year-old says.
That was before last month, when her class from Jefferson County Open School went on a 2 ½- week trip to Teacapan, a small fishing village 80 miles south of Mazatlán in Mexico. Her host mother taught her how to make tortillas. She loved the warmth of the culture, and the close-knit families, but she noticed there weren’t a lot of young men.
Nearly every family she met had at least one brother, uncle or father working in the United States. Some obtained work visas; others paid “coyotes” to sneak them across the border.
The void of young men made Lily wonder about the cause. Looking to the sea, she found her answer.
She watched as fishermen came back from their shrimp trawlers and fishing boats with little in their nets. A seaside village that had sustained itself for centuries had been depleted of shrimp, oyster, red snapper and corvina.
James McGoodwin, a professor of anthropology at CU-Boulder and author of the book “Crisis in the World’s Fisheries,” lamented the crash of Teacapan’s fishing economy: “The tragedy here is this was one of Pacific Mexico’s most productive marine seafood areas.”
Read the rest here: Teen learns why men leave Teacapan, Mexico
Facts expose myths about undocumented immigrants being on welfare
Is a column about a bogus study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a propaganda tank that masquerades as a nonpartisan think tank and research center. Read the column here: Facts expose myths about undocumented immigrants being on welfare
What Americans can learn from “Precious”
In a blog for the Huffington Post, I write:
Today, thanks to the likes of Lou Dobbs and others in the media with huge platforms legitimizing bigotry, the schema that’s locked into America’s mindset is that dysfunctional poor people are products of their own making.
It’s an ideology that helps wipe the slate clean. So it’s no one’s fault that U.S. prisons are full of black and brown men from dysfunctional homes who never finished high school.
Read the full blog post here: What Americans can learn from “Precious”
My piece and video story on an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Israel who marries gay men to lesbians.
Other columns
A wary eye on anti-immigrant protesters
Vet concludes: ‘We were pawns in Iraq’
Focus on the Family misleads its “sheeple”
A rap song Bush does not want to hear
Election results hurt gay people
Getting real in dating fantasy land
Slow, steady wins the race to intimacy
How to help teen girls value themselves
Corporate media dumbs down news
Tancredo assumes Latinos don’t want to learn English
“Ex-gay?” Don’t believe the hype.
“Reparative therapy” represses
Fighting Against Focus on the Family
Immigration stories:
Arab-Americans say they are being profiled (Boston Globe)
Consulates combine for community fair (New York Times)
Immigrants languish in U.S. prisons (Boston Globe)
Visa restrictions delay arrival of mail-order brides (Boston Globe)
Loophole skews Census money to jail towns (Boston Globe)
Securing airports (New York Times)
Mexican pueblo empty as residents move to East Boston (Boston Globe)
Social Security checks lead to mass firings (Boston Globe)
Enterprise stories:
Multiracial tag bothers some (Boston Globe)
Latinos become largest ethnic group (Boston Globe)
Riot or rebellion? (Detroit News)
Schools more segregated than ever (Detroit News)
Redistricting aids incumbents, undermines political clout of minorities (Boston Globe)
Blacks in Detroit suburbs feel isolated (Detroit News)
Spanish becoming language of choice for Americans (Boston Globe)
Black and Latinos in poor communities struggle to avoid clashes (Boston Globe)
Census reveals world of difference (Boston Globe)
Lifestyle:
Pedro el escamoso is everyman hearthrob (Boston Globe)
Doc uses cultural cues to shape treatment protocols in Africa (Columbia)
Monkey brains hold key to how humans think (Columbia)
Dr. Oz brings healthfotainment to TV (Columbia)
Personal columns:
Celia Cruz guided this Harlem kid
A promise to the next generation of Latinos
Best dad a kid could have: mom
Multimedia:
In Washington Heights, bargains galore but few shoppers
Salsa clubs in NYC long gone, but salseros still get their groove on
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1114933312001_2088670,00.html
Cindy – did you leave Facebook? I was thinking I hadn’t seen your posts and realized you were no longer there
Hope you are well!