Archive
Take Our Jobs
American agriculture depends on a hardworking, dedicated immigrant workforce. About three-quarters of all crop workers were born outside the country. Since the 1990s, at least half are not authorized to legally work in the U.S., according to government statistics.
Americans are Dying to Eat
Try pronouncing disodium 6-hydroxy-5-((2-methoxy-5-methyl-4-sulfophenyl) azo)-2-naphthalene-sulfonate. It’s not easy, right? That explains why this mouthful goes by its friendlier name, Red 40. It might sound innocent, but this ingredient and others like it are far from harmless. And they’re in our food.
Let’s Get Sensible about Immigration
On Mother’s Day, three months before Arizona’s draconian new immigration law was to go into effect, a mother of two addressed a vigil outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. The woman had been intercepted, without papers, on her way to work. Unable to fight back tears, she told the crowd of the months she spent in this privatized detention center, wondering if she would ever see her children again.
Remembering John Wooden
Wooden died at the age of 99 in June, 35 years after retiring as the most successful (and many would say best) basketball coach of all time. During the final 12-year stretch of his career, his UCLA teams won 10 national championships, a record unlikely ever to be broken.
Franken v. Roberts
At last, there’s a Democrat in the Senate who’s acting like a real Democrat in the FDR mold, unafraid and unabashed to go right at the corporate powers who dominate our economy, environment, media, politics, and government. Al Franken, the new Minnesota senator who won the seat once held by the fighting populist Paul Wellstone, is shaking up the Washington establishment on behalf of regular folks. Instead of going-along-to-get-along, Franken is speaking bluntly about the raw judicial activism and corporate obsequiousness of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, a lifelong servant of the corporate agenda.
It Takes too Much Money to Run
There’s no small irony in the United States forcing “democracy” down the throats of our adversaries around the world while our own democracy is teetering on so many perilous brinks. Given the shaky system here, what nation abroad would want to take direction from us?
Tar Balls
Letters to the Editor: Debating Mexican Immigration
Manuel Pérez-Rocha’s OtherWords op-ed Misguided U.S. Economic Policies Drive Many Mexicans to Come Here is clearly a conversation-starter.
Speculation Tax
Rep. Pete Stark introduced legislation today that would “simply impose a small tax–of five thousandths of one percent, or 0.005%” on speculative currency transactions, the California Democrat said in on Huffington Post. “The money raised would be put toward investments in children, global health, and climate change mitigation.”
The Lineup: Week of July 19-25, 2010
The latest OtherWords editorial package features an op-ed by Manuel Pérez-Rocha and a cartoon by Khalil Bendib about immigration.
