Issue 8 - Spring 2009

Sex trial? When was there a trial? I heard the sex charges were dropped and he got hit with simple battery. What do you guys have against him?

Chevron gouged $24 billions in excessive profits in 2008, as per www.tyrannyofoil.com. Schwarzenegger should put an excssive profits tax on these profits, instead of protecting the oil corporations from fair taxation, then, there would be sufficient public funds for all the vulnerable, people programs. Big business lost the fight to eliminate domestic violence funding, so now they are coming back with a vengeance. There is no funding provision for battered women shelters in the May Revise. Schwarzee picks on the most vulnerale, and not on corporate tax "deadbeats."

I'm concerned that Jamie Norried might actually believe she is better than somebody just because she was born on the "right" side of an imaginary line. It is worrisome to read such an ignorant opinion on an issue as complex as immigration. She ignores the fact that many people migrate to the US because they are willing to do the most demeaning jobs in order to send a few crumbs back home to their families.

Ms. Norried displays the shocking and dehumanizing tendencies of a fetishist dis-avower. What we can learn from her callous approach to this subject is how to blatantly "blame the victim" and ignore the very real social, political, and economic issues that force people to migrate away from their loved ones. Does Ms. Norried think that these workers want to leave their families, culture, and everything they know in order to come and pick our strawberries, or scrub our toilets? That is the dehumanizing approach she uses (implicitly: "of course they're willing to leave their homes in order to come to America, land of the free, home of the Whopper"). The implied message is that we, as citizens, should just shrug off responsibility for the welfare of our HUMAN brothers and sisters across all borders. That is not right.

If one were to utilize their dual perspective in this matter, there would be no issue on how to look at this situation. I find it extremely offensive that Ms. Norried believes she deserves the privilege of protection under our constitution over another human.

A question for Norried: did YOU get to pick where you were born?

Anybody who is against the criminalization and continued oppression of migrant workers and their respective cultures should speak out against the draconian laws that AZ has passed. We must resist the call of the fetishist dis-avower to 'not care', and assert ourselves to demand that all governments afford their citizens the same rights as us (and not point and tease, like Ms. Norried is so willing to do).

When people like Jamie Norried put blame on individuals for wanting to survive, this completely ignores the oppressive role of governments, such as the US and Mexico. Shame on Jamie Norried for her closed-minded and ethnocentric views. I seriously hope she reconsiders her ignorant and callous position on the matter, for the sake of all of the amazingly brilliant and undocumented students that have enriched the educational atmosphere at LAVC.

Agreed. America shouldn't be about a free ride but about rewarding those that work hard and follow the rules. Unfortunately that is what it seems like we've been shifting towards for years.

Please do not mistake mental illness for lack of professionalism.

3
The differences between Japanese Immigration in WWII with the Armenian Immigration in WWI:
1)The Ottoman did not have the understanding of a ‘superior race’ unlike the Americans
The Armenians were relocated not because they belonged to another race; because of military and political reasons. Moreover, the Armenians of the big cities like Istanbul, Izmir, Aleppo, where there were a great population of Armenians lived were exempted. Additionally, Katholic and Protestan Armenians were also exempted.

2)The major difference was that the Japanese had not rebelled and they were unarmed.The Armenians performed hundreds of revolts (24 revolts only in September to December 1895) against the Ottomans, being organized by Armenian committees Hınchak and Dashnak and inflicted horrible massacres upon the Turks and Muslims, beginning by late 19.century. In 1905, the Armenians killed all the Turks and Muslims who lived in Susha in Azarbaijan (5). Armenian Soviet historian A.A.Lalayan stated that the Dashnaks displayed extreme courage to massacre Turkish women, children and ill and old people (6). V.A. Gurko-Kryajin declared that the Muslim folk around Yerivan and Kars were eradicated and the districts Shuragel, Kağızman, Karakurt, Sarıkamış, Surmali were fired and destroyed so that the folk were forced to escape, in his book entitled 'Neareast and the States'
Armenian Boghos Noubar Pasha, said: ‘150 000 Armenian volunteers in Russian Army were the only forces against Turks’ (7) . 527 000 Turks were slayed by Armenian volunteers in the Russian Army. Hamparsum Boyaciyan, a former Ottoman parliamentarian who led Armenian guerilla forces, ravaging Turkish villages behind the lines, 1914 (8).

What would the Armenians do if the Japanese on their territory rebelled against the Americans, and cooperated with the occupying powers, and if the American army become between two fires because of these Japanese cooperators.

Therefore, Mr Obama would be expected to acknowledge another devastating chapter of American history and be sensitive to keep the memories of the Japanese who were misbehaved and murdered by the Americans, alive, so as not to repeat the mistakes of the past, much before the Armenians.