AMERIQUE:


A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: It is the unspoken statistic, but it is as real as anything to do with the lingering U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the military, 1,800 American servicemen have killed themselves since the initial invasion of Baghdad. That is in addition to the more than 4,000 who died in battle. This week, families of the soldiers who committed suicide asked President Barack Obama to change the government policy of not forwarding letters of appreciation to mothers and fathers of these servicemen. By week's end, the White House had reversed the policy and agreed that such letters are needed, as well... - Eduardo Paz-Martinez, Editor of The Tribune

Saturday, April 17, 2010

For Rio Grande Valley Hispanics, The Crazed Tea Party Is Bad Brew...


By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor-In-Chief

McALLEN, TX - Angst-strapped members of the bizarre Tea Party movement postponed today's rally here, saying recent rains have left the ground at their favored pasture on S. 10th Street too soggy, too muddy in places. So, the City of Palms has been spared an afternoon of mindless whooping and hollering, racial epithets and other social venom being the music of this racist gang. The rally, they told the local newspaper, will now take place later this month.

Why, is the question here. Why here?

For pretty much all Hispanics, the dominant population within a 300-mile radius, the rally is offensive, yet another strange and silly public outburst by losers of the last presidential election. That's what they are - angry losers unable to stomach the nation's new leadership, the Year 2010. Most of them are older Americans, gray-haired men and women who grew up in another America, an America used to seeing - and having - Blacks and Hispanics playing the subservient citizen.

But today's Black and Hispanic citizen doesn't care one whit about this pseudo-fear playing like killer bees on the faces of America's Racist Anglos. Hispanics here, for one, should not care how often, or how dramatically, these people exhibit their ignorance, their fear of suddenly not having that ethnic difference. Redneck demagogues have no audience in the Rio Grande Valley. Or, they shouldn't.

Hispanics should avoid these rallies and they should write to media outlets with sentiments that say, well, who cares what these Teabaggers say, need, or want? Screw them; it's their turn to feel the abandonment many, many Blacks and Hispanics felt for decades.

Teabaggers don't care about anyone other than those who think like they think: segregationist bullshit that would, if they could control it, continue to separate the ethnic groups in this country. Their signs and posters are racist; their words are full of warring fire, their posturing the posture of Selma, Alabama of the 1960s, when Blacks were whipped, and Corpus Christi, Texas, where Hispanics were not allowed in the municipal swimming pool or city barber shops at about the same time.

No, this Tea Party crap is not for the Rio Grande Valley.

It goes against the long struggle for fairness, equality and respect. We say any Hispanic seen at a Tea Party rally is endorsing every bit of pain, abuse, and laughter suffered by his or her parents and grandparents who lived here in another, more racist era - and even that wasn't all that long ago.

Then think about the region's military veterans who fought in defense of freedom. Yes, Teabaggers can say whatever they want, thanks to our Vets. But what they are saying goes beyond the pale of decency. They are, again, throwing the stratification of ethnicity at your face, telling you they will not give-in to seeing themselves as the equal of, say, a Black or an Hispanic. Who would go to war for that?

Tea Party?

Pardon my French, but Fuck That...
- 30 -

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don Patricio, if I have offended you please accept my apologies. Your article pretty much re-affirms my believes, if they don't like the RVG they can go where they came from. They stole the land from the indians, and build the LRGV at the expense of cheap Mexican labor. My dad use to say, the only good are ones that are buried already.
A+ for your essay.
Don Pancho

Patrick Alcatraz said...

Don Pancho: No, you haven't offended me. How? Did I miss something. About the posting: It just annoys me to see Hispanics chase the Republican Party (or this Tea Party silliness). A little review of their history in this country would rid Hispanics of such ridiculous desires... - Editor

Anonymous said...

I think you are very wrong placing entire tea party in the same category. Every group has some bad apples. I am an immigrant myself and I have big dislike to government that gets bigger and more arrogant with every year. What government does is crating dependency. Is the tea party an answer? Most likely not...Too many recycled politicians are already associated with them

Patrick Alcatraz said...

ANON: Allow me this question - What dependency do you refer to to, the Health Care legislation? Since when is helping your household (our country) at a time of need a sin? Surely, you will agree that health insurance companies in this state and nation have long abused their service privilege (they accept and reject at will!). A government has a right - and duty - to protect its citizens from any sort of abuse, does it not? I can't think of what else you could have in mind, but I'll be glad to read your reply. (2.) The Tea Party has more than "a few bad apples (the money-grubbing Sarah Palin! the Un-American Fox News!)." Blind obedience cannot but hurt you, Anon. (3.) Our government is arrogant? Big word, but back it up. Perhaps that's merey a holdover in your vocabulary from the George W. Bush years. "Arrogant," you wrote! This president has bent-over trying like crazy to enlist the GOP in helping the country (citizenry) out of a load of holes left by the last Administration. That's being arrogant? I look forward to your rebuttal. Please tell me you're not another of those new immigrants all-too-willing to be a "Throwdown Citizen." That would deflate my image of this Blog's readers... - Editor

Patrick Alcatraz said...

NOTE TO OUR READERS: We are having comments arrive and vanish when we post them. If you have submitted a comment today, please re-submit and, as always, we shall post it if it meets our standards. We appreciate your opinions and strive to open the lines of communication here to everyone. It goes without saying that we trust you understand... - Editor

Anonymous said...

Mr. Editor: John Wood resembles a member of the tea party, I am voting for Cascos in November.

Patrick Alcatraz said...

ANON: He has the required characteristics, but we cannot tell you that you are accurate. Perhaps someone should ask him, eh?... - Editor

Anonymous said...

The tea party people regardless of education and status, are nothing but a pack of hillbillies, that remind me of the Actors in the movie Deliverence, with Burt Reynolds.
They don't like anyone, sometimes not even themselves.

Patrick Alcatraz said...

ANON: I read somewhere where Teabaggers, because they are mostly older people, tend to be annoying. Here, I find that tricky, cause of the Winter Texans. How many of them are Teabaggers?... - Editor

Anonymous said...

The winter texans are bunch cheap skates,, they are always looking for buck to save, they clog our dr. offices, dental offices, they go eat when the working people go out for lunch, they are more like a nuisance. I can't wait until they leave a lot of those people listen to Glen beck, a former drug attic, alcoholic, that has children with disabilities probably caused by drug addiction.
Some like Mr. (Viagra)Rush big mouth, Limbaugh, he reminds me of Tony of the Sopranos, a big overweight Buffoon.
Well back to normal, I found out the Winter Tex are gone, hopefully for ever.

Anonymous said...

Teabaggers, Constituniolist, Tea partiers, they are just a group of Racist sob's that think they are the only ones that matter.
They are so miserable, they blame everyone for their misery.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed your article and agree with most of what you have said. I have waited since the 5th grade in Wilmington, North Carolina for a black man to be voted President of the United States. Mr Obama has worked harder in his first 18 months in office than "W" did in his entire 8 years in office. When did the Republican Party become the party of old white losers. They need to get rid of the stupid right winged conservatives that think Sarah Palin is smart and good looking (since when were looks a criteria for political office?) and start acting like Americans. When we all turn out the light at night we are all Americans period. When I hear the national anthem played I stand as a Democrat who served in the Armed Forces right along with Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and many, many more. When will America become color blind we are all the same some might have an accent but all of our relitives except Native Americans came from some where else to get here. We need to get over it and on with it. The richest nation in the bloody free world should be able to provide healthcare to its citizens!!!!!! And not line the pocket of some rich white conservative. I am signing off as a tar heel, transplanted to Texas now sort of a longhorn. Take care Americans one day we might get it right again!! (I am a southern white woman not all of us are the same.)