NY TIMES VIDEO
A 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Ecuador discusses the obstacles she has faced in the United States while trying building a life without citizenship.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
S.W.E.R. Town Hall Meeting for Dream
April 13th SWER (Students Working for Equal Rights) hosted an outstanding Town Hall meeting in the Wolfson campus of MD College. Over 120 attendees listened to presentations that went from MDC administrators and student government representatives to community representatives, all declaring their strong support For DREAM Act.
Even more moving were the personal stories shared by several Dreamers in the audience. It was a deeply affecting to the rest of the attendees to judge by the numerous comments they shared. We NEED more of these events that not only educate our peer citizens about DREAM but also put a real human face on what each DREAMer has had to overcome, the personal cost of living a half life and waiting in limbo. This is in my opinion the best way to counteract the opposition, when they attempt to label dream students as criminals, or dehumanize us as just numbers. If our peers can relate to our experience they will then become supporters. In this way we create a personal stake in each of those supporters, and ensure their commitment and efforts towards enactment of DREAM Act.
Even more moving were the personal stories shared by several Dreamers in the audience. It was a deeply affecting to the rest of the attendees to judge by the numerous comments they shared. We NEED more of these events that not only educate our peer citizens about DREAM but also put a real human face on what each DREAMer has had to overcome, the personal cost of living a half life and waiting in limbo. This is in my opinion the best way to counteract the opposition, when they attempt to label dream students as criminals, or dehumanize us as just numbers. If our peers can relate to our experience they will then become supporters. In this way we create a personal stake in each of those supporters, and ensure their commitment and efforts towards enactment of DREAM Act.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tom Tancredo faces DREAM protesters
I guess Mr. Tancredo got some rowdy visitors during his anti-illegal/DREAM opposing speech. Serves him right, however nobody here at LIFE BY DREAM condones any sort of radical, violent, illegal behavior in any way/shape/form.
"The scheduled talk by former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Tuesday night was cut very short by raucous, angry student protesters."
"The night's only moment of calm followed. Tancredo offered to listen to students' protests, if they would listen to him, and then began to discuss his views on higher education and illegal immigrants. Tancredo said he had been invited to speak in opposition to the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, proposed federal legislation that would allow the children of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship through college education or military service.
A student group Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) invited Tancredo to speak at UNC-CH. Riley Matheson, the senior who started the Chapel Hill chapter of YWC, attempted to introduce Tancredo, but was largely drowned out by the crowd.
"You believe in white people's superiority, you fuck!" one student shouted, to cheers.
Tancredo ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 on an admittedly single-issue platform: Stopping illegal immigration. While in Congress, Tancredo—the grandson of Italian immigrants—introduced the Mass Immigration Reduction Act, which would have placed a moratorium on all immigration, legal or otherwise, into the U.S., except for family members of current citizens."
"UNC-CH junior Rupert Campbell, one of the protest's organizers, walked through the crowd, handing out anti-YWC flyers."Free speech is laudable to the extent that hate speech isn't part of it," he said. Campbell, who compared YWC to the Hitler Youth movement in pre-World War II Germany, said the protest wasn't necessarily organized to drown Tancredo out. "We just wanted to make our voices heard. We wanted to raise awareness of equality."
Monday, April 6, 2009
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
A couple of days ago, I went with Motto to renew his driver's license.
A rite of passage that for the majority of the population is painless but for him has turned into a yearly ordeal. Mind you, we had everything in order and in triplicate. The only things missing was the proverbial pound of flesh and pint of blood. Everything in order and in a folder!
We waited in line made small talk until it was his turn. With some trepidation, he hands his paperwork over, only to be told "your paperwork is too old, you need something less than three years old". And therein lies the problem. Thanks to a system that is as dysfunctional as it is slow and erratic there is no way to obtain more current paperwork. He is stuck in limbo, with a bright future almost within reach and a lack of current ID can snatch it away just when years of hard work and dedication are about to pay off.
Thanks to our lovely home state's penchant for getting in line with the past administration's every idiotic new measure, in this case Real ID, thousands of law abiding, hard working people, not just immigrants, are having a hard time renewing driver's license.
We live here own property pay taxes volunteer and work to improve our communities. We work hard we excel we try to shine. We play by the rules even the unfair and unwritten ones. We jump through every hoop and and beat the odds and surmount every obstacle. And still still the game is fixed and the dice are weighted, and not in our favor.
Its almost as if the powers that be are conspiring to create a self fulfilling prophecy. If you tell a person or a child often enough long enough that they can't and must only act this way, you can eventually force that outcome. Except that in this case the outcome is meant to be detrimental. Hysterical given the fact that while my law abiding straight arrow friend is attempting to follow the rules there's all manner of chicanery taking place right outside the DMV.
We won't be dissuaded. We 'll keep trying and we are going to play by your unfair rules. And we are going to beat you fair and square.
A rite of passage that for the majority of the population is painless but for him has turned into a yearly ordeal. Mind you, we had everything in order and in triplicate. The only things missing was the proverbial pound of flesh and pint of blood. Everything in order and in a folder!
We waited in line made small talk until it was his turn. With some trepidation, he hands his paperwork over, only to be told "your paperwork is too old, you need something less than three years old". And therein lies the problem. Thanks to a system that is as dysfunctional as it is slow and erratic there is no way to obtain more current paperwork. He is stuck in limbo, with a bright future almost within reach and a lack of current ID can snatch it away just when years of hard work and dedication are about to pay off.
Thanks to our lovely home state's penchant for getting in line with the past administration's every idiotic new measure, in this case Real ID, thousands of law abiding, hard working people, not just immigrants, are having a hard time renewing driver's license.
THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!
We live here own property pay taxes volunteer and work to improve our communities. We work hard we excel we try to shine. We play by the rules even the unfair and unwritten ones. We jump through every hoop and and beat the odds and surmount every obstacle. And still still the game is fixed and the dice are weighted, and not in our favor.
Its almost as if the powers that be are conspiring to create a self fulfilling prophecy. If you tell a person or a child often enough long enough that they can't and must only act this way, you can eventually force that outcome. Except that in this case the outcome is meant to be detrimental. Hysterical given the fact that while my law abiding straight arrow friend is attempting to follow the rules there's all manner of chicanery taking place right outside the DMV.
We won't be dissuaded. We 'll keep trying and we are going to play by your unfair rules. And we are going to beat you fair and square.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
An odd endorsement?
The irony in this still baffles me.
As stated on DREAM Activist, Chris is by means no hero. However, he does seem to comprehend the basis of the DREAM Act.
If you still find this hard to believe, don't take my word for it. Here is adirect quote from Mr. Simcox (Yes, the co-founder of the Minutemen himself stated this) and the link to the article:
If you still find this hard to believe, don't take my word for it. Here is adirect quote from Mr. Simcox (Yes, the co-founder of the Minutemen himself stated this) and the link to the article:
"They need to be brought out of the shadows. They need to be documented and swear an oath to become a citizen,” he said. “If they do that, then by all means they deserve the opportunity that anyone else has.”
I guess we ought to say, thanks?
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