On Veterans’ Day, my thoughts turn in deep gratitude to the many Americans who have served in the military now and in the past.

But the San Francisco Chronicle used the occasion to dump on Ken Burns’ WWII documentary for not giving special attention to Hispanics. Mind you, Italian-descended vets, Polish and all the others have not complained that their ethnic tribe was not individually honored. These other groups who still have some attachment to their ancestors’ home nations nevertheless consider themselves to be Americans first, and understand that any salute to US veterans applies to them.

Of course, the Hispanic complaints have more to do with contemporary politics than historical accuracy. Mexicans are attempting to rewrite history with them in it, so the Reconquista agenda of using immigration as the invasion of America does not seem as radical as it is. (Previous VDARE coverage of this subject: Hispanic Historic Revision: WWII and Hispanic Dishonor of America’s WWII Veterans Continues Unabated.)

“If people think Latinos do not have a role in the history of this country, then they can be easily dismissed as deserving of respect or rights,” said East Bay resident Armando Rendon, who joined Rivas-Rodriguez and others last spring in starting a “Defend the Honor” campaign to push Burns for Latino inclusion. “In World War II, we as a people responded to the responsibility of being Americans. … (But) people see us as the eternal immigrant or bracero, rather than being seen as contributors deserving of recognition.”
["Veterans Day is a time for forgotten Latinos to be recognized", San Francisco Chronicle 11/11/07]

I’m not the only one who doesn’t appreciate the Chronicle treatment of this issue. Here’s “guillermo” in the comments section about the article:

How in the world the SF Chronicle in general, and Tyche Hendricks, in particular, can take a national day of respect for American veterans, and turn it into a lecture to the readers about racism in America, turns my stomach beyond description. You people at the Chronicle should hang your heads in shame. It’s disgusting. You are not even capable of keeping your agenda in your pocket for the sake of the ALL veterans on a National Holiday established to honor them? Regrettably, that speaks miles about your newspaper.

In addition, see my Veterans Day blog from 2005, Honoring Veterans Means Maintaining Borders and Sovereignty.

Acts of nature, like fire and floods can be made worse by human intervention of the wrong sort. Or the lack of the right kind of action.

For example, the effects of Hurricane Mitch, the terrible 1998 storm that stalled over Central America, were exacerbated by deforestation, which worsened landslides.

There were apparently similar human forces at work in the recent Mexican floods in Tabasco. Particularly corruption…

But even as water levels slowly receded this week, environmental activists, opposition politicians and others expressed frustration and anger that more was not done after the 1999 calamity to avoid a replay. They said that the present flooding was fueled by rampant overbuilding, deforestation and wetlands destruction, and the squandering of funds that should have been spent on flood-prevention measures.
[Corruption blamed for Tabasco floods, Los Angeles Times 11/8/07]

But did our man in the White House respond with niggardly instincts as a result of negative reports?

Certainly not. He has already “pledged” $300,000 to his favorite people down south, and presumably there could be more assistance in the future.

CUNY (The City University of New York) is really enthusiastic about immigrants, and has a whole “Nation Of Immigrants” webpage, as well as having immigration services on Campus, and giving the Naturalization people facilities for swearing in services.

Veteran’s Day note: what they don’t have, at most of CUNY, is ROTC. If you want to be a citizen and become eligible for taxpayer-supported services, including the “free” college at CUNY, then you’re fine with them.

If you should want to join the Army and fight for your country, whether America is your adopted or native country, you’re out of luck.

But I noticed this interesting slip on their “Distinguished Immigrant CUNY Alumni” page
—they listed both Shirley Chisholm and General Colin Powell (a graduate of CUNY ROTC) as immigrants.

Both of them were American-born, in New York, of immigrant parents. I knew that, because both Shirley Chisholm and Colin Powell were proposed as candidates for President—Chisholm in 1972, she had no political traction but she made the cover. of Ms. Magazine

And of course, no one but a natural-born citizen can be President. (No matter who they are.)

I don’t know if any of the others on the list were non-immigrants, but it was interesting to see who was born where–Abe Beame was born in England, although his family was only there briefly. And A. M. Rosenthal was born in Canada, but that deserves a blog post of its own.

A reader points us to this story:

Discord roils L.A. Unified parent panel: Acrimony with racial overtones has plagued the advisory council. The key issue: whether meetings in Spanish should be allowed, By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2007.

For months, parents on a Los Angeles Unified School District advisory council have disagreed over whether their meetings should be conducted in Spanish or English. Such arguments became so abusive that district officials canceled meetings for two months and brought in dispute-resolution specialists and mental-health counselors.

But Friday morning’s gathering of the District Advisory Council proved dysfunctional in any language.

By one vote, parents censured their own chairman for alleged bad behavior, leading to a walkout of most Spanish-speakers. The rebuked chairman, Roberto Fonseca, followed them out of the room. Most voting for the censure were African American, adding racial overtones to the back-and-forth hectoring.

She says:

WOW!!! Why don’t the Spanish just admit that they want to control LA?

WOW!!! I’m sorry to say this but what horrible people!!!!

Which about sums it up. What part of “Reconquista” do America’s supposed leaders not understand?

Footnote: as part of my continuing scholarly quest to track the metastasizing meaning of “racism”, I note this interesting new definition (my emphasis):

Those who walked out included Guadalupe Aguiar, one of the parents who felt that Fonseca was treated unfairly, especially because Friday was the last meeting before new elections. She added that she considers it racist when parents are told that, in America, they have to speak English.