November 2nd is Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the Mexican form of All Souls’ Day.
It’s also being taken advantage of by Mexican activists who blame U.S. immigration policy for border deaths. The Associated Press reported on Oct. 30th that

Rights activists in the northern Mexican border city of Tijuana have hung 5,100 small white crosses on the fence straddling the U.S. frontier to commemorate migrants who have died trying to cross… The crosses represent the number of migrants estimated to have died in the 15 years since the United States toughened border security.

Mexican Activists Place 5,100 Crosses at Border Fence to Mark Migrant Deaths, Associated Press, Oct. 30th, 2009

These activists have it backwards. If the U.S. were really serious about border control, interior immigration enforcement, and the elimination of benefits for illegal aliens, then thousands of Mexican lives would be saved. Probably  most of those 5,100 people would be alive, in Mexico.
But are these activists really concerned about saving lives, or about utilizing death to promote their agenda?
So I say, Stop Death in the Desert - Build the Border Wall!

A reader writes

Hi! In case you missed it, Meb Keflizighi, ORIGINALLY FROM ERITREA, just became the first American to win the New York City Marathon in 25 years! Hurray for immigration!

It happens that the last “American” to win was Alberto Salazar, born in Cuba. The last regular American to win (to use Archie Bunker’s terminology) was Bill Rodgers, who ran in the 70’s before the sport was professionalized. He said recently that

“It’s a totally different world,” says Rodgers, whose only payout in Boston ($12,500) came when he finished fourth in 1986, the first year that prize money was offered. “I was on the edge of amateur and professional. It’s a tough era now. The Kenyans, Ethiopians, Moroccans . . . whew!”

Table of winners below

(more…)

I think this is slightly bizarre, although not necessarily inappropriate:

Visiting Mexican teacher celebrates Day of the Dead

By Abigail Curtis
Bangor Daily News, October 31, 2009

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY ABIGAIL CURTIS Leanna Cotton, 6, and her mom, Brenda Cotton, both of Thomaston, show off the sugar skulls they made to honor loved ones. “Mine is for my old dog Gretta,” Leanna said. Buy Photo

ROCKLAND, Maine — When Francisco Rosa was growing up in the Pacific state of Colima in Mexico, he and his family would pack a festive picnic lunch every year on Nov. 2 and head to a special place: the cemetery.

There, they would eat holiday treats such as sugar skulls and pan de los muertos — bread of the dead — as they celebrated the memory of loved ones who had passed away. [More]

The reason I say it’s not totally inappropriate is that the Penobscot School in Rockland Maine is not a public school, but a private institution which describes itself as a “A Center for Language Learning and International Cultural Exchange.” As such, it is appropriate for it to engage in promoting weird foreign religious practices. However, if they try to introduce this kind of thing to your local public school, you can remind them that Day of the Dead is just the Mexican version of  the Feast Of All Saints, and as such should be treated just like…Winterfest.