There are several ways to look at the Sunday, Dec. 9, arrest of Tucson Unified School District’s former Mexican-American Studies director and co-founder, Sean Arce, who now faces charges for allegedly assaulting his ex-wife and for vandalism and trespassing.
There’s the view from rabid critics of the district’s beleaguered MAS department, who see state Attorney General Tom Horne a hero and buy into a mythology that the classes are anti-American. To them, Arce’s arrest somehow exposes the dark underbelly of the program.
But there’s also another view, from people who have supported the program and its return to TUSD but see Arce’s arrest as an example of issues that need to be addressed within a movement that formed in response to Horne’s anti-MAS law, as well as SB 1070.
In the days after Arce’s arrest, the Tucson Weekly talked to dozens of people who were responding to the news, and to gossip that at times grew out of control. While many expressed heartbreak for someone they respect, others said they worried about how Arce’s arrest could fuel further attacks against MAS.
Here’s what happened the night of Saturday, Dec. 8 and early morning of Sunday, Dec. 9, according to a Tucson Police Department report obtained by the Weekly. Police said they responded to what was described as a break-in in progress. One witness interviewed said he heard banging at his neighbor’s house, went to investigate and saw two broken windows and a man he didn’t know bleeding from his right hand and standing inside the house. When the man saw the witness, he left the house, and the neighbor followed him and saw the man get into a white sedan.
More information about what occurred that night came from a police interview with Arce’s ex-wife, who told police she was at La Cocina the night of Saturday, Dec. 8, when Arce showed up, grabbed her arm and pulled her away from a table where she sat with friends. After several patrons separated the couple, she left the bar and restaurant with friends and drove home.
A friend who was leaving the ex-wife’s house saw Arce in the neighborhood, according to the ex-wife’s interview, and called to tell her that Arce was driving toward the house. After she got off the phone, Arce’s ex-wife heard banging against a sliding glass door and she left with friends through the garage. They drove off and she called the police.
The report noted that when police arrived at the house, they found the front door and garage door open, and two broken windows, one of them with no glass left in the frame. But no one was inside. Blood found on glass from a broken window and on the front door was collected for evidence, according to the report.
Arce’s ex-wife told police that she thought he was staying at the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa to celebrate his birthday. Police arrested Arce at his Starr Pass room and he was transported to the Pima County Jail and booked on suspicion of domestic violence/assault, domestic violence/criminal damage and domestic violence/trespassing.
The week after the arrest, some MAS supporters noted a palpable silence about the arrest and wondered if others hoped news of the alleged incidents would go away. However, Arce had reportedly discussed his arrest with members of UNIDOS, the student-led group that helped bring national attention to MAS and the fight to save the program when it took over a TUSD school board meeting last spring.
The Weekly reached out to Arce’s ex-wife for comment, but response came from Tucson attorney Richard Martinez, the attorney representing former MAS teachers who filed a complaint in U.S. District court challenging the legality of the anti-MAS law. The plaintiffs are awaiting a decision from federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima.
Martinez, who is representing Arce on the Dec. 9 domestic violence charges, is also representing Arce and former MAS teacher Jose Gonzalez in a defamation lawsuit filed last year by former TUSD teacher John Ward, who now works for the state Department of Education.
When Martinez called the Weekly, he said he had counseled his client not to discuss what occurred on the night of Dec. 8 and 9. But on Thursday, Dec. 27, I heard again from Martinez, who said he wanted to set up an interview with Arce.
During that interview, Arce said he wanted to clear up “a lot of misinformation that is out there.
“Nonetheless, I own up to what I did and I regret bringing this attention to my kids. They are first and foremost on my mind. … I am a father who loves my children more than anything. No one has a right to disrespect their mother. … my conduct was inexcusable.”
Arce confirmed that he met with students from UNIDOS after his arrest.
“It was important because I let down a lot of people in the community. I have dedicated my life to youth advocacy, and try to provide an example and be a model for the youth. I think it’s important to own up to what is true,” he said.
Arce was fired last year when the TUSD governing board voted to not renew his contract as director of MAS. The meeting that night was packed with MAS supporters who pleaded with the board to keep Arce in his position. Shortly after his dismissal, Arce received the 2012 Myles Horton Award for Teaching People’s History from the Zinn Education Project.
Arce told the Weekly the past four years have been particularly difficult for him. In addition to the fight for MAS classes, there was the fight for his job, a divorce and losing his home. The stress, he said, has at times been unbearable.
“I’ve been consumed with my work. Changes have taken place rapidly—employment, home, loss of the family unit, marriage as I once knew it, those are a lot of challenges for one person to face. Still, what took place is inexcusable and I should have sought help earlier,” said Arce, who has now sought counseling.
Martinez, who attended the interview with Arce, said there is a pretrial hearing in Tucson City Court on Monday, Jan. 8. Martinez also said that when people look at the police report, they should consider that sometimes what’s written isn’t always accurate, and that there were no eyewitnesses to what occurred at the house.
Usually the victim, in this case Arce’s ex-wife, has “an important voice in where the case goes,” Martinez said, but neither he nor Arce would say whether Arce’s ex-wife intends to drop the domestic violence/assault charge.
Martinez said he believes there are people in the community with an agenda to discredit Arce, even within the community that supports MAS.
Shortly after Arce’s arrest, an online blog surfaced called Malintzine (malintzine.wordpress.com). The first entry is titled “Dear Sean” and is a letter directed at Arce.
“I’m writing to you with your daughter in mind. With my daughter and all our children in mind,” the post began.
“You’ve been nationally and internationally recognized and occupy the center of the Chicano Movement in Tucson — the civil rights battle for Mexican American studies, banned books and the legal fight against Arizona’s HB 2281, all while perpetuating problematic internalized sexism that has been the root of our trauma over the last several years. You have said yourself, you’re a ‘machismo’ a ‘macho’ and your behavior with your partner, partners, our young men and women reflect that. You wear your male privilege shamelessly, more so when you’re drinking.”
Kim Dominguez, founding member and manager of the UA Department of Mexican American Studies’ Social Justice Education Project and a supporter of the MAS classes, told the Weekly she’s familiar with the blog and described Malintzine as a collective of women and “queer people of color,” many from Tucson and several from other parts of the country, who are interested in MAS and gender issues.
Dominguez has been a constant voice on gender and sexual violence issues within the local movement sparked by the anti-MAS law and SB 1070, also known as the “Papers, please” law. She said it’s important for members of the movement to speak out, even though she understands how hard that can be when they are also dealing with trauma inflicted by the likes of Horne and others.
One issue that’s important to recognize, according to Dominguez, is that many young women and men may have experienced domestic and sexual violence in their homes, and that there needs to be better leadership within the movement to address these issues.
“We know that in social history that often, (troubled) men get highlighted as the leaders of these movements, while there are underdogs (that carry the movement),” Dominguez said, adding that those underdogs are most often women.
Dominguez said she has already heard an earful from those worried about a story on Arce surfacing in the newspapers, and the fact that she is willing to discuss the problem. Dominguez said she wants to work on gender and domestic violence issues with young people immediately, and she’s planning a series of sexual and gender violence workshops with Tucson activist and organizer Raúl Alcaraz Ochoa.
The Malintzine blog, she said, received 500 views in its first week. There is a lot, she said, that local women in the movement want to say, but they’ve felt they haven’t had a voice. Women, Dominguez said, have felt dismissed and left out of the planning, organizing and leadership. A women’s group has formed in response to such concerns and continues to work on strengthening women’s voices in the movement.
“There is worry that talking about this perpetuates a narrative of young brown men and machismo. I understand that,” Dominguez said. “But at this point, there needs to be change.”
This article appears in Dec 27, 2012 – Jan 2, 2013.
Your parents should teach you about your culture. Your school should teach you reading and math.
Your parents should teach you about your culture. Your school should teach you how to read, write and do arithmetic.
I have to agree with Mitch Marcus. We are in America where American History in schools is all but non-existant. Why should the American taxpayer’s pay to teach other countries history and culture? Family should teach definitely be the instructor. Tucson is closing 12 schools because of budget woes, cutting out the pork that is/was in TUSD budget earlier might have save some of these schools. Our kids and grandkids are getting short changed in schools these days and not getting the basic education so that we can be “politically correct” and pamper our illegals, anchor babies, foreign nationals who forgot to renew their green cards and go home 15 years ago.
I can’t understand how any body in their right mind would even dare try too criticise state Attorney General,Tommy Horn-E, for all his his efforts in dismantling the mas program. Heck ! the guy is a national hero. He managed to single handedly save our nation from being overthrowen by those high school students from T.U.S.D.
P.S ; he also legalized leaving the scene of an accident, and a bunch of other stuff.
A very poorly written, disjointed article with no real point.
Mr. Arce has long championed a method of teaching where all of what we do is tied to our ideological/political belief system. He is supposedly a practitioner of “authentic caring”…whatever that means.
If this violence towards his ex-wife exemplifies either his belief system or “authentic caring” then he has no business teaching anyone anything. Ms. Herreras, isn’t it true this is not the first time Mr. Arce was arrested for domestic violence?
He acted just LIKE a thug, apparently, he IS one. So much for the “face” of MAS. This thug did more harm to that program NOW than Mr. Horne or anyone else has, or ever will. Make sure you “MAS” people thank him.
as I advanced in history classes in college I was introduced to the calumny of all peoples around the world including Mexico. To suggest that the MAS are not anti- American is to do the country and state a disservice is disingenuous …. which as I read further in history was the defining characteristic of bigotry and violence in which the innocent were most often the victims … character is something that is a spiritual power from which integrity derives for all things … Arce does not have it … he is a petty and bigoted pedagogue …
and in Tucson the innocent have been dragged into argument they did not deserve.
My, my how the worm turns!
I will attend the January 08, 2013 hearing; maybe I’ll even bring a Mexican Flag to use as a foot mat like I did before Judge Hays in 2006-2007. (Just Kidding!)
However; unlike the liberal “pro-raza” folks I won’t judge Mr Arce, or call him a “racist,” on the basis of his political beliefs. In fact, I won’t judge him at all for that is not the public’s function.
Although I approve of his removal from MAS, where, along with Pima County Legal Defender Isabel Gartcia he was encouraging ethnic division and fomenting a “Raza Revoution,”
I wish him well.
He DOES have a very good lawyer.
Warden, the Notorious Mexican Flag Burner! roywarden@hotmail.com
First of all, the Mexican AMERICAN Studies classes were teaching American history. Secondly, they were not funded by the state, but desegregation funds from the federal government and would have no bearing on the closing of schools. What caused the closing of schools is too many schools with low enrollment due to many factors, including students transferring to other schools (public, charter and private) because of a school’s low performance and reputation and schools that are not big enough to support the number of students needed to keep the school running. The only way to have kept the schools open and running as they are now is to raise the amount funded to schools by the state or get more students. Since neither have been possible, Tucson Unified had no other choice, but to close schools.
Thank you, Ms. Herreras, for a thoughtful article addressing many sides of the issue. None of these issues will go away soon, and need to be addressed. Sometimes, what is devastating can be a blessing.
Asshat, we’ve never called you a racist, we just call you asshat.
@Karla the desegregation funds are NOT federal monies. They are paid by TUSD residents for TUSD students. The federal court NEVER ordered high taxes to pay for desegregation, it was an invention of the legislature. They can end the same way, by an act of the legislature. Desegregation monies are NOT and have NEVER been intended for MAS or any other classes. It as and is intended to supplement rather than supplant.
“First of all, the Mexican AMERICAN Studies classes were teaching American history,” Good point ! however, in the state Arizona, American history has it’s bounderies as to what is acceptable, seperated by race, and culture. Although most of us are fully aware of the boundaries seperating Canada, and Mexico from the U.S. We still have trouble acknowledging that regardless of whom it involved, and what occurred within our borders, if we like it or not, becomes apart of our nations history, PERIOD !
TUSD should be shut down and its administrators brought up on charges of theft and fraud. Clean house the right way and get the scum out. Nobody gets in unless they are to accept a much smaller salary and will take on much more actual work because God knows how much work needs to be done in that school district. It has been one of the worst for decades and it always will until Reading, Writing, and Arithmetics all in English become a priority once again. Quit dumming down our kids and taking all the money for yourselves and fix this. Otherwise, this district is doomed and there will be thousands of stupid young adults that will be taking the reigns later on. It isn’t rocket science, it is reality. Wake up people.
Arce’s arrest has absolutely nothing to do with MAS or SB 1070. He’s a bully that abused his ex wife, and THAT is the issue.
Sean Arce’s arrest is one issue
MAS and SB1070 is another entirely
Those of you that are trying to connect the two are idiots with an agenda, that is all. That being said, Mr. Arce needs to have some consequences for this one.
Yes, Karla, YOU and the left wing media DID call me a “racist.”
And why was I an “Asshat?”
Maybe because I told the students in Armory Park, way back in 2006, “Viva Zapata. Return to Mexico and fight your revolution THERE!”
Or, maybe because, in Armory Park on April 10, 2006, I said: “Your left wing leadership has betrayed you! Cesar Chavez was OPPOSSED the entry of Mexican Illegals! He fought to protect his American Farm Workers Union!”
Or, was it was because I burned the Mexican Flag in direct opposition to the policies of the Mexican Government?
Since 2006 I’ve committed myself to ending Open Border Policy and the entry of poor Mexicans, for political and economic exploitation.
I’ve worked hard to end THEIR dying in the desert while you and your comrades kept encouraging their entry.
I really DID WORK for “No Mas Muertes” while you and your comrades kept encouraging illegal entry, encouraging THEIR dying so you could have the cannon fodder you needed for a “Raza Revolution!”
Do you REALLY think YOU and Isabel Garcia are “Humanitarians” for encouraging so much misery and death?
Have the courage to answer!
Tucson Weekly: Have the integrity NOT to delete this posting!!
Remember folks: If you comment using fake email addresses, we’ll be pulling down what you write.
If you’re brave enough to call someone out, or insightful enough to raise an interesting question, put your name next to it.
Do you mean ME, David?
My name ROY WARDEN is next to my comments; ALWAYS has been and ALWAYS will be.
“KIT” is my nick-name.
Moreover; Unlike others I have had the courage to speak the convictions of my heart, even though so doing has cast me in the role of the “unpopular” public speaker standing against the mainstream, or popular community viewpoint.
Over the past six years I’ve been arrested and prosecuted 12 times for speaking out against Open Border Policy, and the Corrupt Tucson City Council.
However; For six years the media HASN’T HAD the courage to interview me and print the truth of what I’ve always said: BOTH right wing and left wing: stop the economic and political exploitation of Mexico’s poor.
The mainstream includes the Tucson Weekly: You hold yourselves out to be “avante garde,” and “revolutionary” but you are hopelessly “straight,” and “establishment.”
And when it comes to Open Border Policy you support the Republican and Government economic interests, no matter what the cost to Mexico’s poor.
Look in the mirror, Tucson Weekly. You have become your worst fears. You have become your parents.
You ARE the Establishment!
Lost his right to ever legally own a firearm. Domestic violence es no bueno.
I am sickened that the article links “trauma inflicted by the likes of Horne” to Sean Arce’s domestic violence issue. There isn’t an excuse for domestic violence, . . . he could have gotten “help” earlier, but it speaks more to his character, and specifically morales, than extenuating circumstances. If he has so much anger than he vents it by beating up his wife, then maybe this explains the critics of MAS who view the program as being hate-filled.
If Arce is guilty of this horrible crime, then TUSD parents, and Tucson tax payers should say, “we don’t want a wife-abusing hate monger teaching Latino kids to hate whites.” And whether it be via state or federal taxes, normal citizens who don’t hate their neighbors were paying for Sean Arce and his goons to teach kids to hate.
I am 100% for more classes about Native Americans, who lived in Arizona for thousands of years, and even for classes that looks at many different ethnic/racial groups in the U.S. including Mexican Americans . . . but not for classes that exclusively focus on Mexican Americans and teach things about Arizona which are described as “science fiction.”
Critical race theory, part of MAS, is borderline lunacy. Sean Arce apparently has deep, and disturbing, psychological issues with women and white people. Sean Arce may well be a sociopath who treats women like dirt, and encouraged MAS students to act like sociopaths before the TUSD school board by setting off smoke bombs and disrupting the meeting.
To read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory
The take home point is that CRT folks don’t want a race-blind society where people are judged on their merits, but want everything to be about race. Well, I think the Supreme Court will, justly, end affirmative action as it is reverse discrimination, that is the 21st Century, and it will mean *less* focus on race, and more on merit.
At least now the public knows who these people really are.
The MAS reading list reads like a idiopathic wet dream … in high school I well remember that element who wore their “Mexicaness” like a hair shirt like it was your fault they were “Mexican” always leading with – “…you don’t like me ’cause I’m Mexican” …
in sharp contrast to the other group of Americans of Hispanic descent who worked shoulder to shoulder with the community to build a cohesive family of citizens … and shared with all the bodas, quincieras and bautismos without the damn thing breaking into a riot of shooting and fighting … they were and are a class act and we shared our successes, failures and tragedies together as family … we were Americans first – anything else second …
Roy Warden is right – we do have a Mexican problem and it originates in Mexico more specific it’s a Mexico problem … and as much as the cries of human rights is pandered about – the question remains – when will Mexico be held responsible for their civil rights violations – what country routinely and methodically disposes (ripping families apart – yes there are families in Mexico ) millions of it’s natural born citizens out if their country of birth … that is called an “ethnic cleansing” – as though a better life in Mexico absolutely depends on getting them out of Mexico … that is some very sick sh** and you’re keeping it alive — well the cartels need that crap too – I don’t see the difference – your drug product is “self pity” … as addictive as any drug out there and as dangerous …
If the people on this thread of comments are so interested in associating Mr. Arce’s personal faults with his professional record, why aren’t they similarly nailing Tom Horne for his appearances in the news recently? To bring in issues like school closings, the value of Mexican American Studies, etc. just shows how much of a witch hunt this issue still fosters.
The article is about a very painful situation all the way around that it seems like the main characters are doing their best to resolve. I really appreciate the work the Weekly has done on this, despite the firestorm that it is obviously already causing. Information is never the issue, what we do with it is the issue. I appreciate creative and constructive approaches that might actually treat the subject of machismo, which affects ALL ETHNICITIES.
All of that said, our district is 61% Latino. Why shouldn’t the majority of our students have a CHANCE (not a requirement) to learn their history? And why shouldn’t the rest of us have that same CHANCE (to learn the history of the majority of both our school district and increasingly our state and our nation?) Scared of our demographic realities, folks?
I wonder if Arce taught his students about his “machismo” as being a trait of Mexican culture? Just another self fulfilling stereotype brought on by someone in the culture of “La Raza.” And the media and those within the movement will point to the white devils as being bigoted, when actually the media and the movement are the ones who stir the pot of racism and divide people.
David Mendez – Your quote “Getting distracted by something” combined with your picture suggest you are texting while driving and taking your picture, too. Sure, I don’t know if you’re really sitting in a parking lot or driving, so possibly it’s misleading, but the suggested possibility detracts from your character and credibility.
It isn’t an issue of teaching Latinos the history of their ethnicity/race, but rather about courses which sought to sow seeds of discord for political reasons, and which weren’t based in fact. There are a plethora of ways to teach the history of Mexican Americans in the United States, and MAS studies are routinely described as advocating overthrow of the US government, promoting racial pride and ethnic solidarity.
I can’t help but think that non-Latino students at TUSD schools where MAS courses are taught would feel they are studying in a hostile environment.
If you tell Latino students everyday, “we are the victims of racism and that is the most important thing to know when it comes to understanding the world,” obviously it will build resentment and could lead some Latinos to be racist towards whites.
Normally, a person’s personal life doesn’t have a large bearing on their professional life. However, criminality and especially criminality involving violence towards other is a big red flag and this guy simply shouldn’t be around his “kids” at UNIDOS. If any TUSD student came home and told their parents that his/her teacher was recently arrested for domestic violence, obviously the parents would immediately want said teacher removed from the classroom.
Acre says that he has dedicated his life to “youth advocacy” and trying to be a role model . . . he agitates Latino kids to think about the world in racist terms and is arrested for beating up his ex-wife. Hmmm . . . whatever his goals, he is a big negative for Latino students and needs to never work for TUSD again.
Acre’s main life tools are harassing/attacking those who upset him, be it his ex-wife, or white people in the community who he blames for issues in Mexico and issues facing Latinos in the U.S.. Say no to hate and show Acre the door!
We must stop and ask ourselves this question here in the state of Arizona, who is the true American Patriot, the man that fights for the preservation of the freedom of our democracy, or the man one whose ambition is to deprive others of their constitutional rights such as the ‘freedom of speech’ ?
Asshat: Dedicated to you, from the staff of the Weekly … http://youtu.be/mQZmCJUSC6g
Where does an unemployed man get the money for drinking and a room at the Marriott?????
Kit: That’s for the folks who post things under multiple, blatantly false, email addresses and multiple names under the same IP address.
Dan: Nailed it.
Jeanne: Actually, that was a photo taken in the back of a car while I was on vacation with my family — if I remember correctly, my father was driving. Good times. Thanks for taking the time to look at my profile though, as I wasn’t aware most folks cared enough to check that out.
This article has struck a community nerve on the issue of TUSD, Raza Studies, etc., Maybe in time this will be the most-commeted on story to date.
Listen Up: Mr. Acre has been only been CHARGED. He has not had his day in court. He has NOT been convicted of anything.
So, give HIM the benefit of the doubt. That’s the American way!
However; There IS no doubt regarding Tom Horne’s deplorable conduct, he who would dare to speak on “Gun Control” issues when he can’t keep his OWN in his pants!
As for Arce: We don’t know the enormous pressures he’s endured since he was fired by TUSD. We, the public, have no idea as to his family dynamics.
Let the court process play out.
Here’s a prediction: Prior his to trial the charges will be withdrawn. Richard Martinez is A VERY SMART LAWYER. He once called Tucson City Manager Richard Miranda a “Liar” after Martinez won a 2.9 million dollar verdict against Miranda, and others, in Federal Court, in “Gilmartin v Miranda, et al”
And, as for Dan Gibson’s comment regarding “Asshat” above? In the name of the Tucson Weekly Staff he’s dedicated a song to me! I’m charmed! Too bad Gibson can’t stick to the issues of this comment thread…
Why in the world is Martinez responding for the victim in this case, Arce’s ex-wife, while also representing the defendant, Mr. Arce? This is a serious ethics violation, and Mr. Martinez’s law license can be revoked for communicating with the victim in this case.
I would ask for local domestic violence advocacy organizations and/or attorneys to step in, in order to ensure that no intimidation or other unethical activity is happening, here.
As I clicked on Gibson’s link, I had thought it would take us to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrgpZ0fUixs
NINTZ…the self anointed “mild mannerted reporter” OK, so we’ve moved from “You’re So Vain” to calling me an “ASSHOLE.”
Tell me: how does engagement in “Ad Hominem” attack (your appeal to readers feelings or prejudice rather than their intellect) advance the above discussion?
Do you do it because you can’t respond intellectually to questions which challenge your beliefs?
Question: How many people in Tucson are there like ACRE who made big time money as a direct consequence of decades of Open Border Policy, and the suffering of Mexico’s poor?
Fact: TUSD says 13,000 seats are now empty, thus causing a cutback in state funds, the closing of numerous schools, the firing of hundreds of teachers and administrators, great acrimony and ethnic division within the community, etc.
Question: How many of the 13,000 now gone were the unfortunate children of Mexican Illegals who have fled the community?
Did TUSD “aid and abet or otherwise encourage” the entry of Mexican Illegals so TUSD could build an empire, and inspire radical ethnic division, with programs like “Raza Studies?”
Question: Over the decades, (besides the “Fat Cat” Republican Money Boys like Jim Click, Don Diamond, etc.,) just WHO benefited financially from the entry, and presense, of tens of thousands Mexican Illegals?
Certainly the TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATORS recently fired benefited.
Fact: Did YOU know that the legal community (including Mari Herraras’ husband, who is a Pima County Public Defender) benefited TREMENDOUSLY due to the higher crime rates caused by the presence of Illegals, especially in domestic violence and drunk driving cases?
One Tucson Prosecutor told me: “Mexican Illegals are four times llikely to be involved in crime, both as a perpetrator and as a victim of crime. If they left the community tomorrow many of us in the legal community would lose our jobs!”
How about it, NINTZ? Maybe, just maybe, you should desist in name-calling and start addressing Open Border Policy related issues of community concern.
Say, what ever happened to that mistreated Mexicana girl from the precious knowledge agitprop flick?
From Betts P-H above: “All of that said, our district is 61% Latino. Why shouldn’t the majority of our students have a CHANCE (not a requirement) to learn their history? And why shouldn’t the rest of us have that same CHANCE (to learn the history of the majority of both our school district and increasingly our state and our nation?) Scared of our demographic realities, folks?”
Betts, they deserve a chance to learn their history and to be exposed to differing views, NOT just Paulo Freire’s goofy leftist platitudes (i.e., Pedogogy of the Oppressed), and warmed over movimiento claptrap by Rudy Acuna (of Occupied America fame), and so on.
In case you don’t remember — they had a chance to make the course an elective but that was rejected by the students and their angry ideologue puppet masters who egged them on from the shadows to disrupt TUSD board meetings and to harass board members, even at the board members’ homes.
Scared the raza studies educational philosophy has been exposed for being the political hobby horse of 2nd-rate educrats that it is?
Question: Where does an unemployed man get the money for drinking and a room at the Marriott?????
Answer: Save Ethic Studies fund.
Just chiming in late here, with some interesting news:
6 recent separate polls by major national polling firms came out recently with results that show that between 57 and 62% of voters polled support a path to US citizenship for the undocumented living here. Those supporting a total removal were in the middle 20% in all the polls.
Does that make some posters here irrelevant? (Like Kit Warden?)
Seems so to me.
I’m thinking of sending Tom Horne a Che t-shirt.
TUSDconcernParent asks: “Where does an unemployed man get the money for drinking and a room at the Marriott?????”
Then answers her so obviously rhetorical question with this: “From ‘Save Ethic Studies’ fund.”
Got any documentation to support that claim?
(While waiting for your response, may I congratulate you for laying off the CAPS keys?)
Hey, Riorican:
Do YOU really think the death of thousands of Mexican Illlegals, who died coming HERE because they were “enticed and invited” IN by powerful right wing employers who wanted cheap labor and powerful left wing “Pro-Raza” activist groups who wanted cannon fodder for a “Raza Revolution is “IRRELEVANT?”
Maybe you’re someone like Arce, a TUSD teacher for example, or perhaps a prosecutor or public defender like the author of this article, WHO MADE YOUR LIVING ON THE BACKS OF MEXICO’S POOR.
You call the question as to WHO benefited from the exploitation of Mexico’s poor IRRELEVANT?
You are hopelessly cruel!!
I’m feeling somewhat encouraged, by the 3 “likes” to my suggesting it might a good idea to send Arizona’s Attorney General, Tom Horne, a Che Guevara t-shirt.
Because it has a portrait of one of this old white guy’s personal heroes – Che Guevara.
Who, apparently, set the clearly bigoted Tom off, after he visited a Tuscon High School on his so-called “fact-finding” mission about the MAS program.
Whereupon, good ole Tom discovered a portrait of Che hanging on its classroom wall.
So sad it seems to be to me, that Ariziona is still being run by such a bigoted duet as racists like Brewer and Horne.
Just read this:
Well, all I can do, Kit, is to repeat what I posted earlier.
Here: “6 recent separate polls by major national polling firms came out recently with results that show that between 57 and 62% of voters polled support a path to US citizenship for the undocumented living here. Those supporting a total removal were in the middle 20% in all the polls.
Does that make some posters here irrelevant? (Like yourself?)”
Which, from my point of view, means, judging from your hysterical response, Mexican haters like you, clearly must seek a new business.
Meanwhile, I’m wishing you lotsa luck…
Hey, “Riorican” Why not respond to my question regarding the community “self interest” in exploiting Mexico’s poor?
What is YOUR self interest in Mexican Illegal Aliens?
Has your employment benefited from them like ARCE and MARI HERRERAS’ husband? Or, maybe YOU’RE like Jim Click and Don Diamond who can’t ever get enough poor people who will work twice as hard for half as much?
Have YOU ever been happy to pay an Illegal $5.00 an hour for gardening services, like people I know in Saddlebrook, when the going rate for a gardener might be $10.00?
Did YOU know that labor leader Cesar Chavez WENT TO JAIL for trying to stop Illegals from “taking jobs away” from members of his union?
And YOU want to talk about that Dirty Rat Commie Che Guevara, who was killed by Bolivians because he tried to take THEIR country from THEM!
Go ahead: Stand with the Dirty Rat Commie Che.
I’ll stand with the American Chavez!!
Frankly, I’m feeling kind of stupid about making posts here about how pleasant it has been for this emigrant from Connecticut to have settled here in Rio Rico.
Meanwhile, I’m about to take off on still another journey south of the border.
Just found this, which is surely among the most idiotic words I’ve ever read:
Hey, “Riorican” Why not respond to my question regarding the community “self interest” in exploiting Mexico’s poor?
What is YOUR self interest in Mexican Illegal Aliens?
Has your employment benefited from them like ARCE and MARI HERRERAS’ husband? Or, maybe YOU’RE like Jim Click and Don Diamond who can’t ever get enough poor people who will work twice as hard for half as much?
Have YOU ever been happy to pay an Illegal $5.00 an hour for gardening services, like people I know in Saddlebrook, when the going rate for a gardener might be $10.00?
Did YOU know that labor leader Cesar Chavez WENT TO JAIL for trying to stop Illegals from “taking jobs away” from members of his union?
And YOU want to talk about that Dirty Rat Commie Che Guevara, who was killed by Bolivians because he tried to take THEIR country from THEM!
Go ahead: Stand with the Dirty Rat Commie Che.
I’ll stand with the American Chavez!!
Riorican HAS JUST revealed the MINDLESS stupidity of the Left Wing by calling me a “Mexican Hater!”
For six years I’ve tried to protect the Mexican Poor from exploitation by the Left and Right.
Go Ahead:
Read the FIRST article ever written by the Tucson Weekly regarding the Riot in Armory Park on April 10, 2006, when I burned 2 Mexican Flags in opposition to the policy of the Mexican Government and told the Lefrt Wing and any Mexican who would listen:
“Viva Zapata. Return to Mexico and fight your revolution there!”
The Left Wing WILL NEVER tolerate a rational discussion on Open Border Policy.
El patron Kit Warden escribe: “any Mexican who would listen.”
Cool. So very patronizing of you.
Apparently, not only are “Mexicans” not listening, but upwards of 57/% recently polled “Americans” aren’t listening either.
As I suggested, time for you to look around for some some other hunk of hate-filled fiction to peddle?
Riorican:
Question: Regarding TUSD Ethnic Studies: What have YOU done to support or to end Raza Studies?
Go ahead and Google: “Roy Warden TUSD Raza Studies” and you will see several dozen articles I’ve written over the past 4 years, calling for an end to the racially divise TUSD program, including my letter to to Tom Horn: “Here is Your Raza Studies Smoking Gun,” well before HB 2281 was passed.
I’ve been part of the debate. I’ve written articles and contacted each and every Arizona Legislator regarding ENDING the program and STOPPING Open Border Policy.
Go Ahead and Google: “Roy Warden and SB 1070” I distibuted petitions for the original Citizen’s Inititive L.A.W. and S.OL.E, which preceeded SB 1070 and HB 2281.
And guess what? MY Side Won! Ethnic Studies and Open Border policy, As They Were, Are No More.
What have YOU done about ANY of this but shoot your mouth off in a blog? You don’t even have the guts to attach your REAL name to what you write.
Talking to people like YOU, who are “All Mouth And No Action” is a waste of time.
Roy, you couldn’t come across as more self-important, or less interesting, if your wardrobe consisted entirely of shirts with your face on them.
David, I USUALLY wear T-Shirts saying “Viva Zapata” with Zapata’s face on it, or “Chicana Pendeja” with Isabel Garcia’s face on it, expecially when I am attending a court hearing in which I am a defendant.
What have YOU ever done David? Made money off the misery of Illegals like Jim Click does, Don Diamond, Sean Arce, Isabel Garcia, or Mari’s husband the Public Defender?
Or maybe you just like to “shoot your mouth off” in a blog, where it’s nice and comfy, where you don’t have to respond to provocative questions which JUST MIGHT challenge the basis for your “Pro-Raza” belief system.
I get it David: You’re too “elevated” to engage in Public Debate within clear earshot of 3,000 Tucson and Pima County Officials who have engaged in some form of “Open Border” Policy, right?
Why not “Man Up” and come on down to the Tucson Weekly Public Forum when it resumes and make your voice heard?
Why are such silly debates being held?
According to your wonderful work, “MY Side Won! Ethnic Studies and Open Border policy, As They Were, Are No More.”
Huge waste of time, don’t you agree?
By the way, since you’re looking for a new challenge, just take a trip south of the border to shake a few friendly hands while uttering “pendeja”
See what happens.
Riorican, I KNOW you support Ethnic Studies, and that’s OK. But that’s not the point.
You call our stopping it “a huge waste of time!” I guarentee you: Those who support the ending of Ethnic Studies, who also happen to be the majority of Arizonans, don’t consider it a “waste of time,” at all.
They’re glad those little Brown Shirted Nazis called the “Brown Berets” are no longer marching in the streets of Tucson, Savvy?
Not a “Waste of Time” at all. A HUGE setback for the “Nation of Aztlan!”
Now, THAT’S what I call “Power to the People!!”