Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers wanted to make some remarks at last week’s TUSD meeting on the future of Mexican-American Studies, but as regular readers know, the meeting didn’t exactly go according to plan.
Here’s what Rogers would have said:
It is no exaggeration to say that there is war against Southern Arizona, Pima County & Tucson. It is a war on our values, our culture, our heritage and our society as we know it.
The Extremists based in Phoenix want to dictate how we run our elections in Tucson, how we run our government and how we run our schools. We must fight back.
Since they want to eliminate Mexican American Studies, perhaps we have to use only European History allusions to make our points. Here’s something they can perhaps understand.
In 1938, English PM Neville Chamberlain attended a conference with Hitler in Munich. Hitler was on the march to conquer Europe. Chamberlain basically conceded the Sudetenland, a German-speaking part of Czechoslovakia, to Hitler for conquer – in the foolish hope that it would “preserve” the peace. Chamberlain returned to England and was photographed at the airport holding the infamous “black umbrella.” Thereafter, the Nazi’s brutally conquered almost all of Europe.
Appeasement & capitulation didn’t work then & it won’t work now. You don’t acquiesce to bullies who peddle hate, racial discord and divisiveness like Horne & Huppenthal because they won’t go away. You stand tall and fight for what’s right.
So, which members of the TUSD governing board will be holding black umbrellas tonight to show their lack of courage? And will there be three of them?
We’ll see whether he gets a chance to have his say at tomorrow’s TUSD meeting.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.
Dear Jeff Rogers,
Even though your analogy is relatively correct in that capitulation to bullies rarely get’s one anything but more trouble, I really think it is time to leave the Hitler comparisons alone for three reasons: First, because they have been done so many times that all they do is make the comparison maker look stupid. Second, because it is a tactic heavily used by republicans and TEA partiers (see first reason). Mostly, though, one should avoid Hitler comparisons because – until and unless the comparee starts killing off three to four percent of the population – there really is no comparison, thus making the comparor look even more stupid.
There are certain groups of people who don’t seem to mind looking stupid. In fact they seem to thrive on it. However, I don’t think democrats should be among them.
Not exactly a Hitler comparison. At least, not like the ones I’m used to hearing. I think it was a historical analogy that was appropriate.
I concur. It is inappropriate for Jeff Rodgers to compare opposition to the Mexican-American Studies program with the wholesale slaughter of millions of innocent civilians and the reign of destruction that followed Hitlers’ campaigns in Europe. By doing so Mr. Rodgers belittles the victims of the Nazi holocaust, he belittles the veterans and the casualties of WWII and all people who stand up and fight against bigotry and hatred everywhere.
His characterization of the opposition to the MAS program is also hateful and belittling. There is a large amount of vocal opposition to the MAS program coming from TUSD parents here in Tucson, many of whom are registered Democrats. While Rodgers deftly avoids any direct alignment of MAS opposition and Nazis, simply by making the analogy he implies the association and thus also implies that any opposition to MAS is akin to being pro-Hitler. This kind of vitriol has no place in the discourse and Mr. Rodgers does a disservice to the Democratic party with his marginalization of TUSD parents, he does not even acknowledge them, leaving the reader to lump them in with “The Extremists based in Phoenix”.
He offers no insight or expertise, just another empty opinion full of fear and hatred. If anyone is a bully it is Jeff Rodgers, a party official NEVER elected by the public, he does not answer to the people, he answers to the far left; Democratic Party Committee-persons. (The theory: This is a byproduct of having party primaries elections which exclude Independent voters, meaning that committee-persons are typically elected by the polarized elements of voting public, especially in non-presidential primary years, in turn this leads to committee-persons being more extreme politically. This is true for both parties in this state.)
Mr Nintzel,
I have been trying to find book lists and curriculum for the Mexican American Studies program but it has not been easy. I do not think that we should be judging the conceptualization or ideology of having ethnic studies (We already have them and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon); I think we need to access the curriculum and coursework itself. Any links that you may have or maybe a future feature article in the weekly would be great. We do not need more opinion pieces but an investigative journalistic approach, and I think the TWeekly is uniquely able to accomplish that. The discourse needs to change from subjective emotional feelings on racial/ethnic issues to an objective examination of what is actually being taught in the classrooms and what the results in terms of student performance have been.
By taking MAS courses what are these students missing out on in other courses? And vice-versa? Basically what are the costs/benefits of the MAS curriculum on a students overall education?
Does the MAS program better prepare the students for a University education? How do their reading comprehension scores, writing scores and math scores compare with non MAS student both locally and nationally?
How is performance on standardized tests effected by participation in MAS courses?
I am sure there are many more important questions that need to be answered in a methodical and objective manner. Everything I have seen or read up to this point in the papers are self serving opinions which twist statistics and do not provide any clarity on the curriculum or the results. I hope you have some insight/elucidation into this!
Thanks!