Eugenio's Blog!

I spent last week attending the National Farmworker Law Conference in The Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina. The week started off horribly when I missed my flight Monday afternoon, but fortunately it ended wonderfully, with a renewed confirmation of my strong loyalty to the South and Southern culture.

The Conference is a great way for advocates to discuss case strategies, legal challenges, and legislative changes. The farmworker panels were incredibly interesting, and it was awesome to hear good people talk about the progressive approaches they’re taking in addressing the needs of their clients. The passion to obtain immigrant justice was clearly apparent from the participants.

The discussions were exciting and motivating, no doubt, but I absolutely fell in love again with the South . . . the sweet tea, the “sirs,” the grits, the genuine concern for my well-being, the calming tone in people’s voices, the 80 degree weather in November—it was all just too great. In addition, it was an unbelievable political week with the elections and the resignation of Secretary Rumsfeld. Like a devout Southerner, I paid homage to the Museum of the New South, which opened in 2001. The exhibits were decent, but surely nothing compared to the Museum of the Confederacy. I'm such a Southern snob.

Despite the nickname of the city, however, I did not see one person in drag. I think this merits a revisiting.

Anyone who knows me surely knows that I love museums. For many years, the Imperial War Museum in London enjoyed the title of “Eugenio’s favorite museum.” When I visited Milwaukee back in August 2006, however, I went to America's Black Holocaust Museum there. For the past couple of months, I could not decide which museum was my favorite. Well, I’ve made my decision, and it’s been one of the easiest of my life.

I was in Washington this past week for a couple of conferences, but I had the opportunity to take a break Wednesday to visit the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. The Museum has only been open to the public for the past year or two. The exterior of the building is gorgeous, and it creates a very pleasant change of scenery on the National Mall. In addition, the tour guide at the Museum was phenomenal. The exhibits were incredibly clear and thought provoking. But what put this museum over the edge was the Native Foods café that sold meals inspired by Native cuisines. They were so good I had both lunch and supper there.

Without a doubt, it is my honor to call the National Museum of the American Indian my new favorite museum. I only planned to allot two hours visiting, but I seriously spent six hours there. I think the security guards were suspicious.

Without a doubt, one of the greatest days of the year was this past October 14. I was watching the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A’s baseball game at a bar right around the corner of Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.

So there we were, bottom of the ninth inning. It’s a tie game. Two men out. Runners on first and second. I don’t know what the pitch-count was, but let’s just say it was 3-2. Magglio Ordonez was the batter, who was previously a member of the White Sox [my friends were impressed that I knew that, too.] Anyway, there we were . . . anticipating an extra innings game when Magglio hits a shot to deep left center field . . . homerun! The bar went crazy! I went crazy! Like, crazy. Shouting for at least 10 minutes straight . . . no pun intended.

It was an amazing afternoon. Who knew sports could be so fun? The Tigers are now in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. I’m happy to see two Midwest teams, but surely my loyalty falls to the Tigers. I definitely plan to be in Detroit when the Tigers win it all. Stay tuned for that posting. Go Tigers! Go Bayside!

Up to about last week, I thought blogs were the raddest form of journal-keeping ever. I soon learned through youtube.com, however, that blogs were so 2005. I guess the trend now is videoblogs, and I wish I can say I hated them, but I don’t.

There’s this one videoblog that is absolutely hilarious. Here's the link. Sometimes he crosses the PC line, but other than that, his posts are rather humorous and without a doubt entertaining.

I learned today that I don't have work next week Monday in observance of Columbus Day. I don't support the holiday, so I need to find some sort of teach-in or rally. Maybe I'll drive down to Columbus. I guess it would be a bit ironic to have an Anti-Columbus Day rally in Columbus, Ohio, but I think it would be smart, too.

This genocist has everything named after him . . . a state capital, a national capital, a country. Wow . . . the power of history.

And I do mean his story.

The Senate on Friday night approved the construction of a 700-mile-long wall along the United States/Mexico border.

Tonight I attended a convention entitled, “From North to South: Justice Has No Boundaries” put on by FLOC, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO. The program featured famous author Sandra Cisneros (House on Mango Street) reading excerpts from her works. In one reading, she recalls a worker holding a sign that says, “If you deport me, who will build your wall?”

Great question.

By now, the scuffle between President Bill Clinton and FoxNews journalist Chris Wallace has reached every corner of media attention. Thank goodness someone with political power has come forward to address the issue of mass media bias.

I'm sure President Clinton has thought before about media bias, but I can't help but wonder* if his recent uproar was motivated by my recent posting entitled, "The Mass Media: Worse than the Bush Administration."

Props to President Clinton for completely hitting the bullseye when he confronted the subtle, yet powerful, FoxNews right-wing twist. Finally, someone has outed FoxNews and its constant "nice little conservative hit job[s]." Wipe that "little smirk" off your face," Chris Wallace. "You think you're so clever." Great job, President Clinton. Absolutely hilarious.

* I am seriously not wondering if President Clinton reads my blog. I am confident he does not do so. I insert this note, however, because it has been brought to my attention that some readers of this blog take my words literally and not sarcastically. This occurred recently when someone thought I was really conservative when I started blogging, and another person thought I was really experiencing internet technology problems during my 3L year. I should have stated at the beginning of this blog that I appreciate sarcasm (and a little bit of exaggeration, propaganda, and drama) in all forms.

Today at work, I was researching the political situation in The Gambia for an asylum client. I learned a lot about Mr. Yahya Jammeh, the current President of The Gambia. President Jammeh gained power in the country after he staged a July 1994 military coup. Since the coup under President Jammeh’s dictatorship, the constitution of The Gambia has been “suspended,” freedom of speech rights have been severely limited, and major violations to basic human rights have been documented.

You may be asking yourself the same question I asked myself this afternoon: how does one go about staging a military coup? I was devastated when I found the answer.

From September 1993 to January 1994, just six months before the coup in The Gambia, Mr. Jammeh attended military courses at Port McClellan, Alabama. He obtained a diploma in Military Science. He must have done pretty well during his studies, too, because in November 1993, he was appointed an honorary citizen by the State of the Georgia, United States (citation). The field of Military Science claims to be a scientific system that if properly employed, will "greatly enhance the practitioner’s ability to prevail in an armed conflict with any adversary" (citation).

Why the United States uses Port McClellan as a training cell to teach foreign leaders how to violate international law and basic notions of human rights is beyond my comprehension.