[NLA] Media Alert

[KathleenBombach@aol.com]

I did not think I would have a media alert just one day after promising to 
watch out for public bashing of ESL and literacy learners, but I do.

Tonight (1/8/01) Pat Buchanan was a guest commentator on Chris Matthews' 
Hardball show on MSNBC television. Mr. Buchanan made a number of allegations 
about immigrants. According to Buchanan, immigrants reject any allegiance to 
the United States and refuse to learn English. They are only loyal to their 
countries of origin and cannot become 'real' Americans. They should 
immediately be sent back to their countries of origin--Arabs and all the rest 
of them. Buchanan was especially ugly and insulting about Mexican immigrants. 


In the past, I might have ignored Pat Buchanan, but in the present atmosphere 
of fear and hypernationalism, I cannot.

I think that the four year backlog (in this region) of citizenship 
applications and the thousands of ESL/literacy and GED students in El Paso 
alone are eloquent testimony to the efforts of Mexican immigrants. And the 
hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who crowd your programs also offer 
examples of how "new Americans" work to learn English, become citizens, and 
find better employment.

Chris Matthews can be emailed at hardball at msnbc.com or snail-mailed at:
       MSNBC TV
       One MSNBC Plaza
       Secaucus, N.J. 07094
    
Kathleen Bombach
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