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Invaders Displace Native Minnesotans

Thread ID: 19322 | Posts: 23 | Started: 2005-07-29

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Blond Knight [OP]

2005-07-29 05:16 | User Profile

Face it folks, from California in the west, to Maine in the east, from Texas in the south to Minnesota on the Canadian border, the story is the same everywhere, the white race is targeted for extinction.

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[url]http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=5548[/url]

[url]http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/articles/2005/07/26/news/news01.txt[/url]

Fergus Falls, Minnesota
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Immigration changing Minnesotas face By Sarah Horner

Angela Fuentes has lived in Minnesota since she was 13-years-old. She went to high school in Faribault, performed well in school and graduated this past May. Like many other high school graduates, Angela wants to attend college in the fall, but because she is an undocumented immigrant, she cannot.

Fuentes was born in Mexico and was never officially documented as an immigrant in Minnesota. Even though Fuentes has immersed herself into life here, without documentation she cannot receive in-state tuition at Minnesota state schools. Without in-state tuition, Fuentes cannot afford college.

Her story is one photographer Quito Ziegler has become quite familiar with. Her face is one of several Minnesota immigrants that Ziegler has spread across the 36-foot truck that she has been driving across the state. Her most recent stop was at the West Otter Tail County Fair July 21 and 22.

Ziegler is on the road to prevent more Angela stories from happening.

[B]"I would like Minnesotans to deal with their fear of change," Ziegler said,[/B] "and acknowledge that our communities are changing, accept the fact that these changes are permanent, and try to work together to make Minnesota as welcoming as it can be for all the people who live here."

Ziegler is trying to do her part by providing people with a visual image of the way our state is changing.

The outside of her truck is a gallery of photographs taken of families from Faribult, Worthington, Rochester, St. Paul, metro-area suburbs and Montgomery. [B]The families immigrated to their homes from as far as Mexico, [/B][B]Guatemala, the Philippines, Kenya, Somalia[/B] and one family from Wisconsin.

[B]Ziegler said specific areas in Minnesota were targeted because of recent demographic shifts in their populations.[/B]

[B]Like Fergus Falls for its close proximity to Pelican Rapids. Ziegler said that 50 percent of the children registered for kindergarten in Pelican Rapids next year are immigrants, many from southeast Asia and Somalia.

Ziegler said that many customs in Somalia are drastically different than those in the United States so she can understand why Somalians in Minnesota stand out as so different[/B].

"But think of how the Native Americans must have felt when the Germans were showing up," she said.

She said her point is to help people understand that we are not really as different as we may think.

"Except for the Native Americans, we are all immigrants," she said.

Ziegler said she tries to portray our likeness in her photographs. She photographs parents laughing with their children, people cooking in their kitchen, at work, enjoying the company of friends.

"You walk away with a sense of how human everyone is," she said. "Every mother loves their daughter. It is impossible to not see a part of yourself reflected in these images."

Ziegler said she wanted to offer people more than just a visual experience, though. She said she wanted the spectators to become a part of the story so that they could interact with the ideas behind the photographs.

To accomplish this, she totes along an interactive photography studio on her trips. In exchange for a brief snippet of their story, visitors to Ziegler's truck can get their picture taken. One copy gets hung inside the truck, three others go home with the visitor.

"It gives people an opportunity to reflect," she said.

[B]Perhaps with raised awareness and individual reflection from Ziegler's project, a bill that would make it possible for Fuentes to attend school in Minnesota will get passed.

If validated, the Dream Act would allow any person that has lived in Minnesota for the past three years and graduated from high school with good standing to attend Minnesota State colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates.[/B]

[B]Ziegler said the bill had support from both the Minnesota House of Representatives and the Senate, but that when Governor Tim Pawlenty got wind of it he threatened to veto the entire higher-education package unless it was taken out of the deal.[/B]

[B]Ziegler said the bill will have another run at it next year.

Despite the status of the bill, Ziegler said it is important for Minnesotans to accept the changing face of our state.

Talking from her truck on the road she said that even though her monstrous mobile gallery may not end racism, it has started conversations.[/B]


starr

2005-07-29 08:06 | User Profile

I wonder if the Jew bitch shows anyone pictures of nice immigrant criminals in her campaign to help spread the celebration of diversity? [QUOTE] and acknowledge that our communities are changing, accept the fact that these changes are permanent, and try to work together to make Minnesota as welcoming as it can be for all the people who live here." [/QUOTE]Yeah, keep reminding everyone about how just how much "our communities" are changing all over the state and the country. It might not always have the result she is wanting. I don't see too many people around here loving and embracing the Somalis, spics, and hmong, especially when they get to experience the honor of living around them.


Stuka

2005-07-29 13:59 | User Profile

[QUOTE]"I would like Minnesotans to deal with their fear of change," Ziegler said, "and acknowledge that our communities are changing, accept the fact that these changes are permanent, and try to work together to make Minnesota as welcoming as it can be for all the people who live here." [/QUOTE]I love it how the Race-Replacers keep telling us (and themselves) that the non-white invader influx is "permanent." Not so fast! True, third world populations are being imported easily enough, but they can be exported easily enough too. No problem. With our backs to the wall, anything & everything is possible.


BlueBonnet

2005-07-29 15:23 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Stuka]I love it how the Race-Replacers keep telling us (and themselves) that the non-white invader influx is "permanent." Not so fast! True, third world populations are being imported easily enough, but they can be exported easily enough too. No problem. With our backs to the wall, anything & everything is possible.[/QUOTE] True, I think exportation needs to happen but the problem is that too many Jews/Zionists are making money off of the illegal trafficking. Now some idiot group will push so that illegals can get in state tuition so that the school can recieve more money. The fact that she is even whining about this without doing what anyone with half a brain would do and go ahead and become legal is ridiculous. Just some more of that third world Marxist crap. Why do what's right when we will get what we want from sheer numbers.


Blond Knight

2005-07-29 15:33 | User Profile

Seems that Dixielanders are also slated for extinction...


[url]http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/07/hispanic_worker.php#[/url]

Dixie Immigrants flock to the rural South by the thousands By MICHAEL HEDGES Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

RESOURCES HISPANIC IMPACT

Some of the effects of the rapid increase in Hispanic population in the rural South can be deduced by examining the numbers in the study: � Poverty rate rise: The poverty rate for Latinos in those six states jumped to more than 25 percent in those states between 1990 and 2000, compared with a national drop of 4 percent. � Preschool increase: The Hispanic population of preschool children rose 382 percent, with 110,000 new children added, in the 1990s. That was far more than the 43,000 white children added during the decade. � Limited English: The number of children with limited English language proficiency more than tripled in the six states between 1990 and 2000.

WASHINGTON - Immigrants from Mexico and Central America have moved into the small towns of Dixie faster than in any other region of the country, according to a new study.

The Pew Hispanic Research Center documented the extent to which the foreign-born Hispanics chased jobs in areas without well-established infrastructures for dealing with new arrivals as they bypass states like Texas and California.

The report focused on North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, which had relatively small Latino populations before 1990 but saw them at least triple by 2000.

"The growth in the Latino population was even more dramatic at the county level, exceeding 1,000 percent in some counties and 500 percent in many others," the study said.

[B]"For now, employers in the region are happy to have a dependable source of low-cost labor available to them," the researchers wrote, noting that the first wave of immigrants in the Southeast tended to be young, unmarried males.[/B]

"As the new immigrants grow older and utilize more health services, and as more wives join their husbands, the demands they make on public services will increase, but so too may their contributions to the tax base," the study said.

For the states in the Deep South where population groups had remained static for generations, the huge flow of immigrants marked a historic transformation, said Susan Martin, a Georgetown University professor involved in the study.

[B]"We are in the midst of one of the longest and largest waves of immigration in U.S. history," [/B]she said. For parts of the Deep South, the sudden influx marks "the first real wave of immigration since the early 1900s."

While not directly studied, some less-populated parts of Texas fit the pattern, said Sonya Tafoya, one of the authors of the report. "In places like Houston, you have a long-established Latino population," she said. "But in other parts of the state, like Dallas County, you have this type of rapid migration of young Hispanic males."

The Latino population boom occurred at the same time those six Southern states were adding many native-born Americans from other states.

During the 1990s, the black population increased 21 percent in the states, and the white population rose 11 percent. The robust economies absorbed all the new arrivals without a rise in unemployment rates, which remained below national averages throughout the period.

[B]The Pew study noted that an unemployment level much lower than the national average was the magnet for the workers, two-thirds of whom came directly from foreign countries.[/B]


Quantrill

2005-07-29 15:36 | User Profile

I can vouch for an absolute explosion in the number of Mexicans in Tennessee in the last three years.


Ponce

2005-07-29 16:33 | User Profile

Now then, and who do we blame for al this?. This is about the only thing that I don't blame the Jew for, have seen no evidence of wrongdoing.....the only guilty party that I can see is the US government.

But in the other hand the Jews are "controlling" the US government so who knows. :tank:


grep14w

2005-07-30 01:22 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Stuka]I love it how the Race-Replacers keep telling us (and themselves) that the non-white invader influx is "permanent." Not so fast! True, third world populations are being imported easily enough, but they can be exported easily enough too. No problem. With our backs to the wall, anything & everything is possible.[/QUOTE]It's the old leftist "rachet" effect (ie, you can move the rachet forward, but not back). They can lobby for any changes they want, and once they succeed, by definition, these changes become "permanent" and closed to future debate, ie, once they have "won" we are forbidden to change things back to they way they were.

It's propaganda designed to get us to accept our own permanent displacement and submersion.

In reality, as noted, with modern technology these invaders can be just as easily exported as they were imported. All that is required is the will to do so. Ergo, the Enemy works diligently day and night to destroy our will.


Kevin_O'Keeffe

2005-07-30 05:58 | User Profile

Here is a Letter to the Editor I submitted (albeit with some very minor edits; I'm not certain which version this is) to both the Fergus Falls Daily Journal, and as an open letter for publication in National Vanguard ([url=http://www.nationalvanguard.org]link to NV[/url]. I also submitted a copy to Ms. Ziegler. Amusingly enough, while searching for this transplanted New York Jew's email address, I came across the info (along with the fact she was one of the 1960s "Freedom Riders," or at least that she claims she was; if there was as many "Freedom Riders" as there are people who claim to have been amongst their ranks, segregation would have ended during the Kennedy administration) that though she styles herself "Quito Ziegler," it seems "Quito" is merely her middle name, while her full name is actually "Allison Quito Ziegler." But I guess great revolutionaries aren't supposed to be named "Allison," anymore than strippers & prostitutes are inclined to favor the name "Mildred."

Greetings,

Three cheers for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty! His blatant defiance of the emerging dictatorship of the Politically Correct, through his refusal to sign any education bill allowing illegal foreign squatters within our nation to gain fraudulent access to Minnesota in-state tuition rates in publicly funded higher education, marks him as one of the very few American political leaders not actively colluding in the moral and functional equivalent of treason, as our country is today quite rapidly being handed over to an invading army of Latin American and other Third World colonists. Its a shame the Fergus Falls Daily Journal chooses to submit to this very same, Soviet-style dictatorial apparatus (which is being implemented before our very eyes, yet few speak out for fear of retribution from the state or their employers) by allowing its pages to be used in service of its multiculturalist agenda.

The entire tone of your 7/26/05 article by Sarah Horner, regarding the traveling propaganda-masquerading-as-art exhibit by a Ms. Quito Ziegler, was a reprehensible example of how to discredit the very idea of journalistic objectivity. Firstly, the idea of White racialism was implied to be an illegitimate and innately undesirable political and social position. That sentiment ought never appear anywhere but the editorial page (and ideally not even there, in my personal opinion). It is also a point of view which seemingly overlooks the fact all the Founding Fathers, as well as the four great men atop Mt. Rushmore, and indeed every U.S. President from Washington to Eisenhower (covering the years 1789-1961), were at least partially sympathetic to the doctrines of White racialism, rather than it being the sole province of right-wing extremists, as the national media takes great pains to remind us each and every single day (the truth rarely requires such constant reiteration). For the record, some liberal icons, such as Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson and even Abraham Lincoln, advocated White racialist positions which today would be denounced as neo-Nazism (and had that well-meaning idiot, John Wilkes Booth, not committed his evil murder, perhaps President Lincoln's plan to colonize the former slaves back to Africa, or upon then-sparsely inhabited regions of northern Brazil, might well have come to pass).

In any event, your publication continues to make a mockery of journalistic objectivity through the implication throughout the article that not only must White racialism (or "racism," as you refer to it) be properly combated by insincere "artists" such as Ms. Ziegler, but such entirely reasonable positions as desiring our immigration laws be enforced along our southern border, or having no desire to see nonresidents (a Minnesota resident must be either a citizen or national of the USA, by legal definition) acquire the costly privilege of in-state tuition, are somehow indicative of residual "racist" sentiments within the Orwellian dystopia the once-proud America is being reconstructed in the image of. That sentiment may perhaps be in accord with the sincere opinion of Ms. Horner, or perhaps your editorial board (although I admit finding myself questioning the intelligence of any adult who could truly believe such a thing), yet even so, it ought be strictly limited to your editorial page, along with the rest of your subjective, ideologically-derived opinions.

Ms. Ziegler revealingly asks at one point how the Native Americans must have felt when the Germans arrived in Minnesota. But we know how they felt. They accurately considered the European colonists to be dangerous foreign invaders, and righteously and courageously made war against them to the best of their technologically limited ability. Many Native Americans properly served their people and their nation by dying in an attempt to slaughter or repel the German and other White colonists, a fact their now-dispossessed descendants have reason to feel pride in. Many of the present-day Americans, who trace their lineage back to the various nations of Europe, quite rightly have feelings towards the Latin American mestizo colonists which mirror those the Native Americans felt towards the Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, and other Europeans arriving in 19th century Minnesota. Unlike the Indians, however, we Euro-Americans are fortunate enough to have the means to do something adequate about it. Will we instead follow the Fergus Falls Daily Journal's call for us to quietly accept the racial and cultural displacement Native Americans only reluctantly and regretfully accepted at the point of a gun?

Sincerely,

Kevin Riley O'Keeffe of San Jose, California


Kevin_O'Keeffe

2005-07-30 05:59 | User Profile

[QUOTE=grep14w]It's the old leftist "rachet" effect (ie, you can move the rachet forward, but not back). They can lobby for any changes they want, and once they succeed, by definition, these changes become "permanent" and closed to future debate, ie, once they have "won" we are forbidden to change things back to they way they were.[/QUOTE]

Wasn't that once known as "the Breznev Doctrine?"


Snouter

2005-07-30 09:09 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Ponce]But in the other hand the Jews are "controlling" the US government so who knows.[/QUOTE]

The Jewish organizations such as the ADL, SPLC, ACLU, etc. have apparently made statements attacking the Minutemen monitoring the southern border. And of course the Smirking Chimp called them "vigilantes." Meanwhile, the filthy militants who call themselves the "Brown Berets," plan on continuing efforts to provoke Americans and there doesn't seem to be any complaining about the militant Mestizos from Bush or the Jewish organizations.


Blond Knight

2005-07-30 13:18 | User Profile

Kevin,

Thanks for the letter to the brain deads @ the Fergus Falls Paper. You brought up some excellent points that should give the average boobus a reason to think, provided the paper publishes your letter.


BlueBonnet

2005-07-31 04:13 | User Profile

Kevin, let us know if the paper publishes your letter. BTW, check out this other thread talking about [url="http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?p=123733&posted=1#post123733"]Mexicos wave of illegals.[/url]


Sertorius

2005-07-31 05:10 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]Wasn't that once known as "the Breznev Doctrine?"[/QUOTE] Kevin,

Yes. "What's ours is ours and yours is negotiable."

Excellent letter and kudos to the Governor. Al Franken should be very proud.


Blond Knight

2005-08-02 22:16 | User Profile

We jus be doin dem jobs dat dem mexicuns won't ba a doin'.

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[url]http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5537987.html[/url]

Last update: August 2, 2005 at 6:55 AM Somali family adding spice to the melting pot Chuck Haga, Star Tribune August 2, 2005 SOMALI0802

MARSHALL, MINN. -- At 24, Ahmed Omar retains the sleek, muscular frame he carried on the basketball court at Marshall High School.

"First Somali graduate at Marshall," he says proudly, and his T-shirt echoes the pride: an orange-and-black celebration of the Marshall Tigers' Southwest Conference basketball championship the year he graduated.

Omar holds aloft one of his three sons as he inspects shelves at the Somali grocery he has just opened in downtown Marshall. The son leans toward the tea biscuits from India and date cookies from Saudi Arabia, but Omar measures space on other shelves.

This was inventory day, which meant driving two hours to Mankato to see his supplier -- his father, Abdi Hinda, 62, who opened a grocery there in 2002 -- and then hauling the merchandise home. Ahmed Omar stands outside his Marshall store. Marlin Levison Star Tribune

[B]Omar operates his store with his wife, Sadia Salah, from late morning to 9 p.m., seven days a week. He also works part time at one of the area farm processing plants.[/B]

[B]The plants employ many of the hundreds of other Somali immigrants who have arrived in recent years.[/B]

"Many of the Somali people living here were driving to Minneapolis to buy the foods they want," Omar said. "It costs them time and money for gas, and in the winter it is not safe." [B] In addition to Somalis, his customers include people from other East African countries as well as India and Pakistan -- and Hispanics, also drawn here to work in the agricultural factories.[/B]

[B]Descendants of German, Norwegian and other earlier immigrants have been slower to find Omar's shelves laden with cumin and turmeric powders from India, cinnamon sticks from Indonesia and dizzying varieties of rice, flour and oil.

"They're going to learn," he said, smiling confidently, "and then everyone will come."[/B]

Missing an ocean

His parents and much of the extended family fled Somalia in 1991 and spent six years in refugee camps.

"I was a little kid, and it was war," Omar said, explaining why he remembers little from his homeland. "I remember it was bad, and then it was worse.

"But where we lived, it was four blocks to the ocean," he said, his eyes brightening. "Every day, I would go to the ocean and swim."

The family came to the United States late in 1997, settling first in Sioux Falls, S.D., but soon moving to the Mankato area. Hinda worked as a tailor and took other jobs to help relatives reach Minnesota.

He has children living now in Mankato, Marshall and North Dakota, as well as some still in Africa, and there are many grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

[B]"When I came here, there were only two Somali families here," Hinda said. "Now there are 150 members of my family in Mankato."[/B]

They include son Yasin, 11, who helps at the little Mankato store and acts as translator for his father, and Kassim Busuri, 18, a nephew who also spends time at the store, a sort of ginger-scented back porch for the Somali community.

"He's one of the hardest-working men in Mankato, I think," Busuri said of his uncle.

[B]Busuri will be a senior at Mankato East High School this fall. He plans to attend Minnesota State University, Mankato.

"I think I want to be an immigration officer," he said. "I'd like that -- helping people. Like a social worker, only bigger[/B]."

Look to the future

Like his cousin, Busuri misses the ocean. "I remember going to the beach with my father," he said.

[B]"And there are not so many Muslims around here, so I miss hearing the call to prayer. I think that is the thing I miss the most."[/B]

At 11, Yasin Omar has no memory of Somalia. But he has many ambitions.

"Maybe engineer," he said, contemplating his future, and he seemed to savor the thought.

"Or drive a truck!" he added.

He glanced at his father, working the till as he sold a package of frozen goat meat.

"Or have a small business," the boy said.

Life in Minnesota has its challenges, Busuri said, but memories of war and lawlessness remain fresh, as do memories of the hardness and uncertainty of life in the camps.

"We made soccer balls out of bags and rocks" to have something to do, he said. "The United Nations helped us a lot with food, but our houses were made of palm leaves. [B] "When we first came here, nobody knew us. But they have been welcoming -- especially the young people -- and now they are getting to know us."[/B]

It was well into evening of a long day when Ahmed Omar returned to Marshall and his wife, his mother and his boys waited to see the shelves in the new store fill with plantain flour and ginger coffee, garbanzo beans from Turkey and sandbag-size sacks of rice from India and Pakistan.

"We came here to learn something and work and keep our families and be safe," he said. "I'm ready. Work. Work."

Chuck Haga is at [email]crhaga@startribune.com[/email].


Kevin_O'Keeffe

2005-08-04 14:14 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Snouter]The Jewish organizations such as the ADL, SPLC, ACLU, etc. have apparently made statements attacking the Minutemen monitoring the southern border. And of course the Smirking Chimp called them "vigilantes." [/QUOTE]

Anyone who calls volunteers assisting Federal law enforcement by making visual observations, and thus phoning in reports of relevant, illegal activity to the U.S. Border Patrol, is either a liar or an imbecile. That goes double for He Who Lies Yet Again When Calling Himself "President of the United States of America."

President of the United States? That? Avert yourt eyes, men. Filth like Bush doesn't deserve acknowledgement. What a miserable excuse for a man, let alone President, he is. What a disgusting traitor! He needs to answer for his many crimes before a jury empowered to levy any and all lawful punishments. Seizure of all Bush family property strikes me as eminently warranted (George H.W.'s, George W.'s, Jeb's and Neil's filthy lucre, at the very least, ought to be amongst that family's restitution to our nation and her people, in addition to the traditional punishment for treason in the case of George W.) I'd be willing to commute Jeb's and George H.W.'s sentence to (in addition to loss of all property) forfeiture of U.S. citizenship & residency, deportation to Mexico or China, and life in prison without the possibility of parole if they so much as step foot on American Samoa. Neil should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for his involvement in the pillaging of the Savings & Loan aspect of the financial sector of our economy during the 1980s (I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations is not an issue, as an investigation was already initiated in that regard at the time). His sentence should include an impoverishing fine.


Kevin_O'Keeffe

2005-08-04 14:36 | User Profile

[QUOTE=BlueBonnet]Kevin, let us know if the paper publishes your letter.[/QUOTE]

Apparently, the Fergus Falls Daily Journal does not consider for publication any letter written at an educational level higher than that attained by "Jethro Bodean" from "The Beverly Hillbillies," i.e., those more than 150 words. Imbeciles.


BlueBonnet

2005-08-04 21:39 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Kevin_O'Keeffe]Apparently, the Fergus Falls Daily Journal does not consider for publication any letter written at an educational level higher than that attained by "Jethro Bodean" from "The Beverly Hillbillies," i.e., those more than 150 words. Imbeciles.[/QUOTE] why does this not suprise me:glare:


Stanley

2005-08-04 21:56 | User Profile

Kevin, I thought the letter was too long, and tried to make too many points. The last paragraph would have gotten your message across.


Kevin_O'Keeffe

2005-08-05 13:18 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Stanley]Kevin, I thought the letter was too long, and tried to make too many points. The last paragraph would have gotten your message across.[/QUOTE]

You have a point; that last paragraph was really the kicker. Its a bit late now, but I suppose I might as well re-submit a new version consisting essentially of the final paragraph. The last paragraph didn't occur to me until I was in the heat of writing the rest of the letter, and I had no desire to dump what I'd previously written, merely because the finale was the best part (which is what I strive for anyway). Had I known about their 150 word limit, I would have edited it, of course. What irks me is that my local San Jose Mercury News has edited down several of my letters over the years, but the Fergus Falls Daily Journal won't even *CONSIDER[/I] i.e., read, presumably (how dang busy are we expected to believe they are? No time to read a 162 word Letter to the Editor in between bake sale announcements and reprinting county government & ADL press releases?), a letter more than 150 words in length; that ain't a letter - its a note. They might as well limit it to 150 characters....Or to quotes from the friggin' Talmud.


Blond Knight

2005-08-05 18:27 | User Profile

Minnesota will have to change its motto from "Land of 10,000 Lakes", to "Welcome to Africa, Mexico,Laos..."

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[url]http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/5544084.html[/url]

Last update: August 5, 2005 at 7:01 AM Helping make the new words work in Pelican Rapids Richard Meryhew, Star Tribune August 5, 2005 ENGLISH0805

PELICAN RAPIDS, MINN. -- The instructor was a 52-year-old national sales manager for a soft drink company in North Carolina. The student was 13, from Somalia and new in town.

Before Monday, the two had never met.

But in the heat and humidity of a summer afternoon, the man and the boy found themselves standing on a ball field in Pelican Rapids to play a little kickball and work on spelling, vocabulary and math.

"Aden's batting fifth," the instructor, Kevin O'Connor, shouted as Aden Aden stepped to the plate. "OK, Aden, spell the word 'fifth.' "

The boy carefully spelled it out, then kicked a double to left field.

"Way to go, Aden!" O'Connor hollered as the boy rounded first base.

Is that an unusual lesson plan? For sure. But it's all part of a volunteer tutoring effort. Finding home Jeanna Duerscherl

The tutors help hone the English skills of nearly 90 of the community's immigrant students and prepare them for school.

The weeklong program, run under the direction of Global Volunteers, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul, pairs volunteers from around the country with immigrant students for four hours a day to tune up their academic skills.

A similar program will start Monday in Austin.

"It's a real cool thing," said Crys Thorson, principal of Viking Elementary School in Pelican Rapids. "We're lucky to have it here."

Such a scene would have been almost unimaginable more than a decade ago in this community.

[B]The city of 2,400 residents about 200 miles northwest of the Twin Cities was founded and settled by Scandinavian immigrants. Pelican Rapids had been, for generations, predominantly white.

But it has become increasingly diverse over the past decade, thanks largely to expansion at the West Central Turkey processing plant, which employs nearly 800 people. Most of the plant's production-line work requires few language skills.[/B]

[B]Now, about one-quarter of the town is made up of immigrants from Southeast Asia, Somalia, Bosnia, Ukraine, Russia and Mexico. About one-fourth of the district's 1,000 students live in homes where English isn't the primary languag[/B]e.

Global Volunteers started working in Pelican Rapids five years ago. The first year, about 50 elementary students attended summer enrichment classes. This year, 73 students from kindergarten through sixth grade showed up Monday, the first day of class. By Wednesday, nearly 90 were in school, working on puzzles, playing games, singing songs and honing spelling, writing and vocabulary skills.

Some, such as Bianca Martinez, 11, have been attending Viking Elementary for several years and have participated in the summer program before.

"It's fun," Martinez said, "because you don't have to do tests."

Others, such as Aden, who moved here a month ago from Minneapolis with his mother and two siblings, are newcomers trying to figure out who's who.

"Do you see tigers?" Fabian Ramirez, 14, asked Aden when he learned that his classmate was from Africa.

Aden simply smiled and shook his head.

Volunteer teachers

Most of the volunteer instructors participating this week live outside Minnesota. Some are teachers, but many, such as O'Connor, aren't.

O'Connor, who works for the Pepsi-Cola Co., volunteered time along with his wife, Debra, a hospital chaplain. Each summer they take a vacation with their two teenage nieces.

This year, he said, one of the girls suggested that they do something different -- and that's how they ended up in Pelican Rapids.

With help from Terri Bartholomew , 57, a volunteer and retired teacher from Pennsylvania, O'Connor has spent the week working mostly with older students.

A couple of days ago, Bartholomew started class by running through vocabulary drills. Later they gave students stars and asked them to walk to a map and stick the star on the place where they were born.

About a half-dozen stars were placed on Mexico. Two each were put on Somalia and Ukraine and one on Bosnia. Several more were scattered about the United States, from Minnesota to Texas to California.

"What does that tell you about Pelican Rapids?" asked Bartholomew.

"We're diverse!" Ramirez shouted.

Bartholomew then pointed to northern Europe and the homeland of many of the city's early settlers. That led to talk about the school's name -- Viking -- and who the Vikings were.

Later, after some work in the computer lab -- students were asked to research everything from the names of the four Beatles to Minnesota's leading crop -- and a lunch of pizza, the class headed outside for kickball.

To keep students challenged, O'Connor asked players to spell a word before it was their turn to kick. If a student made an out while running the bases, he or she could remain on the basepaths by correctly spelling another word.

"The real purpose of this program isn't the English, but giving these kids self confidence when they go to school in the fall," said Pam Cromer, a program team leader from California. "It takes a lot of courage to come to a different community and speak a different language and wear different clothes and have different religious beliefs. And we try to instill self confidence.

"The bonus is the English."


jay

2005-08-06 02:26 | User Profile

[QUOTE=grep14w]It's the old leftist "rachet" effect (ie, you can move the rachet forward, but not back). They can lobby for any changes they want, and once they succeed, by definition, these changes become "permanent" and closed to future debate, ie, once they have "won" we are forbidden to change things back to they way they were.

It's propaganda designed to get us to accept our own permanent displacement and submersion.

In reality, as noted, with modern technology these invaders can be just as easily exported as they were imported. All that is required is the will to do so. Ergo, the Enemy works diligently day and night to destroy our will.[/QUOTE]

Great Post Greg, you nailed it.

I always say it's tantamount to the frog in the boiling water. Dropping off 13 millions 'SPanics in our coutnry at once, would be tossing them into boiling water. but it's a slow boil, isn't it?


Ponce

2005-08-06 02:43 | User Profile

If someone gives me lemons I make lemonade.

Ponce <--------"Spanic", put me in hot water? hummmm better bring my soap and a clean towell.