Sonny's Corner

By George A. Johnson

The Nebraska Unicameral has started its new session this January, and there are serious concerns about the potential passage of Legislative Bill (LB) 239. The bill calls for the voter to produce specific identification; if the voter is unable to provide that identification, he or she is not allowed to vote.

By Jane Renner Hood

As Nebraskans and their legislative representatives wrestle with important issues this next session—children’s welfare will be one, although at last report, it seems that immigration will not be for now—it may be useful to consider what a Nebraskan who played a vital role in shaping our nation’s social policy in the 20th century had to say about both issues. We considered Grace Abbott’s important work with the Immigrants Protective League in the last issue of Prairie Fire. This second half considers Abbott’s work as the nation’s foremost voice for children during the Progressive Era up through the early years of the New Deal with her work in the U.S. Children’s Bureau.

By Jane Renner Hood

I recently thought about Grace Abbott’s progressive legacy, especially for immigrants to the United States, when a young black man approached me in a Lincoln, Neb. library this fall and asked if he could use my cell phone. He wasn’t able to get a connection in the library on his, and so I dialed the number and handed him my BlackBerry. He spoke to his friend in an unfamiliar language, and when he handed back my phone, I asked what language he has been speaking.

Prairie Fire has always respected the religious beliefs of others.

We support both freedom of religion and freedom from religion. Accordingly, in 2008, when we forecasted an attack on one or more of the presidential candidates’ religious credo, we offered the Mormon Church space to educate our readership as to the history and practice of Mormonism. Our offer was declined. With the emergence of two practicing Mormons as credible 2012 presidential candidates, we renewed our offer to church officials in Salt Lake City. They referred us to the Nebraska contacts and our offer was accepted. The following essay appears as an original work prepared for Prairie Fire.

Early this summer we invited many of our friends in the organized labor movement to prepare appropriate thoughts for the upcoming Labor Day. We were pleasantly surprised when we were overwhelmed with many thoughtful pieces. Unfortunately our print edition layout did not contemplate so many words so we squeezed in a few into our September print edition and are publishing all that we received on this web edition.

Thanks to all who took their time to prepare their remarks and we hope you enjoy reading them.

By A’Jamal-Rashad Byndon

I would like to share the story of Wilda Chue Stephenson, who passed away at the age of 86. As I am getting older—past 55 years old—I am starting to read the obituaries. Wilda was a wonderful woman who engaged in many conversations with me about the struggles that she experienced as an African-American living in Omaha. Decades ago I was involved in anti-apartheid work against the government of South Africa. There was this South African Episcopalian minister, Sipo E. Mzimela, who was invited to Omaha to speak about disinvestment and help educate the folks on why the U.S. and companies should join in this struggle for disinvestments. So many Americans were in support of investing in that regime because of the high return on their dollars in that country. He also authored a book called “Apartheid, South African Naziism.” The book was a comparison analysis of the Nazi government in Germany and the South African system of apartheid.

By Laurel Marsh

There are many ways to fight for our rights. My daughter is a captain in the United States Army. Ten months ago, my daughter deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. As her mother, I am painfully aware of the risks my daughter and her fellow soldiers face every day. One day I learned that servicewomen—as well as military wives and daughters and other female dependents—are denied comprehensive reproductive health care while stationed abroad. I never knew that by volunteering to defend our freedoms my daughter would be treated like a second-class citizen by the very country she risks her life to serve.

By Jon H. Oberg

The United States is veering ever closer to a financial calamity that would lead inevitably to the Great Decline. The lack of will in Washington to exercise fiscal responsibility has caused the rating agency Standard and Poor’s to downgrade U.S. Treasury debt, once considered the world’s most secure investment.

By Shirley Gilfert

This year the country is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, although perhaps “celebrating” is a poor choice of words, for it was the darkest days our country has ever experienced. It’s important that we remember what happened. We also must recognize how that war affected our country’s further development. We are a very different nation than we were then. But for that struggle, we might not be a nation at all.

By Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes
Por Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes
Traducción Enrique H. Weir y Hector E.Weir

As part of Prairie Fire's ongoing effort to be an information resource for all populations in the state, in this issue we are presenting a Spanish translation of Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes' article for both our Spanish-speaking friends and our English-speaking friends struggling to become bilingual. For ease of comparison, English and Spanish are presented in alternating columns.

By Lynne Ireland

Three little words: We the People. Neither the words nor the concept are complex. But these three words bind together these United States of America, and a lot of our history is the struggle to figure out just who is included in the “We.” From that question came “We the People: The Nebraska Viewpoint,” an exhibit and series of free public lectures and community conversations underway this spring at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln, Neb.

By Darrel Berg

On an evening early in the Christmas season, my wife and I went to hear Glenn Beck at a Lincoln, Neb. theater. We had heard about him, but we had wanted to hear him in person. Well, we did not hear him in person but it was as close as technology can take us. The program was being downlinked live from Pittsburgh.

By Juan Manuel Pedroza

Nebraska stands at a crossroads on immigration policy, even if the state does not make many people’s list of immigration hot spots. As reported recently in the national media, momentum behind restrictive policies in the state is mounting. As the federal government steps up enforcement and states enact policy experiments, immigrants face a formidable challenge: staying under the radar while living and working in a hostile climate. Urban Institute research sheds light on how immigration policies can cause collateral damage. Learning from past experience, Nebraska can do better than simply retreading policies that criminalize workers, separate families and overlook immigrant victims of crime.

By Jim Pipher

Truth or Consequences” was a very popular game show that ran for decades on both radio and television. The game began with the clever, wise cracking host (usually Ralph Edwards or Bob Barker) asking the contestant an off-the-wall trivia question. If the contestant did not provide the correct answer (The Truth) in a timely manner (before “Beulah the Buzzer” sounded), they suffered The Consequences. This involved performing a wacky stunt designed to deliver spills, pratfalls and general hilarity. Unfortunately, these days, The Truth is often much more controversial. And The Consequences usually involve more serious matters than water balloons or pie pans filled with whipped cream.

Juan Manuel Pedroza

The following is a recent commentary I wrote with my colleagues Rob Santos and Molly Scott for ImmigrationImpact.Org, referencing a 2008 study by University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) academics Decker, Deichert and Gouveia.

By Mark Gudgel

On August 9, 2010, Paul Kagame was reelected to his second of two possible terms as the president of the scenic, densely populated African nation of Rwanda. Just over 16 years removed from a genocide that took the lives of nearly one million Rwandan citizens, most of them Tutsi, Rwanda has emerged from the wreckage of a blood-soaked war as a leader in post-colonial Africa, boasting a functional young democratic government, a working if understandably unstable economy, tremendous technological capabilities and a forward-thinking mindset of progressive environmentalism. What is more, this unparalleled feat has been accomplished in large part under the guidance and leadership of a man who only two decades prior was an enemy of the state, unwanted in his own homeland.

By Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado

In the wake of the vote last month to approve an ordinance limiting housing access to undocumented immigrants in Fremont, Neb., I began to think long and hard as to why this has all come about. No reasonable mind can deny that the citizens of Fremont were frustrated at the dynamic changes that were and are occurring in their community, and it stands to reason that because of the perception of a flood of “illegal immigrants” that they should take steps to address this “invasion” on the sanctity of their way of life by essentially outlawing the mostly Latino population of undocumented immigrants. Here are the facts: 56 percent of the citizens who voted favored imposing the ordinance. Insofar as the turnout was a paltry 44 percent, it came down to 3,900 voters determining how the 25,000 citizens of Fremont will have to deal with the implications of the decision. This has already prompted the threat of a suit against the city by the ACLU, and it appears that the hits to the city’s budget to cover legal costs will unfold as predicted. Ironically, there are only about 1,000 Latinos in the Fremont area, most of whom reside south of the city limits. We can legitimately estimate that about half are U.S. citizens or “documented” immigrants.

By Sally Herrin, Ph.D.

I’m a friend of Bill W, and the number 12 has special weight for me. I associate 12 with the 12 principles of the Anonymous brand. Groups like AA and NA and Alanon and others are mental health collectives. Meetings are on the hour 14 hours a day in most large cities, and any phone or computer will get you an address. You can identify yourself or not; most attendees will follow the formula, “I am Joe, I’m an alcoholic or adult child or methamphetamine addict.” They have free coffee, and many meetings let you smoke. You can take what you need of wisdom, good sense, instructive biography, the kindness of strangers—and much, much more—from these meetings, and leave the rest.

Since mid-April, talking heads have discussed, mostly in passing, the plan of Rev. Al Sharpton to create a 12-step plan for black American leadership. This makes me wonder if there’s a connection, if the influence of the friends of Bill W may have prevailed at last. Maybe black American leadership reached a kind of tipping point and finally enough of these leaders see American society for what it is: the world’s largest alcoholic family. Statistically, enough of the best and brightest black leaders are in recovery and are planning an intervention.

By Paul A. Olson

We are in for some sizable immigration battles in Nebraska and ultimately in the Great Plains. The demand for cheap labor appears insatiable; unemployment is lower than in other U. S. sections and the temptation to use undocumented workers high. The competition over jobs between whites and persons of color has become intense in the present economic climate. Consequently, organizations capable of enabling fear of, and contempt for, immigrant populations have grown powerful.

By Sally Herrin, Ph.D.

Distraction is the modestly self-confessed theme of the newest book by the best writer I know personally, say, to have to supper on a Sunday evening. For those readers ever brutalized by English teachers (the language-police sort—most ETs are harmless nerds who loved to read), theme just means idea.