Randy Jurado Ertll, author of Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience
Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience
October 2nd, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »PASADENA WEEKLY
September 30th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »
PHOTO: ©istockphoto.com/Martine Doucet
Unfriendly fire
Report slams Sheriff’s Department for rise in shootings of unarmed suspects
By André Coleman , Kevin Uhrich 09/29/2011
Two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies patrolling in Compton on May 24, 2009, noticed 34-year-old Daniel Martinez acting suspiciously while standing with another man near a restaurant. Believing that Martinez might be operating as a lookout for a robbery, deputies stopped their patrol car, got out and approached, ordering Martinez to keep his hands where they could be seen. Instead, Martinez fled, holding his back pocket with one hand as he ran, according to county documents related to the incident.
As Martinez ran, he appeared to be pulling something from his pants while turning toward the two deputies, the Los Angeles Times reported. Fearing it was a handgun, both deputies fired, hitting Martinez and leaving him partially paralyzed. Deputies searched but found no weapon. All that Martinez had on him was a wallet that he was probably trying to keep from falling out of his sagging pants. Martinez sued the department, ultimately winning a $2.2-million out-of-court settlement in August 2010.
That type of incident — known as a “waistband” shooting, so named because suspects appear to be reaching for weapons in pockets or waistbands, or a “state-of-mind” shooting, referring to the level of danger that an officer perceives at the time of such an incident — is part of a rising trend among sheriff’s deputies, according to a report released last Thursday by a watchdog group commissioned by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to monitor the Sheriff’s Department.
According to that report, researched and complied by the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC), an independent nonprofit organization that has been monitoring Sheriff’s Department operations twice a year since 1996, all but two of the 15 people shot in waistband incidents in 2010 were either Latino or African American. There were 10 similar shootings — including the one involving Martinez — in 2009.
“That was a 50 percent increase, true. However, [the number] only went up by five,” Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told CBS TV reporters last Friday. Whitmore did not return several calls from the Weekly seeking comment on this story. “Now, one is too many, but there’s a difference between the increase in numbers when it’s magnified in percentages,” Whitmore said.
But those aren’t the only troubling numbers in the report concerning minorities. PARC Special Counsel Merrick Bobb and
his team of investigators found that since 1996, 61 percent of deputy-involved shootings involved Latino suspects and 29 percent involved African Americans, while white suspects were only fired upon 10 percent of the time.
“It’s a serious problem. Latino males get profiled all the time,” said Randy Jurado Ertll, executive director of Pasadena-based El Centro de Accion de Social.
“If they shave their heads, people automatically assume they are gang members. If they drive a certain car that is known to be driven by gangbangers, or wear loose clothing or T-shirts, people automatically assume they are a gangbanger,” Ertll said. “There are a lot of shootings against Latino males that go unreported in the media because the perception is they deserve it. These are poor people who don’t have high-priced attorneys. This report sheds some serious light on this issue.”
Pasadena NAACP Branch President Joe Brown said he was disturbed by the statistics and said deputies may be confused by the styles of clothing worn by teenagers and young adults. In many cases, it seems, the shooting victim tried to hold up his oversized pants while running from police.
“A lot of our young men are wearing their pants well below their waists,” Brown noted. “Many times they would rather hold onto their pants or cell phones as they run. Officers at that point think that it is a weapon, and, all too frequently, people have lost their lives in the miscommunication. We have implored Pasadena police officers to take a second look before firing.”
A subtext contained in the report suggests that sheriff’s officials were deeply concerned about the way the statistics contained in Bobb’s report would be perceived by the media and the community.
“Your staff worries that the media will quote from our report by taking statements out of context to make them appear more damning or provocative,” states a letter from Bobb to Sheriff Lee Baca, which appears at the beginning of the report. “They urge us, therefore, to purge our report of any statement that may be seen as critical or damning if taken out of context.
We can empathize with the LASD in that the media have not always accurately reflected our findings. But it is impossible to write a 100-[plus] page report in such a way as to eliminate the possibility of media distortion of any statement in or out of context. The LASD’s beef should be directed more at the media than at the messenger.”
Bobb also did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.
Usually, deputy shooting rates in Los Angeles keep pace with homicide rates, but over the past two years officer-involved shootings increased while the homicide rate fell, according to the report. Despite the high number of incidents involving minorities, Bobb was careful to point out that the study does not imply deputies are intentionally shooting at unarmed minorities.
“What troubles us is that an African- American or Latino youth is more likely to be the subject of a mistaken perception of dangerousness than is a white or Asian person,” the study states. “Does this necessarily imply bias? We take great pains in our report not to make that inferential leap.”
Whitmore, speaking with the Times, said the incidents occurred in predominately minority neighborhoods in which gang activity
is intense.
The report does not list any incidents occurring at the Altadena or Crescenta Valley stations, but it does express concern over the sheriff’s Century substation, which patrols Lynwood, Firestone, Athens Park and Florence. Deputies working there were responsible for more than 25 percent of all of the department’s shootings. Yet only 8 percent of the department’s sworn personnel work at that station.
The report found that more than half of off-duty shootings involved officers with less than three years on the job. The report also found that about one-third of officers involved in an off-duty shooting had not attended tactical firearms training within the past two years, and that the unit responsible for the training is currently training less than one-third of patrol officers every year.
Bobb had other major complaints with the department, one of them regarding the unethical and sometimes criminal behavior of some deputies, and called on Baca to initiate sting operations to catch deputies gone bad.
The report also lashed out at the department for its shoddy bookkeeping on shooting incidents, stating that “It was with great dismay that we discovered that much of the data collected by the department with regard to shootings is missing, inaccurate, lost, or lacking in basic internal integrity.” Further, the report states, “We also encountered needless compartmentalization of information, confusion about tracking systems and data entry, and an apparent failure on the part of LASD management to audit its own data collection systems or to analyze the data contained therein.”
‘Waistband’ shootings by the Numbers:
• “Waistband,” or “state-of-mind” shootings, in which a deputy must make a split-second decision on whether to use deadly force, rose by 50 percent in the past year.
• Over the past six years, approximately 61 percent of all state-of-mind shooting suspects were confirmed to be unarmed at the time of the shooting.
•In the last six years, seven deputies have been shot, seven have been hit by motor vehicles and 27 have been fired upon. No fatalities were reported.
• Latinos and black men between the ages of 18 and 25 comprised 96 percent of those shot in such incidents.
• Since 1996, 178 persons have been shot and killed by sheriff’s personnel; an additional 204 were wounded. One-fifth of all suspects hit over the past six years were unarmed — in 2010, the rate was more than one-third.
• More than half of off-duty shootings involved officers with less than three years on the job, indicating that inexperience or a lack of training may be associated with such incidents.
• About one-third of officers involved in an off-duty shooting had not attended tactical firearms training within the past two years, and the unit responsible for the training is currently training less than one-third of patrol officers every year.
• African-American and Latino suspects were on average 25 years old. White suspects, in comparison, averaged about 35 years old.
• State-of-mind shootings make up about one-third of all hit and non-hit shooting cases in 2010. In the past, this type of shooting generally constituted about one-fifth.
— Source: Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC)
To view the report, click here
Please attend the 9th Annual Festival of Authors in Duarte, CA
September 25th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »Authors Lisa See, Jesse Katz, Denise Hamilton to Headline 9th Annual Festival of Authors
More than 50 Authors to Talk and Sign Books
DUARTE, CA, September 13, 2011 – New York Times Best-Selling Author, Lisa See, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, Jesse Katz, and award-winning crime writer Denise Hamilton will headline the 9th annual Duarte Festival of Authors on Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will take place in the tree-shaded park at Westminster Gardens, 1420 Santo Domingo Ave. Admission is free.
More than 50 authors in all will participate in the festival presented by the Friends of the Duarte Library, celebrating its 50th anniversary of community service this year. The Duarte Festival of Authors showcases a rich sampling of the diversity of literary talents who live and work in Southern California, with books to appeal to a wide variety of tastes: fiction and non-fiction, adventure, suspense, romance, travel, mystery, inspirational, spiritual, poetry, educational, historical, young adult and children’s titles.
In addition to talks, panel discussions and book signings all day long, Festival-goers are in for a host of other treats as well with an on-site book store and a choice of food and refreshments served up by some of Los Angeles’ most popular food trucks.
See’s best-selling novel “Snowflower and the Secret Fan” was made into a major motion picture released this year. See will discuss her latest book, “Dreams of Joy” at 3:30 p.m. Katz, a former Los Angeles Times journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient for his reporting, will speak at 2 p.m. about his highly praised memoir, “The Opposite Field”. Hamilton, whose latest thriller, “Damage Control” was released in September, is also the editor of the mystery anthologies, “Los Angeles Noir” and “Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics,” named Best Mystery of the Year by the Southern California Independent Booksellers. She will lead a panel with fellow authors and “Noir” contributors Gary Phillips and Jim Pascoe at 12:30 p.m.
Other authors scheduled to appear include: Reyna Grande, a 2010 International Latino Book Award winner for her novel, “Dancing with Butterflies,” Louise Su Tang, “Cantonese Yankee,” whose historical novel opens a window on a forgotten moment of diplomacy between the U.S. and China; and Randy Ertll, “Hope in Times of Darkness – A Salvadoran American Experience”.
John Vorhaus takes his anti-hero, world class con artist, Radar Hoverlander on “The California Roll,” while Adam Chester, “S’Mother,” tells all in a hilarious memoir based on letters from his overprotective mom. Mystery writers appearing will include: Jeff Sherratt, “Detour to Murder;” Gayle Carline, “Hit or Missus;” Teresa Burrell, “The Advocate;” Jenny Hilborne, “Madness and Murder;” Pam Ripling “Cape Seduction;” and Joel Fox, “Lincoln’s Hand”.
Charlene Lewis and Viveca Pearson will appear with their cookbook, “In Honor of Sisterhood – Treasured Family Recipes,” while Dr. Donsha Robinson McClain, warns in her book, “Don’t Wait to Lose Weight! Love Yourself Today.”
Verena Somer, “The Eleven Percent Solution,” Bob Sharpe, “How to be a Network Marketing Millionaire,” and Evelyn Gray, “Simple Organizing Strategies for AD/HD and the Chronically Disorganized,” opine on how to get ahead, while Darlene Merkler offers “The Complete Resource Guide for Baby Boomers” and Ann Garrett and Nancy Goodall, provide parenting advice with “TLC for Frazzled Kids”.
Writers of children and young adult books set to appear include: Phil Drake, “Fat Chance;” Jason Silva, “The Tale of Edgar Trunk;” Justin Ezzi, “Wingo;” Margo Sorenson, “Aloha for Carol Ann;” Candace Frazee, “Hey Aunt Bunny? I Have a Question;” and Chani Warnasuriya, “Peace Tales from Asia”. History and travel to places near and far is the subject of books by Elizabeth Pomeroy, “Pasadena, A Natural History;” Pierre Odier, Cambodia Angkor – A Lasting Legacy;” and Ken McAlpine, Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization”.
Further examples of the diversity of authors and books to be represented are Comic book artist, Phillip Victor; James Aguirre, “The Barry Family Legacy,” a personal exploration into one family’s Irish immigrant and Native American roots;” and the inspirational story by Brian Biery, “Power of One”.
Major sponsors in support of the Friends of the Duarte Library for this year’s festival are Southern California Edison Co. and the Pasadena Star News.
For the latest information about the Duarte Festival of Authors, participants and activities, visit the Festival website: www.friendsoftheduartelibrary.com, or call (626) 359-6413.
HUFFINGTON POST – AOL Latino
September 10th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »
Author, ‘Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience’
Why African Americans And Latinos Must Get Along
African-Americans and Latinos have too much in common not to get along better.
Both communities face high unemployment rates, high dropout rates, systemic poverty, gang violence, a disproportionate number of prison inmates and continual discrimination.
Some issues that continue to create controversy between the two communities are immigration, job competition, bilingual education and political representation. These are tough issues that we need to address in a respectful and thoughtful manner.
Some African American and Latino leaders have tried to form alliances. But this has proven more difficult than you might think.
Take the big immigrant rights marches over the past decade, for example. The pro-immigrant Latino leadership did not do enough outreach to include a wide representation of African-American leaders and organizations. And few African American leaders and community members participated in this movement. Also, many Latino community members are beginning to resent President Barack Obama since he has not signed into law a comprehensive immigration reform that would benefit nearly 12 million immigrants in the United States.
However, we need to do more to accentuate the history of alliances between African Americans and Latinos. We should stress that Mexicans played an important role in the underground railroad during slavery. Creating a southern route, it is believed that Mexicans enabled an estimated 10,000 escaped slaves to arrive in freedom south of the border. And we should also recall that Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. were kindred spirits who fought for the civil rights of all disenfranchised communities.
There are negatives, too, that we must examine and cannot afford to ignore. Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote a book titled The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation Between African-Americans and Hispanics. Hutchinson points out that anti-immigrant rhetoric has, in fact, been part of the African American experience since the 1800s. He also notes how immigrants have been used as scapegoats.
And we all should be sensitive about the words we choose and the claims we make. During the massive pro-immigrant rights marches, some Latino leaders began to say that the immigrant rights movement was the new civil rights movement. This infuriated many African Americans who asked where all the Latinos were during the civil rights struggle and who pointed out that Latinos have benefited from that struggle. It is important to also cite Ernesto Galarza’s book titled Barrio Boy where it states that “while the Civil Rights era was – and still is – perceived as an effort for equal opportunity for blacks, a fundamental role was also played by Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Filipinos” (Galarza, p. xxi).
The negative bickering must come to an end. Both communities have suffered tremendously, and neither side can deny that fact. We should come together to demand that gang violence be curtailed, dropout rates be reduced, jobs be created for both communities and hate crimes be wiped out.
African Americans and Latinos alike simply want to achieve the American dream: to have a decent education, to have a stable job with benefits, to have the ability to buy a house, a car, and to be able to provide food, shelter and clothing to their children.
We should help each other achieve this dream first by studying and respecting each other’s history and culture and then by working together in common cause.
But we cannot continue to blame each other, much less prey on each other. And we should not compete for the title of the country’s most victimized minority group. That is a losing game.
Randy Jurado Ertll is the author of “Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience.” Please visit his web site at www.randyjuradoertll.com or contact via e-mail at randyertll@yahoo.com
Hope you can attend the Festival of Authors in Duarte on Sat. Oct. 8 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
September 8th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »Festival of Authors
Author Registration 2011 Festival of Authors Flyer
Pasadena Weekly
September 6th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »Idle hands …
Creating work for young people is a good step toward reforming our criminal justice system
By Randy Jurado Ertll 09/01/2011
President Obama should not neglect the invisible young men and women who are in
our prisons.
Let’s not forget that Obama campaigned on a pledge of change. And a couple of profound changes he could help bring about are reforming our criminal justice system and creating real jobs for our disillusioned and frustrated young adults.
Today, we are warehousing 2.1 million people in jails or prisons — more than any other country in the world.
Many are behind bars because of the so-called war on drugs, which has been a huge failure and is bankrupting state budgets. “Drug offenders in prison and jails have increased 1,100 percent since 1980,” according to the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit prison reform group based in Washington, DC.
Our criminal justice system is discriminatory. “African-Americans comprise 14 percent of regular drug users, but are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses and 56 percent of persons in state prison for drug offenses,” according to the Sentencing Project.
“More than 60 percent of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities,” the group notes. “For black males in their 20s, one in every eight is in prison or jail on any given day.”
Many of these youth were not given the proper opportunities to obtain a quality education and many come from abusive households that have high rates of alcohol and drug use. The great majority of these youth live in poverty, where violence and incarceration is common. Also, they do not have professional networking opportunities that upper-middle-class and upper-class young adults have. Many also do not have the proper household arrangements where they can concentrate and focus on studying.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not defending or justifying criminal acts or making excuses. Individuals who commit crimes need to be held responsible. The concept of personal responsibility must be taught and shared among our youth. We must teach our youth that negative actions will most likely result in negative results.
But we, as a society, need to get at the root of solving socio-economic disparities that lead to violence. Our justice system needs to be reexamined and adjusted to meet the current needs of our society.
Obama should prioritize gang prevention and intervention programs that include youth-education and job-creation elements. Such programs can counteract the hopelessness that afflicts so many of our young people of color. We must change the defeatist mentality that says, “I don’t give a damn — I’m going to end up in prison anyway or I’m going to die soon.”
Many of these youth have lost motivation, and we must restore equitable opportunities for the needs of our fellow citizens. Also, our youth must take responsibility in demanding a quality education from their public schools and advocate for equitable distribution of resources from their local city government representatives.
Our young adults must be taught key skills such as preparing a resume, understanding student loans, learning how to properly interview, and be willing to seek entry level jobs.
It is essential for President Obama and his administration to build programs that will truly help create real jobs at the grassroots level. The government-funded agencies that supposedly help provide training to obtain jobs are not enough — qualified individuals must be referred to places where they will have a shot of actually getting a job and not just promises. We know the cliché “we will keep your resume on file” and we know that it will most likely get ignored, deleted or thrown in the trash can.
Obama ran his campaign on change and hope. We know that he promised positive change for our youth and that he is under-delivering for the working class families of America. He still has to go a long way to accomplish his promises. Our youth deserve to be given the opportunity to grow and be productive members of our society. We cannot stop inspiring and motivating our youth, whether they live in the urban ghettos or suburbs.
To do so effectively, he needs to root out the bias in our criminal justice system and support effective gang and violence prevention programs. He needs to establish and implement a plan that truly creates jobs for our youth. Otherwise, the frustrations and hopelessness will continue to grow.
Let us not forget that it is the responsibility of both major political parties, Democrats and Republicans, to create real jobs. A generation of low-income young people deserves real opportunities and jobs.
Democrats and Republicans, please stop the blame game, and start creating jobs. America’s future depends on it.
Randy Jurado Ertll, executive director of El Centro de Accion Social, is the author of “Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). Please visit randyjuradoertll.com. Write to Ertll at randyertll@yahoo.com.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
September 1st, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »Dream Act: California embraces anti-Arizona role on illegal immigration
The California Senate passed its version of the Dream Act this week, setting itself up as a leader among states addressing illegal immigration with greater sympathy.
Assemblyman Ricardo Lara (D) talks with Assemblywoman Betsy Butler (D) as members of the state Assembly debate his measure that would allow students who are illegal immigrants to hold student government office and receive any grants, scholarships, or other assistance that come with the jobs at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Wednesday.
(Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
By Daniel B. Wood, Staff writer
posted September 1, 2011 at 5:47 pm EDT
Los AngelesWith the Obama administration and Congress stalled on immigration reform, California has joined the growing parade of states acting on their own to pressure Washington into action.
The Democrat-controlled state Senate on Wednesday night passed its version of the Dream Act – a bill that would allow illegal immigrants who attended state high schools for three or more years to apply for state-funded college financial aid. The federal version of the bill, which was most recently defeated in December, allows a path to citizenship for illegal-immigrant students and members of the military who were brought to the US as children.
The California Senate vote is a sign that the immigration debate at state level is being driven as much by those sympathetic to illegal immigration as those determined to curtail it, says Catherine Wilson, an immigration analyst at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
The states cracking down on immigration have gotten more press attention and skewed the public perception of what is really happening, she says. Following the passage of Arizona’s SB 1070 – which requires police to ask for identification from anyone they suspect of being undocumented – four other states enacted copycat legislation: Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, and Alabama. Utah opted for a hybrid of both tightened law enforcement as well as a temporary guest worker program. All these laws are being challenged in court.
By contrast, nine states, including California, have enacted laws permitting anyone in the state for a certain amount of time to pay in-state rates. A handful have also passed their own Dream Acts, offering state aid to illegal immigrants.
“It just goes to show that in the absence of federal immigration legislation, states are really taking control of the issue,” says Professor Wilson. But “it’s important for the public to understand that far fewer states are following Arizona’s lead and more are following the direction of California.”
It is natural that the American state with the most immigrants should take the lead on this issue, some say.
“We have one of the most diverse populations in the country. It is the right thing to do,” says Barbara O’Connor, director emeritus of the Institute for Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento. “California often exports progressive ideas, and coupled with the Obama administration’s deportation changes in recent weeks, this is a significant law.”
However, many national immigration-reform groups say the bill is a bad idea in a state facing major budget shortfalls and gargantuan cuts in education.
“The actions of the California Legislature come against the backdrop of the state’s fiscal crisis,” says Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “While billions of dollars are being slashed from needed programs, while state universities and colleges are cutting programs and admission, and while there is an insufficient amount of government aid available to help legal residents pay for college, the Legislature continues to work overtime to find new benefits they can bestow on illegal aliens.”
Immigrant-rights groups are understandably elated.
“It was bound to happen. In the absence of cost-effective, humane, and smart legislation at the federal level, immigrant-rich states can only integrate not denigrate or persecute their immigrant community,” says Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
He says he expects California will carve the way for others states to follow.
The California Assembly is expected to pass the bill within a week, and most observers predict Gov. Jerry Brown (D) will sign it because of promises he made during his gubernatorial bid.
The Senate estimates the cost at about $40 million a year. About 40,000 undocumented immigrants now attend the state’s three-tiered higher education system, which includes 10 campuses in the University of California, 23 in California State University, and 112 community colleges.
Other immigrant-rights groups say Governor Brown will be in political hot water if he doesn’t sign.
“The immigration issue is now being used by both parties, Democrats and Republicans, as a way to win or lose elections,” says Randy Ertll, executive director of El Centro de Accion Social in Pasadena. “Tallies are being kept on how certain legislators are voting when it comes to immigration issues, and during campaign time pro- or anti-immigration campaigns are launched to persuade voters.”
“Governor Brown will weigh his political future on the California Dream Act,” he says.
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L.A. Times
August 31st, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment »Dear Friends,
Desperation and hopelessness. This is how it has always been in South Central Los Angeles. Neglected and ignored. No jobs – bad schools. Few make it out. I always wanted to tell our story – and now it is being magnified and told by many – many who are suffering. I remember the crack addicts in my community/ I remember going to the so called business training programs that would promise loans and jobs.
Caring about others is important – helping others. We who grew up there know the game of hollow promises.
Check out this L.A. Times article that paints a clear picture:
Alberta Creer, left, and her friend Jackie Taylor, wait in line to attend a job fair at the Crenshaw Christian Center. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Hope and despair at a job fair
The unemployed wait in line to attend the event in Los Angeles. It seems as much a church revival and political summit as a resume-swap meet.
Waiting in line
Alberta Creer, left, and her friend Jackie Taylor, wait in line to attend a job fair at the Crenshaw Christian Center. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
By Sandy Banks
September 1, 2011
The Faith Dome at Crenshaw Christian Center was the perfect venue for Wednesday’s For the People job fair initiative.
It’s not just that it holds 10,000 people — and almost half of those seats were filled. It’s that something more than logic and reason is required to stoke hope in times like these.
The hopefuls began lining up along Vermont Avenue hours before the church doors opened for the job fair at 9 a.m. Men in pressed slacks and sports jackets, women with high heels peeking from their purses and flip-flops on their feet for standing. A few folks were pushing babies in strollers; one guy was holding the front wheel of the bicycle he had ridden there from Inglewood.
Almost everyone in line was black; all of them clutching briefcases, clipboards or binders, with resumes they hoped to exchange for business cards from would-be employers.
I weaved through a queue that stretched for blocks, asking how they felt and why they had come. One woman seemed to sum it up best: “To fill out applications, leave our resumes and let them know we’re hungry.”
Hungry in a literal way, for some — those who have been out of work so long, they need food banks and donated clothes to get by.
But I sensed a different kind of hunger in the crowd too — a need for reassurance that, as a preacher would promise from the pulpit that morning, “You are not going to stay down!”
It was impossible to stand among these folks and not feel profoundly grateful for a job that, most days, I enjoy. I could feel desperation vibrating from the crowd like heat waves from a sun-scorched sidewalk.
And it packed an unexpected emotional wallop. I felt heartsick contemplating all that wasted wisdom and potential — multiplied city to city, so many times over — in a nation that can’t afford to discard it.
Two hours before the job fair began, I met with LaNordo Conn in the parking lot at the Fijian Motel, a small, scarred stucco complex a mile away, with barred windows and barbed wire.
The motel, Conn’s temporary home, is a long way from where he was two years ago: A six-figure job, a house in Ontario, a Porsche Carrera, “white with blue top,” he tells me.
He makes his fall sound simple enough: He left a steady job at an architectural firm for another that promised to pay much more. Three months later, he was fired. Three months after that, he was homeless. I’m enough of a cynic to believe there is much more to that story.
But the 53-year-old tells it well. He’s compelling and articulate — tailor-made for the campaign to push legislators to do more to grow jobs for workers like him. He’d like to see a reality show: ” ‘Homeless Congressman.’ They’d have to make it for one week with no money,” he said.
“People living in the mansions eating caviar and having million-dollar weddings … they don’t get it,” he went on. But it’s not just the millionaires; lots of us don’t get it, because we’re gainfully employed.
The scope of the problem is hard to grasp, until you watch that line of desperate people with spotty resumes relentlessly growing.
Last month, Conn drew the attention of U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson when he told his story at the Inglewood Kitchen Table Summit sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. Richardson promised to meet him at the job fair and walk him through the search process.
She gave him a shout-out from the church stage on Wednesday, and had him stand and wave to the crowd. People applauded, as they did every time a politician at the opening rally offered up a story of hope.
The job fair felt like a combination church revival and political summit. The night before, more than 1,000 people tried to crowd into the sanctuary for a Town Hall session with 13 members of the Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights standard Jesse Jackson.
It was, one woman told me later, “like going back to the old days,” pre-Barack Obama; “before black politicians got complacent and forgot they’re the ones that represent us.”
The president who campaigned on hope is presiding instead over hopelessness. And doing little, it seems even to his fans these days, to rectify the economic malaise. The Job Fairs, the Town Halls, the Kitchen Table Summits … they are all part of a campaign to put political pressure on not just Republicans, but our Democratic president.
But the problems go deeper than hiring numbers. And Richardson acknowledged as much. Neither make-work government jobs nor tax cuts for small business will lift us from this pervasive slump. She and the Congressional Black Caucus are pushing for job training, apprenticeships and pledges from big corporations to hire from deep in the community.
But not everyone thinks politicians have the answer. “There are jobs there, our people just can’t get them,” said one job fair coordinator who works as a compliance officer, checking construction sites on government projects.
She also volunteers with a program that trains the long-term unemployed, who are often hobbled by their own educational deficits and outdated computer skills, or by drug problems and criminal records.
What troubles her, she said, “is you see all these people from other countries come here, and they’re working. And they’re not just getting the low-wage jobs.… But the politicians don’t want to talk about that.”
::
The sheer numbers at the job fair were dispiriting for some. More than 4,000 people looking for jobs, and 150 would-be employers — heavy on security firms, government agencies and retail companies.
I was pleased to see so many community service programs; agencies that weren’t there to hire but to provide help for job-seekers: counseling, clothing, computer training, help with interviewing skills. And I was disappointed that only a handful – I saw three – had posted “hiring now” signs.
Inside the Faith Dome, job trainer Carrie Marks gave the group a quickie primer: “Focus on ‘hard skills,’ what you know. I have. I can. I am. Think of it as a 30-second commercial to let them know what you bring to the job.” I saw people taking notes around me.
The church people handled it differently. “Today’s your day for victory,” Pastor Fred Price Jr. told the crowd. “You’re gonna get a job today.”
His sister took the stage, and called for prayer. “We want you to be employed when you leave these grounds!”
I headed back to my car, parked at 75th and Vermont, across from a tiny house-turned-church, with a cross marquee: The Promiseland.
Across the street was a row of three others: Iglesia Palabra Viva, First Community Baptist, and Romona’s Gospel and Exhibit Theater. And on the corner, Community Centers Inc., promising “Miracles Happen Here.”
If only faith was all it took.
sandy.banks@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times
Bullying and Incivility Have Become an Epidemic
August 25th, 2011 by Randy Jurado Ertll Add Your Comment (1) »By Randy Jurado Ertll
Pop stars Eminem and Lady Gaga recently admitted that they were victims of bullying and we applaud them for making this a relevant issue that should not just apply to youth, but to adults too. It is basically the adults who set the example in regards to bullying. Bullying does not just occur on school playgrounds but also in the workplace. Therefore, it is imperative that we also include the word civility in our national discourse.
Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy by Stephen L. Carter is a thought provoking book that focuses on why we have lost good manners and respect towards others, and what we need to do to recapture “civility” in our society.
Carter focuses on historical examples and real life scenarios that help illustrate how the United States has evolved from being a young democracy to one that has fallen into utter disregard for respect towards each other. Within the book, the author provides ideas how we can recapture civility, by focusing on our personal actions and treating others with dignity and respect. The key is to stop the vicious cycle of incivility and bullying by not condoning or participating in these types of negative activities.
Stephen L. Carter chose to write about the issue of civility since he has personally witnessed how respectful treatment of others has drastically decreased in our U.S. society. The author is trying to make a point that we have loss civility through real life, historical, and personal examples.
The book’s fundamental points are to be civil and respectful towards others, even when they are rude to us. Of course, it is easier said than done. But we must continually strive to be the opposite of negative, disrespectful, and uncivil role models or bosses. Of course, at times, we all fall short in practicing civility.
This book offers some guidance towards analyzing why incivility has become so common in our everyday life. Carter’s ultimate goal is for us to put into practice his message of respect and tolerance. The greater message is for us to begin to grasp what civility means and to begin to put it into practice, in our daily lives.
Civility is a topic often forgotten, ignored, and misunderstood in our society. Therefore, even though Carter’s book is now over a decade old, it is still relevant and valuable to read. The author’s main arguments are true since he uses historical facts and examples to reiterate his thesis that we have loss civility in our interactions with each other.
What I do disagree with him is that he states that various religions have not created or exasperate incivility. In some cases, yes, opposing religious views have created tensions and even violence. He misses an opportunity to mention the European one hundred year war between Protestants and Catholics and the continual conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Overall, it is a good book but it does lack in some areas. This book sublimely, and not directly, talks about social inequities that have led us to become a nation of intolerance and mistreatment of each other. This book does not necessarily make the direct correlation with historical facts that would help explain how we have evolved to become an intolerant nation. However, the truth of the matter is that this nation was established with principles of intolerance, and the author slightly brushes on this topic. He could have gone more in depth to further explore the topic of social, political, and economic inequities that have led to more incivility.
Fortunately, Carter does talk about slavery and how the owners of slaves may have practiced “civility” in their political and economic interactions, but the truth is that in the late 1700s, the United States adopted unjust and inhumane attitudes that African Americans, Native Americans, and other minorities were inherently inferior. Yes, the U.S. Constitution afforded us many rights, which we continue to cherish and value. But it took a Civil War to end slavery, and centuries for women, African Americans, and other minorities to be treated with dignity and respect. The U.S. Constitution had to be amended to allow African Americans and women the right to vote.
What is convincing regarding the book is that our society continues to be rude to one another and Carter successfully uses examples of political debates, campaigns, and the role television plays in denigrating and destroying the reputation of opponents.
The author successfully points out that the Catholic church and other religious entities have tried to provide some moderation or suggestions to television networks – to help focus on civility within their programming contents and visuals. But we know that the television industry is driven by viewer ratings and paid advertising, therefore, they have chosen to not censor themselves and they continue to promote topics and images that perpetuate incivility – through the obsessive promotion of violence and sex in our movies.
This book has now taken on more literary merit since we are in a time of economic crisis and everyone is looking to blame others for our social ills. We have also seen a rise in violent shootings throughout the United States, especially with the recent senseless shooting of a Congressional member and other innocent victims in Arizona. We also continue to see how campaigns purposely choose to use dirty and uncivil tactics to destroy the character of political candidates.
The topic within the civility book must take greater importance in our daily dialogue with others, in order to continue promoting better communication and respect among all. Ultimately, bullying must not be tolerated in our households, school, or workplace.
And yes, the workplace and schools must adopt policies of zero tolerance towards incivility and bullying.
By Randy Jurado Ertll, author of Hope in Times of Darkness: A Salvadoran American Experience (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group). Web-site: www.randyjuradoertll.com and e-mail, randyertll@yahoo.com
