Notebook:
Jordan, Patrick
widespread uncertainty about American resolve abroad, and in action would have snapped her up at once, and we were mar- almost certain deprivation for the Somalis. As the UN's...
...As a Mexican-American on a Frontline and the charismatic prayer group meeting near the discernment documentary dealing with the L.A...
...tation, consultation with their leadership council...
...My work," I gasped, holding on tight as they tugged furiNOTEBOOK ously at my blue zipper bag, a gift from the aforesaid Kathleen...
...The sheer number of Latino immigrants continuing to stream For instance, prior to the committee's inception, the pasinto this country (the rate of which will not diminish signifi- toral council was largely comprised of European-Americans...
...ing the presentation, when another train idled by and got me The same ambiguity has marked Clinton's approach to Haiti...
...commitments in difficult and dangerous circum- "Yes...
...Subsequently, This does not necessarily threaten the American cultural con- more Latinos and Vietnamese have both participated in the prosensus...
...leading, finance a college education...
...with the Vietnamese, given their hierarchical oriennot overcome, but we will overwhelm...
...over twenty years ago, in a New York City park...
...The committee modified this format tury ago will not be replicated...
...woman who would later become my wife and I were I felt like a skinned tomato that had been pummeled with hot strolling hand-in-hand on a Saturday evening when another cou- pepper...
...Those who would question their patrioare coming in for my adventure: the ambulance, the Emergency tism should note that Mexican-Americans won more medals Room, the doctors, and the medicine...
...Over $490 so far...
...Mistakes will be made...
...As the UN's lim- ried a few months later...
...riots commented: "We may evening...
...PATRICK JORDAN California, this only means one thing: that English is no longer the official language of the state of California...
...When my eyes cleared and I was able to get knife in my back...
...Rather, we simply discuss how to use our end, in all likelihood, Latinos will be the largest group...
...lization yet cannot be handled effectively by prevailing cus- Based on the latter course, over the past two years I have tom...
...But why wishing now that in his long encyclical the pope had said a bit should they have to speak "English only" when English is not more about what some heterodox moralists used to call "systemic the language of choice on many streets...
...my life until October 5. Unlike Kathleen, the encyclical could Foreign policy in the post-cold war world will take time and not protect itself, but I hadn't considered that when I took it much effort to work out...
...participation at some level meeting at our son's high school...
...its extreme oppo- ligious education classes are Latino...
...an order, one still gets a Dave Thomas burger...
...blast of Mace to my face...
...The meeting had been full of gallows Indeed, events in Haiti, which blindsided the administration with- humor, but it had achieved its purpose: I was now prepared to in days of the American deaths in Somalia, appeared to be an sign on for a life of perpetually indentured servitude to the coleerie replay of Clinton's reactive approach...
...cantly with NAFTA...
...Anyone who had seen Kathleen But now another mugging has begun-a legal one, it's true4: 5 November 1993 Commonweal and certainly one I don't want to resist entirely...
...After stances...
...And I was relieved again, followthe UN can do little...
...And it's imprisoned Christians...
...They obviously hadn't heard of the pope's encyclical vironment...
...respective heritages to link rather than separate ourselves...
...Committee, comprised of members from the parish's three lanHouston, for instance, has been dramatically transformed by guage communities...
...Until Clinton conveys a sound grasp of such an ap- on moral truths...
...one shouted, applying a second toward an effective multilateralism will be stillborn...
...sured, thank goodness (is there a patron saint for being insured...
...Counting up the costs and consequences now, maybe I should Bill Moyers, "When you get a proposition in California to vote have just let those kids have the encyclical...
...Even if one has to speak Spanish at Wendy's to place cess and served on the pastoral council...
...By century's of their activities...
...In al agenda, nor do other parish committees have to obtain our this citadel of Anglo-Saxon frontier individualism, no single imprimatur before dealing with the multicultural dimensions ethnic or racial group now constitutes a majority...
...American foreign policy must allow for decisive action energetic youths who proceeded to spray me in the face with but leave room for flexibility in an uncertain international en- Mace...
...she fended off the female assailant ately when he wrote about intrinsically evil acts...
...Much has was happy one night this September when a Staten Island Rapid already been achieved in Somalia, but Clinton must forceful- Transit train arrived promptly and transported me to a parents' ly make the case for continued U.S...
...Given the vulged, publicized, or quoted prior to its official publication history of U.S.-Latin American relations, Clinton is right not date...
...This time there were no inquiries about the proach, his actions will appear merely ad hoc, and as such they hour, just basic economics: "Is that all the money you have...
...ministration was unprepared for the violent resistance of en- To keep me company on the round trip, I had brought along trenched local powers, this time the Haitian military, to the UN- an embargoed copy of Pope John Paul II's yet-to-be-released and OAS-brokered political arrangement for the return of encyclical, Veritatis splendor...
...Immigrants should learn English, for it will remain the lanand the laborers are certainly worth their hire...
...Although the English-speaking community (mostly EuropeanAmerican) founded the parish over three decades ago and remains its financial and leadership base, a quick glance at those presently being baptized, receiving First Communion, and being Multiculturalism will start a fight in an empty confirmed suggests that the parish is rapidly becoming combar...
...These new citizens simply ex- chance to speak in their own way, and in return reciprocate with pressed their heartfelt fidelity to this country in the most mean- respect for "the other," cultural barriers can be broken down, Commonweal 5 November 1993: 5...
...Saint MULTICULTURALISM IS HERE Jerome's Parish, where I have been facilitating multicultural SO ENJOY IT relations, has Masses in Spanish, Vietnamese, and English...
...As Carlos Fuentes told evil...
...their geographic proximity to both The difficulty was that the nomination process reflected the Mexico and Central America...
...The honor of journalDEFENDER OF THE FAITH GETS MACED ism demanded it...
...will not generate the kind of domestic support necessary to (I had given them eight singles...
...So I tervention can work, even amid political violence...
...But I find myself guage of business and political power in this country...
...for constituting a common ground among dif- The majority of the parish and 90 percent of the youth in referent cultural groups...
...Much closer to Essentially, the committee aims for an atmosphere of openthe bone, however, was the furor that arose in July over a cit- ness and trust that makes multicultural coordination of parish izenship ceremony in Tucson, Arizona, which was conducted activities easier...
...I don't think Saint Tarsicius came into my mind then-not even the pope mentions him in the new encyclical's long disquisition on martyrdom-but the young martyr was with me that night...
...Multiculturalism for an increasing number of Americans coordinated the Saint Jerome's Multicultural Relations is not a cause, fad, or theory but a lived reality...
...sustain U.S...
...One glimpse of it and the English language as the official language of the state of they might have fled in fear and trembling...
...Tradition says that Tarsicius was stopped, searched, and beaten t is not often that I travel by train late at night, partic- to death in third-century Rome for carrying a concealed host to ularly while carrying a contraband document...
...Will it be in a begrudging A lot more heat then light is shed in such polemics...
...to deal with multiple cultures, but how...
...nity, but came out way ahead...
...But they thought I must be holding out on them...
...and the spread of Univision and manners of the English-speaking community: forms were other American-based, Spanish-speaking media means the as- filled out by individual parishioners two to three weeks before similation patterns experienced by European-Americans a cen- the discernment evening...
...In fact, the last time was al Christians emerging from a bowling alley came to my rescue...
...I lost my wallet, a couple of dollars, and my dig- about sending him my story, as the encyclical lacks examples...
...When people are treated with dignity, given a in Spanish instead of English...
...ited but nevertheless significant recent success in conducting I don't like waiting for trains-it's something about Anna free elections in Cambodia suggests, patient international in- Karenina, I suppose-especially on deserted platforms...
...nents fear that it treads upon the very ideals Given this trend, the question is not whether one will have of Western civilization...
...REPORT FROM HOUSTON In the diocese of Galveston-Houston, parishes which are combinations of European-, African-, Asian-, and Latino-Americans are increasingly the norm, not the exception...
...back to my home station...
...Without that U.S...
...Kathleen, my future wife, was carrying a week's back to the encyclical, I found I understood the pope immedigrocery money in her purse...
...Clinton's subsequent mean the pope was boycotting someone or something, but that initiation of a renewed naval blockade of Haiti as well as the the contents of the forthcoming encyclical were not to be diseizure of Haitian assets in the U.S...
...We have no predetermined multiculturLatino and Asian immigration over the past fifteen years...
...As a journalist for this biweekly, I had obtained an adto act unilaterally, but to build on the efforts of the Organization vance copy of the encyclical, one I was pledged to defend with of American States and the UN to restore democracy to Haiti...
...widespread uncertainty about American resolve abroad, and in action would have snapped her up at once, and we were maralmost certain deprivation for the Somalis...
...I mean the bills ingful way possible...
...The They yelled at the fugitives who went scurrying into the night...
...become a more violent and unstable place and any movement "What's in your briefcase...
...The meeting was on how to if those gains are to be preserved...
...Its extreme proponents offer little hope prised of first-generation Mexicans and Central Americans...
...Or will it be by creatively enabling pecially in such cities as Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston these newer, growing communities to assume leadership roles which have very little to do with assaults on Western civi- without having to sacrifice their cultures...
...Embargoed in this case did not Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide...
...Kathleen came to the Emergency Room and led me ple approached, asked us for the time, and in a second had a home by the hand...
...commitment, the world will only all, I was no longer looking at them in the eye...
...are measured...
...But President out for the evening...
...I'm in- of honor in World War II than any other ethnic group...
...I know Saint Francis and perhaps even the pope would have let them have it, but I had an officially embargoed encyclical A DOUBLE MUGGING and these guys were not going to get it...
...Clinton must begin to articulate for the American people, and To make a long story short, soon after getting off the train, for the international community, a coherent American posi- I was surrounded under a deserted underpass by four or five tion...
...And thanks to Tarsicius, just then severnot often that I get mugged...
...If anything, California, Florida, to include alternative channels of communication: with the and Texas, among other places, will increasingly be imbued Latinos, face-to-face communication at both the Sunday Masses with Latino culture...
...Without the U.S...
...I even thought and escaped...
...Once again the ad- lege of our son's choice...
...And fashion which at best tolerates the presence of "others" and the fact is, there are undeniable cultural changes ensuing es- otherwise begets hostility...
Vol. 120 • November 1993 • No. 19
