Franky Benítez

Today’s protest was planned last week.  In fact, I was confused Thursday night, thinking someone had made a mistake in saying there were two marches to the Sheriff’s Department, one for Friday and one for Tuesday.  Santa Rosa Junior College’s M.E.Ch.A.* planned this one.  Friday’s march went well, but was rather disorganized, mostly since it had been pretty spontaneous.  People wanted something a bit tighter for today.

Fast forward to Sunday night.  A secret meeting was held at Supervisor Zane’s home to discuss logistics for Tuesday.  In attendance were two school board members and the superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools, Supervisor Efren Carrillo and other “community leaders.”  According to an email from Supervisor Zane sent to my friend:

FYI Laura wasn’t invited due to Brown Act. I didn’t create the invite list, just worked with Jenni Klose and Efren on it. There were 6 Latinos, one Afro-american and 6…

Recently President Obama spoke publicly about the need to get immigration reform passed. As he was closing his remarks, he said the following to the people watching him at The White House: “I want to thank you for your passion and your heart when it comes to this issue.  And I want to tell you, you’ve got to keep it up.  Keep putting the pressure on all of us to get this done.”

So in the interest of “keeping the pressure on all of us to get this done,” it is imperative that the President hears from all those who are pushing for reform, and not just the ones who are taking a more moderate approach and saying all we need is for the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to start moving on a bill. Those moderate voices have been doing a very noble job in raising that awareness: from a…

So tonight I tuned in for Al Jazeera America’s The Stream show (7:30 pm EST), featuring a panel discussing whether baseball can unite Americans and Cubans but, more so, the Cuban embargo and Cuban policy overall.

Thoroughly impressed by the show’s format and the debate, I felt compelled to write a quick post on it.

First, some background. When Al Jazeera America debuted earlier this year, the shrieking was rampant. Some, including (I’m embarrassed to say) my fellow conservatives, Tweeted that it was a sign of “Islamists” taking over the country. When I cautioned that we should maintain an open mind and reserve judgment, I was attacked mercilessly and unfollowed by multiple accounts. One even urged me to fess up and asked if my viewpoint was due to my dating an “Islamist.” Oh my. (For the record, no, I’m not dating a Muslim nor have I but, guess what? I’ve…