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Add an EventLATINOS DYING ON THE FRONT LINES: FOR WHAT? A Bilingual Public Forum
Video part 1 of 3, 13min. 01sec.
LATINOS DYING ON THE FRONT LINES: FOR WHAT? A Bilingual Public Forum featuring:
* Fernando Suarez del Solar, a Latino immigrant whose son was one of the first soldiers to be killed in Iraq
* Other speakers include Caitlin Funk, sister of Marine Stephan Funk, a conscientious objector who is serving a six-month sentence for unauthorized absence while resisting the Iraq war, Patricia Chase of the International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and Gloria LaRiva of the International Action Center.
The forum took place at the San Francisco Women's Building
on Sept. 19, 2003.
Marine Lance Corporal Jesus Alberto del Solar Navarro, Fernando's son, died in
combat in Iraq on March 27, 2003. A native of Tijuana, Mexico, he immigrated
with his family to California in the 1990's. His survivors include a wife and
infant son.
Of the 130,000 troops in Iraq, 35,000 to 40,000 of them are
U.S. immigrants with green cards. For many, serving in the armed forces is a way
to obtain U.S. citizenship. Del Solar Navarro was given U.S. citizenship
posthumously.
The public forum also helps build for the upcoming San Francisco anti-war rally
and march on Sunday, September 28, at which a central demand will be,
"Bring the Troops Home Now!" The San Francisco march, which assembles
at Dolores Park at 12 noon and marches to Civic Center, will be one of hundreds
of actions in over 40 countries that weekend to demand an end to colonial
occupation.
Sponsored by the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition.
For more information, call 415-821-6545.
The attached streaming video is in three parts because of size restrictions. Part two and three, on separate pages, will follow. These Real video files are best viewed on a high speed internet connection such as DSL or cable.
Part one is 13min. 01 sec. (Caitlin Funk and all other speakers)
Part two is 12min. 01sec. and part three is 13min. 12sec.(Fernando Suarez del Solar).
While I agree that people should have the right to enter, live, and work in this (or any other) country freely, making a deal with the Devil to help Dubya conquer Iraq just so he'll let you across the border into America, is bullshit.
You don't rob Peter to pay Paul - and you sure as hell don't bomb Peter, kill his family, invade his country, and steal his property just so YOU CAN GET A BETTER JOB OR GO TO COLLEGE.
I sympathize with the poor of Mexico who want into America - I really do. They should be allowed to try and make an honest living anywhere they want to, regardless of what side of a government fence they were born on..
But when they sell out and join Washington in invading Iraq, Afghanistan, or whever else Washington DC is trying to colonize next., they lose my sympathy because they lose their innocence.
Saddam was an evil fuckhead - fine. But this all-out occupation of Iraq goes far beyond that, and any soldier participating in it deserves to die same as Saddam.
Even if that soldier is a Latino.
If you cannot sympathize with a dead immigrant marine, then perhaps you could sympathise with his father, who actually spoke at the event. He was lied to by the Defense Department about his son's death. They told him that his son was killed by an Iraqi ambush, but someone from his unit told him that they had been going through a field of cluster bombs and Fernando stepped on one. He was left to die. Before he died he wrote his father about his disappointment about the reaction of the Iraqi's to the occupation. He said his unit's morale went way down when they found out that their mission would be to guard the oil fields.
Maybe you should watch the video before you make broad generalizations.
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