Back in the late eighties, when most of the Dream Act Activists weren't yet born, and their parents were on the way to the baile to meet each other, the middle and upper-class in Dallas was sloshy with Christmas money.  I saw the Dreamer's parents everywhere: landscapers; roofers; the coolest restaurants; carwashes; nannies in the park;  janitors; and if you were up and around in the early morning, you could see packed cars leaving the warehouses, a working-class flood of brown people -- all over Dallas where they'd just completed a late-night shift in some kind of assembly work. I 'm glad, painful as it is for me to say this -- that the Dream Act failed.   Now these beautiful, idealistic, dreamers, are awake to the powerful interests in this country.  Now they will see beyond the hip-hop, Shakiraness of brown commercials to their destiny.  And what is that?  To lead this country, to educate our community, and to teach all of us to vote as never before....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKj5njkUhdg&feature=player_embedded Last night at the offices of our Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, over a dozen starving college students (20 days now without eating), were arrested, along with former City Councilwoman and spiritual leader Maria Antonietta Berriozabal, and labor scholar and activist Dr. Antonia Castaneda. I am frankly dismayed at the lack of courage from our political leadership -- where are they?  Should I name names?  (Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez, Mayor Julian Castro). But the political leaders want to win elections (though Congressman Rodriguez lost his due to his pandering for independents instead of hell-with-the-consequences truth-telling ).  So they wait, and they mollify, and they hope the tide will change.  It's gonna get alot worse before it gets better, and no thanks to the ambitions of those who live for what they think matters, instead of getting on the train to destiny.   ...