Los fanaticos de activismo

On Tuesday I have a speech to a group of Latino activitists. I am undecided what I should say. There are plenty of themes. They are interested in assuring that more students can enter higher education. That is something I agree with strongly. In an economy like California, we need all the talent we can get and we need to assure that the best and the brighest have the opportunities to succeed in college. But this particular group also starts from many PC assumptions. One of the first conferences where I spoke to this group was around the time of Proposition 187 - the wrong headed idea to reduce the costs of illegal immigration. I began my talk with a quote "What are we to do then? Shall we remain supine, while these daring strangers are overrunning our fertile plains, and gradually outnumbering and displacing us? Shall these incursions go on unchecked, until we shall become strangers in our own land?" - the activists were ready to string me up until I informed them that had been Pio Pico - the last Mexican governor of California. I then said he was wrong then - Pete Wilson is wrong now.

But I am more inclined to talk about the role of the family in getting students ready for college and perhaps a new USC Demographics Center study that suggests that the enrollments in California will grow because this generation of immigrants is fast assimilating. Their catchphrase was "Immigrants are not Peter Pan." - meaning many think of demographics as stuck in time and as populations continue in a society they change. I will also probably talk about our need to continue to work with Mexico. In spite of the stumbles that President Fox has made as president - there are some interesting developments in many parts of the country. In November I led a group with the new Governor of Aguascalientes and his staff - a remarkable set of principled and smart people in a very pretty and dynamic part of Mexico.