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Literary Laredoans Fight to Keep City’s Last Bookstore Open
Most folks order their books online these days (myself included I confess.) It's convenient and sometimes cheaper. Still there's nothing more satisfying then perusing a well-stocked bookstore, thumbing through the pages of a book that catches your eye. The serendipity of discovering a book on the shelves you'd never heard of but can't wait to take home and read.
I feel better knowing that bookstores exist.
Laredoans are already mourning the loss of the last bookstore in their city. The city's independent bookstore -- Bookmark Books -- closed in 2000. Now the B. Dalton bookstore at the Mall del Norte is slated for extinction at the end of January.
"There's just something comforting about having a bookstore," say Xochitl Mora, the public information officer for the City of Laredo. "A city needs a bookstore."
Mora helps spearhead Laredo's One City, One Book initiative. It's a citywide bookclub that gets Laredoans reading and discussing important issues such as immigration and historical events such as the the Holocaust. Mora would order the books through B. Daltons -- sometimes 500 books or more and Laredoans would purchase them there.
Not long ago Mora had award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario present her book "Enrique's Journey" as part of the citywide bookclub. "It had a lot of meaning for the author to be here because part of the book took place in Nuevo Laredo, our sister city," says Mora.
She says the biggest pity is that the B. Daltons in Laredo is profitable from her understanding but as a division of Barnes and Noble it has not been so successful. The mega bookseller has decided to downsize its B. Dalton chain across the nation. Laredo is just one link in that chain.
So what are literary Laredoans to do? Mora says that she and other communications professionals in Laredo have formed a group called "Laredo Reads." They are putting together a publicity campaign to lure a bookstore to the border city. "We'll find a way," she says.
Perhaps bookstores will have to become nonprofits as so many media outlets are doing these days?
Next time I'm going to drive to my local bookstore and buy a book instead of giving Amazon my credit card number.
Posted under: Arts & Culture, LaredoHollywood Stars Gone Wild in Marfa
Marfa has been courting artistic types for a few years now. They may be thinking twice about courting Hollywood again after actor Randy Quaid and his wife model/actress Evi Quaid get through with Marfa.
A few weeks ago there was a brief article about the Quaids getting busted in Marfa for an outstanding $10,000 hotel bill at the San Ysidro ranch in swanky Santa Barbara. Too bad for them, I thought. But now I see in the Big Bend Sentinel today that the City of Marfa has obtained a no-trespassing citation against Evi Quaid after a meeting at city hall turned combative. According to the story "Mrs. Quaid is alleged to have damaged some city documents and hurt a city employee."
Apparently, the Quaids have taken up residence in Marfa and the entire county knows it. Both of their neighbors have filed civil lawsuits against them. Evi Quaid is also being sued for libel by a Presidio County deputy sheriff, the subject of a sign (I'm guessing not too flattering) hand-painted by Quaid that appeared on the couple’s GMC truck parked along North Highland Avenue.
This is only a small sample of the numerous charges that are piling up against the Quaids in Marfa. Do they not get enough cable channels at home?
Posted under: Flying BananasA Wall with Gaps but No Gates
Landowners in Brownsville have already had to endure the destruction of their property to build an 18-foot border wall. Now all they are asking for are gates so that they can access the south side of their properties.
The Brownsville Herald has a story about the Loop Family today. This family has been farming in Brownsville for several generations. They have a beautiful piece of property along the Rio Grande where they grow citrus, sorghum, cotton, corn, soybeans, okra, and sunflowers.
Homeland Security is bulldozing their grapefruit orchards to build the wall. The wall cuts their farm in half. Not only are they cut off from half of their crops, but also half of their family lives on the south side of the wall.
The Herald reports that the Loop Family has been dealing with Homeland Security for 18 months now. Leonard Loop, the patriarch of the family, still hasn't been told whether they will get a gate to access the south side of their property.
"They (government officials) have said something and then changed their minds," he said. "At one point they said they would close the gates after 6 p.m.; then they said they wouldn’t. Its almost 2010 and I still don’t know what kind of gate they are going to put there...
The difficult access to the property worries Loop’s wife, Deborah, because not only will her family and workers farm land to the south side of the wall, but some of her family members live there, too.
"I’m worried about the safety of my son, (Frank). His house is on the south side of the fence (which is near completion)," said Deborah Loop. "What happens if we need emergency assistance? How long will it take for help to get there and what happens if they can’t get through the gate? Now I don’t feel so free in my own country."
Eloisa Tamez, another Brownsville landowner, is also getting the run around from Homeland Security about whether she will receive a gate. A good portion of her land is on the south side of the wall. Without a gate, she will have to drive a few miles down the road until she can find an access point then drive back down the levee to her land.
At least Tamez can access the levee. In the Loop Family's case, it sounds like DHS may prevent them from driving down the levee to get to their property if they don't get a gate.
So let's get this straight: We have a wall with huge gaps that doesn't go through golf resorts or rich people's properties. If you don't have the political connections or the cash you get an 18-foot wall with no gate to access your property on the other side. It's just jaw gaping stupid and outrageous what DHS is doing to landowners in Brownsville.
Immigration Checkpoints Put Cancer Patients to the Test
The Department of Homeland Security has been rolling out its radiation scanning technology on the northern and southern borders for the past several years. The scanners are meant to pick up on any radioactive material being smuggled through an immigration checkpoint. Apparently, they are very very sensitive.
Just ask Fred Gossien who lives in Terlingua near Big Bend National Park. Mr. Gossien, 63, is being treated for prostate cancer. Every few months he goes to the VA hospital for blood tests. Doctors have also inserted radioactive pellets near the tumor to fight the cancerous cells. On October 31, Border Patrol agents detained Gossien at an immigration checkpoint south of Alpine for more than an hour. Gossien was told to pull into a secondary inspection lane. He was then taken out of the car and his body scanned with a radiation monitor as he was asked a series of questions.
Here's Gossien's account:During the first couple of minutes of the radioactivity checking, I think one of the agents actually asked if I had had related medical treatment, but by that time I was a bit floored by what was happening and can't say for sure. It was nevertheless soon established that I had 'seed' implants on June 23, 2009. In the ensuing 5-10 minutes one agent said something about calling my doctor, to which I replied something like "It's Saturday morning and my doctor is at the VA hospital in Seattle..." Kind of like Are you nuts? Anyway, to this I produced a card from the Radiation Therapy Clinic of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, where all the VA seed implants are done for people in the Western half of the country (I think). Someone took the card inside and made a copy of it. That is about the time "protocol" came into the conversation. I was told they "had to call Washington, D.C." then they had to use the second instrument which, as explained, recorded some type of radioactivity identification information which then had to be sent to their "scientist" who examined the info and responded that it was indeed a medical isotope and that I was probably not a terrorist. Of course, they botched the first set of readings so it had to be rerecorded and, I should note, each of these functions took 5-15 minutes. Finally after something over an hour they told us we could go."
Gossien says he felt humiliated:
During and shortly after my indoctrination I kept telling myself the agents involved were just doing their jobs. But something kept nagging at my subconscious and after a few days I finally figured out what it was - humiliation. I realized I felt less like a lab rat and more like the star attraction of a carnival freak show, with an audience of BP agents gawking both at me and at their little Geiger-gadgets."
Since then, however, Gossien has channeled his embarrassment into humor. He jokes that he has been officially indoctrinated into the Big Bend Old Fogies Suspected Terrorist Cell. "Most of us are somewhat elderly...and have had some type of radiation treatment for some form of cancer," he writes in an email. "In other words, we are radioactive. Some of us are virtually on our deathbeds while others, myself included, are hoping for a complete cure."
He notes that the radiation treatments, while extremely draining, are working and he is feeling stronger. If he had been subjected to the search in July or August, he says "It would have totally wiped me out."
Gossien said he knows of at least three other men who also have been detained and searched because of their radiation treatments.
Bill Brooks, public affairs officer for Customs and Border Protection in the Marfa sector, says that normally the inspection for someone receiving radiation treatments shouldn't take longer than 15 to 20 minutes.
"We have equipment to analyze the isotope and if we can't identify it, we have to send it to Washington D.C." he says.
Brooks says that an inspection "will get everyone's attention, but we try to make that individual comfortable and we certainly don't want them to be humiliated."He says people being sent for secondary inspection because of medical radiation treatments is not out of the ordinary. "I don't want to say it happens often, but it's not unusual."
Gossien says he won't allow himself to be searched again. "If I am again subjected to roadside humiliation, I will not cooperate. Period. Should that non-cooperation result in arrest or detention, so be it. That would make great newspaper headlines: 'West Texas Border Patrol Target Cancer Victims.'"
« Older PostsDay 5 on Mass Deportations to Presidio
Sterry Butcher's got some more excellent coverage in the Big Bend Sentinel of the mass deportations going on in Presidio. Just about everyone thinks it's a bad idea to bus 700 men a week to Presidio except for Homeland Security.
Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan a retired Border Patrol Assistant Chief called it “... one of the worst policies I’ve ever seen. It astounds me they would do this. It’s not well thought out.”
The Mexican men ages 20 to 60 are being bused from Tucson, Arizona in order to break up the smuggling cycle in the Sonoran desert region. In this case, DHS has swapped the Sonoran desert for the Chihuahuan desert -- that should save some lives.
Because of the remoteness of Presidio and its Mexican sister city Ojinaga, the Mexican government has been trying to dissuade Homeland Security from sending immigrants there.
“Mexican authorities through my embassy in Washington, D.C. have been trying to negotiate,” the Mexican Consul in Presidio Hector Raul Acosta Flores told the Sentinel. “We were not agreeing that repatriation take place through this port of exit due to the conditions of the region on both sides of the border. Nevertheless, they’ve started the program. And we have to coordinate for the benefit of our nationals and provide them with assistance.”
The Mexican government has been providing the immigrants with bus tickets home. The bus company Transportes Chihuahuenses is offering a 50 percent discount for the detainee program.
“Everybody has left from the border,” Acosta reported on Tuesday to the Sentinel. “Up to now, no one has decided to remain behind.”
Probably the scariest thing about Butcher's article is the statement from Border Patrol that "The program will continue until the smuggling cycle is broken." Do they really think this will prevent people from trying to cross?
One big question is how long can the small Mexican Consulate office in Presidio keep up with bus tickets for 700 immigrants a week? It's only a matter of time before the slow gears of bureaucracy come to a halt, then people are really going to suffer on both sides of the border.
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Recent Posts
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Literary Laredoans Fight to Keep City’s Last Bookstore Open
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Hollywood Stars Gone Wild in Marfa
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A Wall with Gaps but No Gates
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Immigration Checkpoints Put Cancer Patients to the Test
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Day 5 on Mass Deportations to Presidio
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More Immigrants Dying in the Desert and the Band Plays On
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Unraveling the mystery behind the “terrorist patches” in Hebbronville
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Dallas Police Driving Me Loco
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A Human Rights Crusader’s Odyssey
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Congress Won’t Pour More Money into the Border Wall
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El Paso’s Independent Voice Silenced
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Perry Strokes Boot in El Paso, But Has No Sole
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Will an El Pasoan Take Top Spot at Troubled Agency?
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Senator DeMint’s Demented Wall
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There Goes Sheriff Joe’s Next Re-election Stunt
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