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from 2.2 percent to just five percent, the number would be 13,000 jobs. .. . Business development. Preserving the Small Business Administration, expanding minority business development agencies, working on capital pools for start-up of businesses and contracting. In 1986, out of $136 billion spent at the Pentagon in contracted services, only $4 billion went to minorities.. . . Housing. The creation of low-income housing and ownership opportunities for Hispanics. In health: programs designed to deal with teenage pregnancy. And then, a dimension of national policy that reaches beyond our borders that has a Hispanic dimension. Which is the third theme that I’d like to try to develop. . . . We’re coming into maturity during a time when the United States itself is changing its relationships around the world. For the better part of 200 years America gave its best time and attention and talent to the Atlantic alliance. And that’s appropriate. . .. The last 50 years or so the country learned about the Pacific. The headlines of the country taught us to be concerned about Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, and China. Singapore. And the newly industrializing countries now Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. . . . Beyond that, the nations of Central America. Ten years ago the people of this country didn’t know what Nicaragua was, or El Salvador. Or Panama. Today you cannot pick up the newspaper of a major city in the country without seeing the name of one of those three countries on the front page, predictably every day. And beyond that, South America. Certainly in our productive lifetime Brazil will grow to a legitimate status as a world power, at least as influential as France or Great Britain is today. And Venezuela and Argentina will also grow in power and responsibility. . . . And Hispanic Americans will play roles whether we want to or not. If we want to, then people from our community will become ambassadors. And they will be Assistant Secretaries of State for Latin America. And they will be leaders of major foundations. And they will be leaders of study groups from the study institutions and the finest brain trusts of America. Our people, our children, some of you, will play that role. And if we don’t want to, well then we’re going to have deal with it anyway. Because other Americans will say, where do you stand? Where do you stand? You can’t escape the question of where you stand on narcotraffico from South America or from Mexico. You can’t escape the question of where you stand on immigration. You can’t escape the question of where you stand on special trade preferences. . . . This afternoon, at four o’clock, my last appointment was with the head of the campaign for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the candidate for the President of Mexico for the PRI. The head [in] the campaign for foreign affairs. Working on the question of just sounding out Hispanic opinion. Never have we had representatives of candidates asking . . . what is the opinion of the Hispanic community in America? Of the Mexican American community. What is the opinion of the Hispanic community on the question of U.S. and Panama relations? What’s the opinion in the Hispanic community on getting a different perspective on the matter of drug trafficking? What’s the opinion, as they asked today, of the Hispanic American community about Nicaragua and the peace process there? As I say, that’s different. But it also poses some very real difficulties. Because the question of how we mature to speak as major influences and power policy brokers in the United States, speaking for the United States of America, and at the same time reflect these cultural interests and heritage is a tough balance to walk. The point I made at the outset is, this is no longer an ethnic group that can say, “We want to influence policy at the margins; you know, it really doesn’t matter what stand we take, because in the final analysis, the decision-makers are going to make it in the best interests of the country; it’s our job to stand up just for the Hispanic community.” More and more, what the Hispanic community decides is going to be U.S. policy in major ways. . . . The bottom line it all focuses and hinges around is our capacity to empower and develop our own resources. And that means, more than anything else, investment in education. The federal government over the next few years, whether it’s Bush or Dukakis, has said it’s going to recommit to building American education. But, the truth is, the federal government also has a hundred-billion-dollar deficit. And the truth is, that either one of them is not going to be able to suddenly reverse the pattern of deficits and arms to put money into education. And so a lot of our destiny is in our own hands. It’s not going to be done with federal money; it’s going to be done with what we can do with our own hands. . . . Unless we’re able to deal with the reality of a 42 percent drop-out rate in this city 42 percent of the youngsters in the central city schools who start in the ninth grade never make it out of the twelfth grade. It’s unacceptable. And this vision of our role in this country of first-class citizenship is going to be marred by that trajectory. And this vision of America being a first-class country itself will be marred by that trajectory. There is no excuse and no rationalization and no amount of polite cocktail talk or dinners or organizational resolutions that’ll solve that problem, [but only] each and every one of us accepting it as a personal responsibility as public officials to deal first with education amidst all of the other priorities that we confront as Hispanics. –..:…..————–:1 I .,….._ ,… ottw $4…,;\(–,-; Ik_…..,-,. :.” .0_,,,v, ke…. c11,..1.. $Sarlor. cp 4T “4”.z OT 1 \(si l. 4IFk, ,4102 6 OW ‘\(PH{ \\! \\ PAS` . N160 oik0,11;.: .\(Pt ‘ ,ok .i 10.4/ 9r P,I. k \\kr 1O$rf l’$-, :_p Ctilk,S1 .. ii akiM014″‘NN* ‘ 11$ The Official Language Movement livings Yon: Texas in Translation I.: .. 1* ,.. \(Poster Size is 10″ x Finally! The Texas Map you English Speakers have been waiting for. Here is the New Texas, free of all those hard-to pronounce place names. Here is Texas in English like God intended. Remem ber, it may be too late for English First, but not for English Now! YES. SEND ME JEFF DANZIGER’S AMENDED MAP OF TEXAS I ENCLOSE $5 TO COVER PRINTING, POSTAGE, & HANDLING name address city state zip The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th, Austin, TX 78701 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 15