| March 2006
Immigration | Media
| Religion | Seniors
| Social Trends & Demographics |
Universities & Colleges | Youth
Culture
E1 - Mexico’s Southern Flank: The “Third” U.S. Border
Grayson, George W.
Orbis, Winter 2006, v50, #1, pp53-69
“Mexico’s crime-ridden southern frontier has become a veritable
third U.S. border, as a constant flow of Central Americans and
others cross into Mexico, often en route to the United States.
As the number of unlawful migrants surges, their characteristics
are changing: recent apprehensions include nationals of Caribbean,
Middle Easter, and Asian nations, and foreigners linked to terrorism
are using Mexico as a thoroughfare to the United States. Mexico’s
immigration department is hindered by a number of factors in stanching
this flow, and Mexican officials have only begun to publicly recognize
the severity of the problem. Washington, too, must wake up to
the security threat posed by Mexico’s soft underbelly.” “Grayson
gives an on-the-scene depiction of this “third” U.S. border, along
with a detailed analysis of the policies, practices, and failures
of Mexico’s Vicente Fox administration.” George W. Grayson,
is Professor of Government at William and Mary College, an associate
scholar at FPRI, and a senior associate at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. Order Article
E2 - Border Wars
Judis, John,
The New Republic, January 16, 2006, v234, #4748, pp15-19
“The article discusses the influx of illegal migrants into Arizona,
as well as the political and anti-immigration activity by the
Minutemen. The furor over illegal immigration is sweeping the
country, but Arizona is ground zero, having surpassed neighboring
states as the principal gateway to the United States for illegal
immigrants from Mexico and Central America. In November 2004,
anti-immigration activists won a campaign to pass Proposition
200, which denies "public benefits" to people who can't
prove their citizenship, despite the opposition of Republican
Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano,
and major business groups and labor unions. Last spring, the Minuteman
Project set up shop in Tombstone to dramatize the failure of the
Border Patrol to prevent "illegals" from getting through.”
John B. Judis writes regularly for “The New Republic.” Fulltext
E3 - The Changing Face of the Gulf Coast: Immigration
to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama
Donato, Katharine and Shirin Hakimzadeh
Migration Information Source, January 1, 2006
“The post-Katrina migration of Mexican and other Latin American
migrants to the southern Gulf states is the continuation of a
trend that began in the early 1990s...This article documents the
history of migration to the three Gulf Coast states affected by
the hurricane. First, the author describes patterns and shifts
in the national origins of the foreign born as well as the relative
size and growth of these populations. They then speculate about
immediate and long-term effects of the hurricane on immigration
to these areas in the 21st century.” Dr. Katharine Donato
is an associate professor of sociology at Rice University in Houston,
Texas, where she also directs the Mexican Health and Migration
Project. Shirin Hakimzadeh, research associate with the sociology
department at Rice University." Fulltext
E4 - The Lottery
Bau, Dan
The New Yorker, January 23 & 30, 2006, v81, #4, pp46-51
How do people who win the Green Card Lottery and come to Unites
States take root in the country? Taking a Peruvian family as an
example, this article focuses on the hardships as well as on the
dreams and hopes of immigrants coming to the U.S. through the
Diversity Visa Program - better known as the Green Card Lottery.
“Of the more than two hundred visa types provided by the State
Department, it is by far the oddest. … Fifty thousand diversity
visas are made available each year; almost six million people
applied to the program in 2005. Its future, however, is uncertain.
Last month, the House of Representatives passed a border enforcement
and immigration bill that included an amendment to abolish the
Green Card Lottery. The Senate will consider that bill later this
year.” Dan Baum is a “New Yorker” staff writer. Fulltext
E5 - International Intrigue
Paterno, Susan
American Journalism Review, Feb/Mar 2006, v28 #1, pp50-55
“After establishing the Times as a national newspaper, the New
York Times Co. decided it was time to go worldwide. It took full
control of the Paris-based International Herald Tribune by strong-arming
its partner, the Washington Post Co., into selling its half-interest.
Now the Times Co. is in the midst of a three-way global shootout
with Dow Jones and the Financial Times.” Susan Paterno is
an AJR senior writer.
Fulltext
E6 - Under Siege
Paul Farhi
American Journalism Review, Feb/Mar 2006, v28 #1, pp26-31
Newsroom employment has trended down in three of the last four
years. ASNE estimated that there were 56,400 people working in
the newsrooms of America's daily newspapers in 2001. In 2005,
the figure was 54,100, representing a decline of 4.1 percent over
four years. A current count of newsroom employees won't be available
until the American Society of Newspaper Editors completes its
annual census in a few months but the overall picture is troubling
when viewed over the long haul. Paul Farhi, a Washington Post
reporter, writes frequently about the media. Fulltext
E7 - Cultivating Loneliness
Kaplan, Robert D.
Columbia Journalism Review, Jan/Feb 2006
“Knowing the future is easy, if only we were willing to see the
present. In the 1980s, it was one thing to learn about Afghanistan
through fleeting and sporadic news reports; it was another to
watch with a relative handful of journalists as Soviet planes
and land mines killed ten times more Afghans than all the people
killed in Lebanon — a war with which the major news organizations
were then obsessed. .... The Internet now makes facts so effortless
to obtain that there is the illusion of knowledge where none actually
exists....Journalism desperately needs a return to terrain, to
the kind of firsthand, solitary discovery of local knowledge best
associated with old-fashioned travel writing. Travel writing is
more important than ever as a means to reveal the vivid reality
of places that get lost in the elevator music of 24-hour media
reports." Robert D. Kaplan is a correspondent for The
Atlantic Monthly. Fulltext
E8 - A Difficult Marriage: American Protestants and American
Politics
Kazin, Michael
Dissent, Winter 2006, v53,#1, pp. 47-54
"The idea that anyone, regardless of learning or social background,
could "come to Christ" dovetailed with the belief in
equal rights emblazoned both in the Declaration of Independence
and the rhetoric of Pres Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and
Abraham Lincoln. The synthesis of evangelical Protestantism and
the ideology of grassroots democracy was found in no other nation--at
least with such passionate conviction and for such a long period
of time. Here, Kazin explores the union of American Protestants
and American Politics." Michael Kazin teaches history
at Georgetown University and is a member of the editorial board
of “Dissent.” Fulltext
E9 - Debating Design: Evolution on Trial
Munro, Neil
National Journal, January 7, 2006, v38, #1, pp36-43
Advocates of the intelligent-design movement argue that the variety
and complexity of life on Earth is too sophisticated to have evolved
randomly. They publish what they say are scientific critiques
of evolution, highlight what they call deleterious political consequences
of the theory's ascendance, and press school boards to include
criticisms of evolution in school curriculum. Critics maintain
that the intelligent design movement is trying to undermine the
main pillar of scientific materialism: Darwin's theory of evolution.
One of the tactics the scientific community is using to fight
off intelligent design is to define science in the law, and especially
in state education law, which governs teaching and curricula in
the public schools. Scientists want to bar the door to admitting
intelligent design as any part of science education. There are
a number of political and legal issues involved but the debate
also entails "rival religious responses” and theories about
humanity's ultimate destiny. Neil Munro is a staff writer
for the National Journal. Fulltext
Seniors
E10 - Curing, Caring and Coping
Callahan, Daniel
America, Jan 30, 2006, v.194 #3; pp12-16
"While there are many reasons to worry about what the future
may bring -- with global warming, oil depletion and international
terrorism high on the list -- it is imaginable, at least for optimists,
that these challenges can be dealt with in some fashion or other.
One problem, however, should invite no easy, comforting thoughts:
aging societies. The developed countries are already feeling the
early gusts of dangerous winds, and even the developing countries
are beginning to notice them as well. Little guesswork is needed.
The young people who will become the old people in coming decades
are already alive. Their numbers can be counted, and those demographics
cannot be changed." The article comments on the report "Taking
Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society," released
by the President's Council on Bioethics." Daniel Callahan,
Hastings Center. Fulltext
E11 - What’s Great About America
D'Souza, Dinesh
Heritage Foundation, February 23, 2006
"Is America worthy of a reflective patriotism that doesn’t
mindlessly assert, "My country, right or wrong," but
rather examines the criticisms of America and finds them wanting?
As an immigrant who has chosen to become an American citizen,
I believe that it is. Having studied the criticisms of America
with care, my conclusion is that the critics have a narrow and
distorted understanding of America. They exaggerate American faults,
and they ignore what is good and even great about America."
In this essay D'Souza aims at refuting current critics of the
United States and showing the virtues of the country. Dinesh
D’Souza is the Robert and Karen Rishwain Scholar at the Hoover
Institution. Fulltext
E12 - The Challenges Facing American Citizenship Today
Smith, Rogers M
PS, Political Science & Politics, Oct 2005, v38 #4; pp679-683
"In the 19th century, the greatest questions concerning American
citizenship were whether this new modern experiment in large-scale
republican self-governance could work at all, and whether its
initial reliance on slavery could be overcome. Here, Smith stresses
that the issues facing American citizenship in the 21st century
are likely both to have recognizable roots in the citizenship
struggles of the past and distinctive new forms in the present
and future." Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania
Political Science Department. Fulltext
UNIVERSITIES & COLLEGES
E13 - College Endowments Post 'Respectable' Returns for
2005
Strout, Erin
Chronicle of Higher Education, January 27, 2006, v52, #21,
ppA1-A30
Endowments of the U.S. colleges and universities earned an average
of 9.3% returns in the 2005 fiscal year (15.1% in the 2004 fiscal
year). The strongest rates of return came from public real-estate
investments and from natural resource. The highest return rate
among all institutions was 22.3% and the lowest was an 11.4%.
Erin Strout is a staff reporter for the Chronicle of Higher
Education. Fulltext
YOUTH CULTURE
E14 - 30 Million Blogs and Counting...
Ahrens, Frank
The Washington Post, Washington D.C., Feb. 26, 2006 pg. F.07
"There is no paucity of blogs. Technorati, the search engine
that tracks the blogosphere, counts 28.7 million blogs on the
Web. Part of the blog drag could be a function of age -- bloggers
and blog readers came of age with the Internet, and there are
only so many young people out there. A recent Pew Internet &
American Life Project study showed that 19 percent of teenagers
and 20 percent of young adults are likely to start a blog -- the
highest numbers of any age group. Only 9 percent of Gen-Xers are
likely to start blogs, the same percentage as 51-to-59-year-olds." Frank Ahrens is the Washington Post's business reporter for the
media and entertainment industry. Order Article
E15 - Ypulse: Media for the Next Generation
Goodstein, Anastasia
Ypulse is an independent blog that offers an array of news and
commentary on teen and young adult popular culture aimed at media
and marketing professionals. It includes daily updates on magazines,
movies, gaming, media, wireless, education, books, music, advertising,
newspapers, radio, as well as teen and tween sites and blogs.
Goodstein and her six editors (ages thirteen to twenty-four) share
their opinions about what's new and hot (and sometimes, in her
opinion, what's not so hot). Fulltext
E16 - Youth and War: From Vietnam to Iraq, Generations
Disagree About the Use of Military Force
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, February
21, 2006, online edition
"Images of war protesters on college campuses have given
rise to a common perception that younger people tend to be pacifists.
After all, is it not the young whose lives and health are most
on the line in any military action? Yet, nearly four decades of
survey data show a far more complex and often contradictory reality
than does the popular hawk/dove dichotomy. There is a generation
gap over U.S. military interventions but it is older Americans,
not young people, who typically show the greatest wariness about
using military force. This was evident during the war in Vietnam
and remains the case today. Pew surveys now show that roughly
half of those in every age groupexcept for those ages 50 to 64
believe the decision to go to war in Iraq was right. And until
recently, senior citizens were the least enthusiastic last fall,
for example, just 39% of those ages 65 and over felt it was right
to go to war, while 50% said it was wrong. While young people
are at least as supportive of the war as those in other age groups,
they are also more likely to support efforts to secure peaceful
resolutions through diplomacy and multilateral approaches as well
as humanitarian interventions abroad. Americans under age 30 also
give priority to domestic concerns over foreign policy in matters
of governance." Fulltext
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