An hour with Murguia Sisters

from what her father torian at the university of kansas a pr presents an hour with janet and mary ritchie yeah i'm kenny macintyre jan mr gheen is the president and ceo of the national council of la ross the largest hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the united states she was named among the one hundred most powerful women in washington a washingtonian magazine and one of the one hundred most influential hispanics by hispanic business prior to our work that what russia ricky has served as executive vice chancellor for university relations at the university of kansas her twin sister mary mark diaz is the first let's get to serve on the us district court arizona he has sisters grew up in kansas city kansas and graduated from the university of kansas they gave the family tailor and maryland starts that women's leadership lecture february twenty fifteen thousand ten moderated by state representative barbara ballard question would you

tell us about search your upbringing and about your mom in new debt over really and our yearlong view in the first verse of all let me just reiterate what my brother eric is still mostly music come in the door and exciting and truly honored to be here we have so many fond memories of the university of kansas and we are grateful to a university for what it has given us and we believe in large measure the opportunities to help achieve these accomplishments that you've heard about tonight so we're really thrilled to be here and we see a lot of familiar faces in this audience and that's very heartwarming for us in very reaffirming but to talk about my family we do it all the time and you know it's it

special for us because you know we felt like our parents were witches giants him in terms of and the values that they set to work for us and the example that they set forth for us they worked awful hard they came to this country with no money and barely graceful education levels of them but they believe so much in the promise of this country and the american dream and so they worked hard and they sacrificed and in this little community in the argentine district of kansas city kansas they put their stake in the ground my dad worked in the gains in construction still company for thirty seven years my mom never worked outside the home but because i guess manages seven kids wasn't exactly excited and that she helped watch to care about their kids and i always joked about you know hillary clinton mentioned in her book it takes a village to raise a child my parents chose to raise the village play hard you know that we do have a great

community and we had great parents and i worked awful hard they sacrifice and i guess because they themselves don't have an education they knew how important that would be for for their children and so that inspired us with their hard work with their dedication and with that core set of values family faith community hard work and to believe that we could do better and so with that kind of asset in those values and the opportunity to have an education they said that the sky was the limit and i think that we really believed it and so you know we saw and then that we could value ourselves you know my dad used to say you know never think that you're better than anyone else but also know that you're less than anyone else either and i think our community i worry sometimes that our young people don't value themselves and they don't have big dreams and when your parents can instill that kind of the value system you knew well it makes a difference where you as a mormon in la

people here from argentine from our neighborhood they know where we grow up but for those of you who did and it was a spanish speaking neighborhoods primarily in argentine district of kinsley kansas city you know how i live in arizona now chavez and west indies seen as he went from work for transistor little surprised that no we came from kansas that we live in a very modest home there were nine of the seven kids and but to parents and not a lot of resources a single income like a lot of the people in that neighborhood we had to live almost eight and a good one bathroom for nine kids and nine nine nine family members my mom dad did receive my mom used to read or watch till we were in college we didn't have a washer or try your little more moderate

kind until we were a junior shifting ever sheikh insists otherwise see washing are using every or washer we didn't have a telephone until we really great if people had calls to call my our next door neighbor was my god and so it was an interesting time because we grew up in the sixties and wheeler's lot of challenges a lot of adversity from my parents anna's jazz setting for successful you'll hear tonight from and some of the reasons are because of our community our neighborhood our education but because my parents and strong values that they believed in that they clung to in that is facing strong work ethic love of family the importance of being a good neighbor and a very clear appreciation for what we have and what is offered in these united states crew follow up on that question i'm going to

share with us what was it like growing up in kansas from may that maine's perspective well talk a bit more about the community of mayor mentioned is it was a spanish speaking community a lot of folks there were very tight knit we were very close because of the church you know we did a lot of activities related to the church but you know it was sort of typical of what you hear about those communities when you were out on the street and you know we had a lot of boys in the neighborhood some air and i was growing up and we play football baseball my mom didn't always like this play sports so all their neighborhood ladies would say ms mcgarry amaya the girls are out there playing football with the boys as so sure about my mom would be walking down this is your cousin's here with the ballot and socially like him down the street and so they would watch out for each other you know these families and they were

big families these houses had like families of seven eight ten you know six and so when it was like time you know it was a busy block in there we does that a lot together and but it brought a sense of community and a sense that you looked out for each other and there's no question that because of the lot you know sort of peace to it all faith was a very strong component in that i guess i'll i would add people often asked why i got into public service and i think there's element of what we experience growing up and i think its doctor martin luther king said everyone can be great as everyone can serve and i think it's pretty well established that given under resourced time and talent is essential to healthy democracy and when you see it and i think we know that neighbors whom care and know who their neighbors are are more likely to be invested in their neighborhood and when we learn from

example for my parents and from the folks in our neighborhood they happen to be primarily but you know families but we saw that an art really saw that the high school went to and we saw that in our college community as well you know one of things that was interesting is we build is gone and talk about this sometimes but you know we were with my mom would understand english but she really wanted us to speak spanish but how we would often times you know sort of sleaze half sentences and sort of ask her you know about things and she really stressed the importance of speaking spanish and today obviously it's a terrific asset for us and i'm really glad that we were able to maintain that that's part of our culture and at the time you don't realize that it's going to be a terrific asset that today i think we know that religion colter speaking spanish and it's a terrific us today

and the nasty about your time you came in my early years i would go to the stories to speak and we would talk about anywhere from yelp in their relationships to sexual harassment suit living up to your potential a variety of things and i would go to the alpha flu chapter and veterans were africans and i understand we have some alpha things here this evening ha ha ha ha well cheese or we no longer have a chapter about fifty on campus but i know when i can just how important it was and became a writer so i'm going to ask you to share with us a little about your years aka you including being part of

the out of the chapter schools the start but when its ambassador back in the store wouldn't pay i always have to include it in my response is our first day we came at coming here was a quite extraordinary there is because even though we're from kansas city and a lot of young people here from all over the state rural parts of the state concluded pfleger up rather sheltered i would think that you could easily characterized that way especially in our house and there were very strict rules and we came here and it was awe a very interesting and they had a jam packed room together they get it that we had our room over to speak and they show us the room people were moving in that they just tied the young women moving and we heard a lot of them bring in and they're staring at the river to spark of jerry was one of them

and so they're so we walk in and the woman they're counselor told us that this that this was our raymond chandler and i looked at each other with it and there's others yeah how about enough about when women than the gate you if it wasn't for one certain almost listeners along figures for us a caveat because i think at the end of the day what is remarkable about kenya continues to be its people students the faculty of the administrators you know for us there has been a resounding thing and this went up this home right here during writers was the head of financial aid only when we came in we started at you he had a full head of hair and islam in china

a story here in that yes you know we got home miraculously only because there were a lot of problems there to help you know no navigate the system for a lot of folks in our community without that so important to get these young people in their have enough to get good councilors that really helps and lower classes of high school were ok but they were busy with a lot of challenges and so well i came here chanting no figure out our financial aid we afford it the ritual is my you know my other two brothers were here came at the time carlson on my dad's salary where we were in trouble and we came to jerry rodgers and you know most times i think the folks see someone and you know you get the pig were back then it was allen fieldhouse unusual partner new and rolling and you know saw a lot different but anyway i don't know how did the jerry riders made sure that we had all sorts of bad

advice every form of financial aid that we were qualified for some that we didn't even know what it already is people like that again you who really make a difference for people like as it could've been a situation where we would have either not come to do you or we would've had to struggle so much but you know jerry rodgers and every year we go in there and he got a one story remembering thinking oh he's like well how much money all had some talent and we told them that we opened a joint account we share joint checking account we didn't have much money back then he's like well how do you know which one is the link to submit to share and scratches the girls do that but but you know terry roger is really good that extra step and spent time with us and every year he made sure that we can add the eu and had this great opportunity to have you know three degrees now and from this institution and

you'll easily administrators that sometimes don't get us the spotlight on lover jerry rodgers stand out because that's how it just added joe and it's not like jerry rodgers was just a step or c he was the director of assistance and he took the time and the care to meet with us to make sure that we could be a ten k u and that we could afford to be here we simply would not be where we are without him oh everywhere i mean there are there are people in this room and lillian physics department and i don't think we're not in the law school in every director admissions at the time and i'm sure it was a close call

she saw something and that's i think you know about maybe these thousands of potential actor on i'll tell you what you know she actually sat down at this work with the us tell us what we needed to work on her essay do is go back in and again i'm almost convince for lilian looking out for us again seen something in us i'm not sure we would've had that opportunity ok you know about china differ gospels katie was the only last week applied to head when i'm down and i don't know what we would have done and he really i mean maybe would have actually gone how to another lost her comeback but again these are people who did more than just looked at the paperwork men they were really caring about the people that they saw there's a whole room full of people here who if they get some point just our lives because of the role that they've played when they were a kid you went and they made it a very special place for us military you will always

be a great and special place in our heart because of the people who helped us along the way and inspired us and really motivated us let's talk about it a little bit harder at it is i think he has a story and what impact at a camp on a lie well i think our man really wants to go to an all girls catholic school in the start there were intended to you any all girl standing was an attractive and you know we're joking about it but really the cultural challenges that our family had him you know they are different for the boys my brothers would come to get you and in fact alfred know who led the way for us is back in the back in the room there in our oldest brother but carlos i came to kill you and graduated with his journalism degree and law degree after his undergrad degree here and rather among graduate with his undergrad

degree and that was in there was marian i but you know for the girls and the boys in and you know what they really want is to be an inaugural setting an end you know that was very important to them and so we did a russian we decided we wanted to be part of the house and it really was something that created and that will show support and you know really became like a family and that's a stigma that they talked about i mean it was quite a wonderful opportunity for us and of course you know the meals were part of the package to seven i you know it was such a unique experience for us to come here and then we'd end we didn't gel pledge until we were sophomores we lived in the dorm couple years and we decided yes we really want to try to be a part of a different authorization for some reasons a chance at they also focused on leadership and about his leadership skills actually for us because we do come from a different culture they also you know

educated that there was a real education at the story that we can make fun of now but i mean we have to know where the table settings you know what what exactly which work work where and it's not like we didn't know everything but it was that was and that looking back that was something that was quite positive but mostly the relationships that we developed there was really really long lasting once again we i still maintain contact with a number of our sorority sisters went on to become a vice president pena when they can charge of rush and it was for me you know a very wonderful learning experience and the leadership building experience they're even though i talk about your big jobs now and what does that down because as like you can talk about but what part doing really like about the second at the chief executive lee roth and about being the district attorney what about that helps you because public services

so what about you well no i didn't say i feel i'm at the right place at the right time and that's a nice feeling i mean i feel very fortunate very privileged to be at the helm of ncr which is the largest hispanic civil rights an abacus years asian country we're over forty years so established and aren't very first anniversary this year my predecessor who whose job i took over he was in this job thirty years before i took over marched with dr martin luther king and we now have a record of fighting for civil rights in this country an end and promoting world portly promoting opportunities for his bags in the united states and that is a great privilege to be up the helm of an organization that's opening the door or to the american jury for everyone including hispanics the demographics in this country i

think are revealing of the potential that this community hats were the largest minority now in the country and their trajectory for our community is is is it is a growing one and so those numbers in the statistics are are important but they don't mean anything unless lesser leverage to them into investment and opportunity and empowerment so seal are i get a chance to oversee a network of three hundred community based organizations across this country to serve families and individuals who need help and assistance in in in an opening those doors and we work in education and health care workforce development community development and homeownership we have programs where we teach english classes and civics and naturalization of classes do these bizarre really a great opportunity to serve and to be involved in public service

and again when you say this thing work when you see your program's on the ground touching the lives of people in so many positive ways and that when we can be are the voice for the hispanic community in washington dc where policy is made and use the experience that we see that these families are happening on the ground and then translate that into recommendations policy changes that actually make it into amendments that actually make it into the law center site you're making a real impact in the country today and to be a ceo in charge of a hundred and fifty person operation have a multimillion dollar budget even though we are a nonprofit it's a business that you have to make sure it's six cd it's a huge responsibility but it's an incredible privilege to be able to know that you're hoping to be an architect for programs and policies that are in it that are coming together and providing greater lift an opportunity to others so for me i you know it's humbling

it's a challenging time right now because obviously the climate is a tough one in the economy but but you know what a remarkable challenge and opportunity for me to be able to be at the helm of an american institution that is providing an important service in this country i know oh i was in my job description but the other variables we mentioned the armor wards one and that one of the things that the organization that said we're talking about this earlier with some of the women is that we put on a show called the amo words it's on the major network it's at caesars leon bridges carried his month and we were like why are you up in indiana a national network tv has had it all as head of the s t o r r us people say why does judge merrick how we doing a show every year and it's a very well received and eva longoria george lopez co hosted in it and would present awards to latinos in in the

arts and media in film and music and television and the reason we do this is because we do believe as barbara mentioned we did a report in the late seventies early eighties and i was called out of the picture and they were no hispanics are minorities really on television at that time and the only one reckons nice figure from television that people said was the most recognized hispanic figure was from a commercial it was a free domain the dough most of the times they were negative stereotypes so we want to put a show together that would show the positive contribution says banks are making until television and music and also use it because we'd put white papers or around it to create more opportunities for our community and for the camera behind the camera and to be able to have more programming opportunities so the artisans at one piece of the work that we do but primarily we're focused on program or one hundred and ten charter schools we have half of our affiliates run health clinics that provide health information to the community

and we have homeownership network of fifty four by three hundred affiliates there hud certified that help families be able to manage their eyes checking accounts in and their financial create create financial literacy so they can actually buy the house we put twenty five thousand families into their first time homes course those families who would do our services are not in foreclosure crisis a low right now because i got an education and an incredible amount of work and still are at different levels of course people know us because we are a voice on immigration and that seems to be the only issue they focus on what we actually work on a number of areas immelt programs and policy to really try to create what we think are fair and just policies for everyone including them as i mentioned earlier and a lot of the main reason why we are where we are is a large credit did my parents but it also

i do too on our form of government here because our democracy my parents would not have been able to overcome the obstacles that they had in the chances that they had without having a very level playing field without having a system involving our system of cruel jurisprudence and the rule of law and democracy and i know that makes it sound a little bit too patriotic but i think that's really true you know they want to make sure that we knew that in this country is truly they did matter what we were what we were everyone had opportunity and everyone there was justice for everyone and so i think because that resonated i think perhaps i decided going to launch and go into our criminal justice and so i worked as a prosecutor why that county i work in

arizona but i really learned how to do my job and went to county kansas as a prosecutor and i worked with some actual people couple of war here today and who are shared experience there was really quite valuable it was a really working the front lines of some really interesting or difficult cases involving homicide and violence against women and children and it was a unique opportunity was a great learning experience as result of that i was able to argue those cases not just before trial court or at the court of appeals and in the supreme court and that was a tremendous opportunity is a tremendous honor to present arguments before the justices on the supreme court here in kansas one of them retired justice whose here today just a six who i greatly admire we have a couple of my cover my brother's colleagues know i consider my colleagues here today for

district court judges in the district of kansas just lunch counter the background on thank you very much for being here there's just a really high level or caliber of people who are all things that you do share here in this in this state and in my state where i live now in arizona and i'm proud to be a part of the system that afforded so much to my family many people and switchblades to make sure that these important god knows i've told the story before sunrise or hear one more time that i read it to my parents again we're here up here and that you know really wears them who inspired us and only she understand the full picture with my my family you know after was able to graduate from qiu yu has our oldest brother but apparently we see after graduate continuing oh my brother ramon graduated from cave of harvard law school my brother carlos graduate k u undergrad and law

school and carlos is a federal district court judge here in kansas there he was he married graduated from undergrad and law school and be sworn in as the nice days federal district court judge in fact carlos and mary are the first brothers sister in the history lies face to serve on the federal bench ha ha ha ha ha ha you know rosemary for many years and was a great demonstration you know worked in the recession and the bank and now as a caregiver for my mother who's been struggling with alzheimer's for about seven years now omar as here and that she is she's done a great job and now is really as far to say she and she were carried some tears in her job where she had to take two buses to get to work naming three every day and i'll never get to retire now she worked at crown center

was a conference center and dan mercer want to help clean tables and unkempt a tidy or a restaurant space it at crown center and when she retired pope's overcome center hosted a dinner at the american restaurant for an entire family and we thought you know we're losing it the spotlight that none of us have been able to spring for dinner at the american idea for how to market shoes you are intact family you know is no artistic inspiration just believe that the next generation of virginia's and they're just going ahead ryan i have it's almost like i graduated from yale undergrads going to graduate from northwest laws of law school there's western law school this year nick is back or he's a recent graduate from the university of tulsa is back there and appreciate him and the arias kelly's graduated from brown university this year and you

know this was a real you know our parents i think were able to really inspire us in so many ways and the outcome untold story real quick about my most favorite moment in the white house and it was the day that i took my parents to meet president clinton in the oval office and you know that was quite a day for me you know i have an office in the west wing of the white house in the last two and a half years that i was in the white house and find my parents came to visit me on for a long time then it really i was in washington the white house president clinton now clearly understood what i did as i was able to take him to the white house and presented to the president about that it was the day that ruffled my picture with the pope that my mom said good job so

and then this evening president clinton and it was quite a day had gone into your radio address and afterwards was it was kind of gas in the coming in you know my mom was can remember shoes that she was a milliner really dressed up a lot but we know she would grade in my den in kashmir and the taller i want to mention that to the oval office my mom's come crying and she's going to dish like going and i will suspect the hound and get here you know and forget my my dad sticky humid as it would barely anyways he stuck his hand out and said mr president thank you for getting my daughter this opportunity and on there for your president says that was julian no i hired janet and she walking into this office that you were once a daughter here and that's the story i just our family so many in our community in the latino community in and votes to

have you know really been inspired by their parents and a lot of that comes from those core values until we get a lot of credit to our family and of course to the great education opportunities that we were able to come here they believed in the power of education and so i but we believe in a two week we are the product of the american jury i would be remiss if i did not ask you about your feelings about our new justice on the supreme court can you tell me what do you think why do you think about this is it might well i happened to be one when miers why

i can't tell you how historic it is for us to to see a thing on the supreme court how you know for our community and to be in one the largest demographics in this country and have you know for better or worse you know engage with the criminal system within the legal system with the judicial system it's only fitting that the court should be reflective of the people that it serves and that means that it should have been pursued but more importantly it should have people who are qualified and she was eminently qualified to serve as a supreme court justice and i think it's fair to say that not only i don't think at the latino community is very happy but i think the whole country should be happy she's a very qualified and capable experienced jurists and i think she's going to do quite well and serve the whole country proud as as a supreme court justice

it's wonderful to see someone like jews are nestled my article on the supreme court have a lot of respect and admiration for her so identical if you could have dinner with someone living law has passed not going to me and why i i guess i would say lucille ball was growing up there was not spanish tv devious changed was television a space program has changed and a lot of the progress that my mom could appreciate what was the worst workshop and i didn't find that as interesting as lucille ball

you might not just left he didn't have to speak the language and she made my mom think they're just like oh gosh it's great question they say living right this is the night to the difficult climate that we see in washington today you know and i just buy like there's such incredible grit like an end and partisanship seems as high as someone has been washing up for twenty years so for the tunnels back here you know i like to let that when i get back and sometime nature like dr danticat well she is and she was a real inspiration for me as a young woman from kansas when i served on capitol hill you know i really admired her kind of quiet that effective way of leadership and now she's again she's been a real inspiration for me still

and i know she likes to try to relax out on her ranch that you know we could use a lot more of people like nancy kassebaum and in washington today because you know i think somehow back then folks found a way to get things done even though maybe they didn't agree all the time but they were able to somehow always keep the country's interests first and find ways it wasn't easy it wasn't perfect have our say that you know it's great that eleanor roosevelt an olympian isn't as a lot of folks and i like to sit down that impresses his make their way to the microphones and as you're doing then last one last question as you can see we have a lot of young people and how is this evening as well because we know how important civic engagement is how important it is to get involved in leadership opportunities on campus and in your community so what message would you have for young people this

evening lot of it i would say to just break it down to a very basic up find something that you enjoy doing that you might have a passion for that you really love really like doing and you may not know what that is right now but you can go to the career center you could talk to people and just you know if it's even when lunchtime swims turn into drains and then they turn into reality and so you really need to just well what what would you i think would be just a great interest what well i think i would really enjoy doing and then just do whatever you can to have to seek it out to work for it all but i watched a lot of television and one of the la programs i saw a woman attorneys prosecutors on tv and i just thought wow i wonder if i guess i should i can do that and without two of people here are wonderful people and you're actually and sex and all the professors and

people here at this great institution i was able to accomplish that i enjoyed working with the people that i worked with over the years they've made it worthwhile and then i was honored in two thousand to be a district court judge and in that position you really can have a lot of passion for it and you're with your work so to speak you can have a passion for the wall but it's very important that you be fair at that you follow the rule of law as a judge i am bound by the united states constitution the statutory law and legal precedent that that's an important role after a judge to happier person to have hurt institutions like the judiciary to have people who can play out those roles in and and so i mean i found that it's been a wonderful position on for me and i really truly enjoyed it it's a tremendous responsibility but i really enjoyed

it yeah i think in support for young people you know two things on education education education began to get your education get a graduate high school and i graduated college and then you know go ahead talk tech another degree on their effects and just make sure you're getting the education and be an armed with those tools those degrees are very helpful and you know we completed with the best of them with rk degrees of the likely degrees up against any way that they're washed pc and rows of people got all kinds of different schools but you know i'm like a degree assisted me well and you just need to make sure you get your degrees and then i think it's important to really gauge in our democracy and i think you know we have the ability to do different things you don't have to work in the white house to change things right now to the contrary us exactly how he was not given that now that we have the ability in this great democracy to delegates at the

local level in our neighborhoods you know our churches and our state you know you know we have to use the privilege that we have to vote to create that voice that we want to see the direction taken in our lives in this country and death for young people i would say get educated you know them and find that passion do what you wanna do but also be aware of the opportunities you have to go be a change in your communities to create change in this country and for goodness sakes register and vote every time because that is going to happen we know that you know elections you know can make a difference we are facing great challenges right now but i'm a firm believer that we must be participants in this democracy and you can do it in a lot of different ways and it doesn't have to mean you have to be in washington you can do it right here on so but you know we were inspired by so many people here to barbara and i feel like i've been given so many opportunities to succeed and a

lot of more people here you know talked about jerry lee an icy day vampire back there but one especially in a person who lived as their identity and how it was an incredible leader for this university i saw a lot of great change happened was chosen hemingway as he gestures i didn't have very many buses and i think about it john slattery as a congressman i had president clinton's vice president gore and now and then when i was here it was a chance for hemingway and now i'm my own boss writers but you know all those people give me a chance it was a huge opportunity for me to give this sort of you know young hispanic woman a chance to lure into to contribute an hour and in particular the neighbors against the audience has come back to my alma mater

and have a role in the administration wasn't unique privilege for me and i will always be grateful to a certain way not for what he did for me but for the commitment that i saw him demonstrate just use an end to this great university suggests that banks are being here i'm really grateful to the eighth grade in the meantime the fighting was any question any time what we have to tell the story and we have some of our presence by the fifth time they've heard of at least that there were up there was an occasion some time ago i think janet was working in the white house think i just become a judge and my godmother was talking to my mom in the kitchen we were in the living room we couldn't see my mother would hear the conversation and my god my mother said to my mom amalia you should be so proud of ok

janet mary jenson know white house married just became a church you must be so proud of that and my mom possums and i both look at age the other politicians get sick and she said you know the mother ship was you know i would be really proud of them if they knew how to make flower court at the peak grounded white house i wonder how many people like your parents are not being able to come to the united states and what your hopes are for changing them yeah thank you for raising that issue it's one that we you know we deal with your

four year my organization deals with the marion site focuses me to get married not commenting on immigration for the record leah that you are dealing with every day and you know it is a it is a crisis and it's a tragedy for us right now we got and all the more people who would like to come to this country obviously a part because their economies are suffering and they don't have any hope for their families where they are but the fact the mares with families already here who are undocumented and they've been here now for generating and they're living in the shadows and you know we have to reconcile as a country and i know that we have laws and people understand that there have been laws have been broken but at some point we've got to reconcile the country is that kind of the values that we want to represent as a country we need to have a fix that has broken immigration system because it's really unconscionable that nowadays families are are living in the shadows easily exploited

and now to kids who came here at all the odds and graduated from high school want to go on to college and they can't because it becomes cost prohibitive and i know we've had some issues with that law here in cannes i hope they continue to protect the lawbreaking than ever see a three year fight to make sure that we can an option for these kids to get in to continue their education that we need to fix this immigration system and when you do it for a lot of reasons but it's also you know there's a lot of economic reasons that it makes sense that there's a moral imperative here and then you know continued to to fight with a lot of other folks to see we can do it it's a difficult climate right now in washington it's hard to imagine that they'd be willing to take on immigration but the law would put off the longer these families that are here are going to continue to cover an end and to be a you know i think easily exploited so i hope that we can

find a resolution to this broken immigration system i will tell you just briefly might even advocating for immigration reform and i'm trying to do it in a way that's reflective of respect for the rule of law and everything you can imagine the number of ugly awful terrible emails and things that are said to me about my commitment to this country and you know you've heard this you know apple pie story about our family and i can't even begin to those awful emails that i get crushed and not only integrity but there were two in the vigils have been indicted one convicted of four making death threats to me in my organization and when you can't be an advocate for what you think is fair and right in terms of a comprehensive immigration reform without being attacked i know it's part of the nature of the process but it's it's really something that i think we all have to source that mac and they

surely we got a find a way to have civil discourse on this without getting are becoming so personal and so oh so vitriolic user year comments and thank you for being here tonight i wonder if through your experiences if there are any educational strategies are learning strategies that you think are particularly effective for working with hispanics young people and thinking both at the un elementary high school level as well as the violence level whether or not there are certain strategies that are more effect with these huge thank you sure thank you were wearing a certain number of france and their number of education programs and policies that no we're engaged on or trying to pursue in order to help provide more opportunities for different from what the laws in this country

to succeed and we still have high school attainment and graduation rate that's still far too low in this country and that you know when we look at the opportunity for these folks if they are able to succeed again and graduated just for their chances economically grow at an ncr we focus on wages just did you know a sense of what is the most effective we thought we'd devote some folks at the episode was one high school but what's most affected all of our research what we're finding is that there needs to be focus focus on early childhood education and all the research is showing that we can get our kids even in the kindergarten the preschool years ready to ready to enter kindergarten first grade their chances for it to succeed and the rest of grade school high school grow exponentially and so we're fighting for more policies than the human resources and programs that really do allow for better access headstart expansion and in the preschool very challenged his brothers all of that really makes a difference from the get go and that

pipeline for success grows right there but honestly we have to gauge it different parts of the pipeline and so we have programs that are out were working with the guy we rented charter schools we were wrong policies that we hope that can help when we do the early reforms on no child left behind and on other types of programs are and what we're finding is that we haven't passed a lot of programs gallbladder program but we were able to get it kids in junior high and high school and you could match them up with a support network which could be a mentor but also give them a career opportunity where they can be hooked up into an after school program where we're working with the private sector and there's mentoring tutoring and there's a social network that supports them are registered report evaluation this program we have a ninety four percent high school graduation and nassau that but ninety percent of those kids go on to college and are handed in their first year of college

so there are programs then at least part harmony that can be successful it's hard to get your hands around the whole system when you're an organization but i think there are different programs they can be successful and we're looking right now at that bridge between high school and college and how we can make that happen well it's obvious that you're both very passionate about your career and your education but my question is if you had a chance to go back to undergrad and study anything not necessarily for career but just because your dog to learn more about it what would you choose to study well you know my book double majored in journalism and spanish and i always would have liked to pursue that journalism degree further are in reducing what a career in journalism would have led to i think that would have been interesting find ah but you know there's so many interest areas i was enjoying and the thought i might be a good teacher and so maybe teaching would be something that i might want to do i think you know that i'm very passionate about

education as well and i would love to be in a classroom to have the opportunity to the city's i think that for me would be history on prewar books about history and art history at included i really if i would've not a fight in the uk to go back i think i would like to do that will only took humanity's in the tenth grade in high school back or not a celebration on the principle of summarized issues are managed teacher the first time we're exposed to many journalist media and or the humanity of this as the hostilities believers learn about imagined well we didn't know it was a song that was the family dealt with this you know that sense of freedom from fairer freer personal safety is essential for every

person what is your opinion of the responses to hate crimes of to this point and what needs to be done now lakeview what's been troubling for us and it still are to see that end this is a climate coming out of that failed immigration reform in two thousand when larsen two thousand six and saw a chance to get immigration form and then it just fell through and it became very disturbing for us it and see a lark to come to see that you know maybe this wasn't just about a policy debate on immigration anymore because what we start to see was that some extreme voices were kind of coming into the mainstream and we're seeing these talk radio shows and i know there was a commentator named lou dobbs will remember him there were boats like that and others you know michael sam is on the radio there's a lot of folks that were taking liberties around the issue of immigration and what we saw was

this because we saw the language those words that they were uses are creeping into the main street that we're having a demonizing and dehumanizing effect on the latino population and we actually work very closely with that a defamation league that has a long history of looking at an investing in on the impact of hate speech in this country and our society and they had documented that there's certain code words of hate that start to creep in to the main street and we saw that there were these code words when you start referring to send a population in animal like terms and that's how many of the indictment will be referred to on the street we start saying that they're the cause and lacrosse and disease of leprosy the highest rating and what not to mention that we were the highest rate of leprosy in this country the latino community immigrant when we start seeing those kind of code words they did take part in

that mindset in the average listener out there and so we get a report and i'm very proud of and so i was at the forefront of this because we were the first ones kamau and we have to start what we believe was necessary was an independence on a watchdog group in the media for media matters that would actually be independent and funded by other field that would track how that would happen and how it was happening on radio and talk radio and on television and i'm very proud that we worked hard especially to expose that we had a lot of opportunities to talk about what the effect is unfortunately though we actually see hate crimes that have taken the lives of young latinos one in your one in pennsylvania you've heard about other words there's some that we really haven't even heard about and so for us we need to make sure that those hate crimes are of course but more than anything else to me it's another rallying cry for why we need comprehensive bill gracious warm because as long as the

system as broken as long as people exploit that issue to sort of target negative attitudes toward another segment of our population we're going to see that demonizing fat and it's a very negative thanks to our society and it certainly is harmful in terms of human lives be jeopardizing the latino community i'm proud that we did work behind the scenes with cnn and their advertisers around and that's not a really want is to say we're we cover doesn't know what that means but what we did is we went to those advertisers and i said to them in addition to taking on some personally on his shelves you know what we went to their appetizers and we resent you know what the us have a large segment of the buying power hitting economic buying power in this in this country do you want a calmer and your company with that show because as lucky ones we don't appreciate that and slowly and quietly but surely advertiser after advertiser remove themselves from the sponsor the show and today i'm a singer the only reason it happened but

lou dobbs is gone it doesn't have that platform you've been listening to janet and marion mckeone giving the women's leadership lecture at the university of kansas and february twenty fifth two thousand ten and j mcintyre keep your present is a production of kansas public radio