The public education system discourages young people from questioning governmental policies?the silence continues into adulthood, Elizabeth Martinez said.
As keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. 18th Annual Celebration at the U, Martinez spoke on the topic “‘Welcome’ Means All of Us” Thursday in the Union Ballroom. About 300 attended.
“Speaking out is something we have to do, even if it’s just raising questions,” she said. “Many young people don’t speak out” and adults don’t either.
Martinez spoke about “Bush’s permanent war on terrorism” and the silence that is pervading the country.
“If you do raise questions right now, you’re considered a traitor or not patriotic,” she said.
She focused on the civil rights violations the U.S. government has imposed because of the war, such as secret military tribunal trials, kidnapping and tapping into cellular phones and email.
According to Martinez, racial profiling is at its worst.
“I’ve never seen so much pressure,” she said. “You don’t have to be Arab?you just have to look like it?and everyone treats you differently.”
The current climate in the United States reminds Martinez of the 1950s. Martinez was put on trial because she visited Cuba as a journalist.
“I was never put in jail, but McCarthyism sent many people to jail, and many people committed suicide,” she said.
Not only is the government persecuting U.S. citizens, but it is also misappropriating its money, she said.
In the context of the war of terrorism, the U.S. government has spent nearly $40 billion on military actions, $45 billion in increased security funding and $15 billion to aid the airlines, she said.
“How much money do you think went to the workers? Zero,” she said.
Bush vetoed a bill for a $1.9 billion compensation package for airline workers, according to Martinez.
This is not the only time the government has neglected the working class.
“People forget this country was built on its immigrant workers,” she said. “I hate the term illegal immigrant, the right term is undocumented, no human being can be illegal.”
Many migrant workers were afraid to go home to Mexico for Christmas because they feared they couldn’t return, she said.
“However, just because we’re speaking out against these decisions, doesn’t mean there aren’t positive approaches,” she said. “We need alternatives that embrace the spirit of the interconnectedness of life.”
This interconnectedness was shown by the fact she delivered the keynote address.
“I’m not African-American, I’m Latina, but I’m here?I guess welcome really does mean all of us,” she said. “We need to work together to stop injustice. As King said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'”
Martinez stressed the fact that people of all races need to come together to stop racism.
“King once said every nation must develop an overriding loyalty to mankind to protect individual societies,” she said. “That’s what we need to do.”