Some years ago, a Hispanic teacher invited me to a discussion in a newly formed Center for Mexican Studies at UTA University in Arlington.  The director of the center that was created to study the Mexican-American people wanted input from community members with varied views to get the center off to a running start.

I was hesitant about attending because at past Hispanic gatherings I had been verbally assaulted and lambasted for my views on bilingual education, English Only, and illegal immigration.

But my biggest disappointment in such meetings was that I never heard innovative and positive ideas from whatever assembled Hispanic group. Instead, I’d hear the same old bickering and lackluster ideas at meetings I attended in the past.

In my opinion, in similar Hispanic meetings, nothing was addressed to take Hispanics in new or positive directions, particularly in the areas of education and political involvement. To the contrary, suggestions seemed more self-destructive than constructive.  For example, in discussing the low number of Hispanic students enrolled in college, one teacher stood up and asked if anything could be done to lower the college entrance exams for Hispanics.

I was stunned.  Was the teacher in essence saying that Hispanic students aren’t capable of learning?  That they can’t compete with other students in the same educational playing field?  That Hispanic students can only perform well when the tests are easy?

In my books, the teacher suggesting to lower college entrance exams insulted the learning capabilities and integrity of all Hispanic students.  His comments suggested that Hispanic students are mentally handicapped when it comes to learning.  After listening to more of the same old squabbling, I left the meeting totally disgusted and thoroughly unimpressed.

Some days later after I attended the meeting, the director of the Center for Mexican Studies, and a professor at UTA at Arlington, was featured in an article in my local newspaper. In the article the director was asking Hispanics in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to boycott shopping at malls on the Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) Celebration.  He posed this poignant question to Hispanics, “Do you have coraje (anger or fury)?”  Though he didn’t specify at whom, or at what, I easily read between the lines.  He meant do you have coraje towards Anglos or the U.S. government and its laws pertaining to illegal immigration?  His comments were disturbing.

First, neither he nor I should point the finger at Anglos for the problems Hispanic communities face today. Nor can Anglos be blamed for the high dropout rates among Hispanic students.  Those problems are ours and no one else’s.  It’s high time we start looking inward and stop blaming others for what is happening to Hispanics and their communities throughout the United States.

Do we have corage?  I can’t answer for other Hispanics, but I know I do, and it’s not Anglos I’m mad at, it’s us ­ La Raza (Hispanics). I get mad when one Hispanic young man kills another Hispanic youngster just because he’s from another neighborhood.

I get mad when I go into a Hispanic community and see the buildings, fences, and walls splattered with gang graffiti.  I get mad when I read that bilingual education is not working, and yet it continues.

I get mad when I see our Hispanic youth admire a low rider car more than a good education.  I get mad when I hear Hispanics of all ages sing corridos (ballads) praising ex-convicts, dope peddlers or a killer rather than someone who is a good father or outstanding citizen.

I’m mad as heck because just this last week, two Hispanics were running to represent District 1 for the Fort Worth School Board and less than one thousand voters cast their votes in an area that has the largest concentration of Hispanics in North Texas which is North Fort Worth.

I get mad when I read statistics showing that Hispanics marry and have children at a younger age than any other minority in our country.  Finally ­ and believe me, there’s a lot more I’m mad about ­ I get mad when Hispanic parents don’t do their job in properly raising their kids. Believe me, if Hispanic parents would just do their jobs in straightening their kids out, make them stay in school and whip their behinds when they do wrong, most of our problems would in all probability, vanish.  It’s time Hispanic parents quit relying on teachers, clergymen, and policemen to compensate for their own shortcomings.

Parents, your kids are your responsibility.  Discipline, morality and respect for others are virtues taught at home - so do it!

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