Our campaign has really ignited! On Friday, we had a front-page story on Gloria in the Orange County edition of the LA Times, as well as my radio appearance on a LA show. The calls started pouring in, ringing off the hook and even overloading our voice-mail system. We counted nearly 200 calls for petitions and other materials that day, leaving aside the ones we lost because of voice-mail overload. Even more heartening was that a good fraction of the calls were coming from all over the state, and not generated by the particular print article and radio appearance.
We also received our first order of campaign brochures which we’re now sending out, and a temporary load of bumper-stickers which we immediately used up. On Saturday alone, we sent out nearly 400 priority mail envelopes with petitions, brochures, and other materials to activist groups up and down the state. Our main order of stickers and signs has unfortunately been delayed by the UPS strike, but should be arriving shortly. Let us know if you would like to receive brochures, stickers, or signs (when they’re available).
Also on Friday afternoon, a couple of us went down to (heavily Latino) East LA again, and did some more signature gathering. The response among the Hispanic population there has generally been very, very positive. Probably 90% of the registered voters are willing to sign our petitions, and many of the individuals are even willing to register to vote for the first time simply so that they can sign the “English for the Children” initiative. Some of the non-citizens who can’t sign still ask to take materials or bumper-stickers just to show their support for our initiative. We’re also building up a list of true “horror stories” about bilingual education which we can use as matters move forward. This Friday, a reporter from La Opinion came by and interviewed some of the people who were signing our petitions to get their views and opinions—perhaps we’ll get a story in a few days.
It’s been a busy few days, and I hope that not too many of your requests and messages have fallen through the cracks.
Thanks again for all your help.
- Testing the Limits of Bilingual Education
Los Angeles Times (Orange County , Friday, August 8, 1997
