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	Ruben Navarrette Jr.

He deserves the Medal of Honor

Oct. 5 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Elected officials always look for ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. This year, they have the unique opportunity to use what's left of the month to right a wrong and honor an American hero who was stripped by bureaucrats of the recognition he deserves.

Congress and the White House should celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month – and the American spirit – by finally awarding the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Rafael Peralta.

Oct. 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Not a time to do nothing: This week many Americans were presented with more incontrovertible evidence that while our financial system may be on the fritz, our political system is just plain broken.

Sept. 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Reconnecting Latino voters with hope: America's largest minority is a paradox. Latinos have a reputation for being fatalistic. Yet many, especially immigrants, also share an entrepreneurial belief that people chart their own destinies. The result is 46 million Americans – 15 percent of the U.S. population – who vacillate between pessimism and optimism.

Sept. 24 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

The time for candidates to show leadership: After months of trying to accentuate the differences between them, Barack Obama and John McCain have demonstrated they have something in common: Neither appears to have the foggiest idea about what caused the crisis on Wall Street, or how to fix it.

Sept. 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Biden tries to play ordinary Joe: Have you noticed the little orange cones surrounding a certain ill-fated vice presidential candidate?

Sept. 17 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

No friend to Latinos on immigration: As they recall the failure of immigration reform in Congress, Democrats want to come off as the good guys.

Sept. 14 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Sarah Palin and Latino voters: It's time to check in on the Latino vote, which just a few months ago seemed up for grabs but now seems firmly in the hands of the Democrats.

Sept. 10 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

English-only golf and the language of money: Money talks. And it's not choosy about what language it uses to get its point across. Capitalism has the uncanny ability to help the misguided find their way.

Sept. 7 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Dems should worry about Sarah Palin: Anyone who heard Sarah Palin's rousing speech at the GOP National Convention should now understand why Democrats have been trying to destroy her. And why, luckily for the country, they've failed.

Sept. 3 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Sarah Palin: A good choice for Republicans and the country: Never mind the naysayers and inside-the-Beltway snobs who mock John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. This was a brilliant choice.

Aug. 31 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

McCain can win on issues: As the curtain rises on the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., it is clear that John McCain and his surrogates will do all they can to scare up a victory.

Aug. 27 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Immigrants and the best of us: Now that the flame has gone out on the Olympics in Beijing, it's worth taking a moment to applaud the U.S. Olympic team. Not only for dominating so many events and winning the most prizes overall – 110 medals, 36 gold – but also for winning the argument back home over the contributions of immigrants and their children.

Aug. 24 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Obama's huge task awaits: In Denver this week, Barack Obama will make history by becoming the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party.

Aug. 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Foreign policy experience?: Hillary Clinton was right about one thing: This election has boiled down to a choice between change versus experience.

Aug. 17 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Obama must confront America's insecurities: While vacationing in his native Hawaii, Barack Obama said he wanted to enjoy some local cuisine – a plate lunch, shave ice, the noodle dish Zip Min – and relax with a little bodysurfing “at an undisclosed location.”

Aug. 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

A truly dumb idea on immigration: Have you ever seen a giant surrender? It's pretty pathetic. That's the word that comes to mind when a gargantuan government agency with more than 16,000 employees and a $5 billion annual budget suddenly throws up its hands and gives up on one of its major responsibilities.

Aug. 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Race: The elephant in the room: Barack Obama stands accused of introducing race into this election. Why, before Obama quipped that the McCain campaign had nothing to offer but fear of “the other” – and then implied that he was the other because he “doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills” – I bet no one had given race a thought.

Aug. 3 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Straight talk on affirmative action: I've written about affirmative action for more than 20 years. That is, if you start the clock back in high school when I felt compelled to write a term paper on the topic after classmates with poorer grades than mine suggested that I wouldn't have been accepted by Ivy League universities “if (I) hadn't been Mexican.”

July 30 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Let the immigration raids go on: In the immigration wars, you have to choose your battles carefully. Otherwise, you wind up preaching to the choir.

July 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Obama's message to Latinos: Barack Obama is looking for a way to convince Latino voters that he is simpatico. He may have found it thanks to the cover of The New Yorker.

July 16 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Americans' rush to avoid competition: Say what you want about the messenger, Americans had better heed the message. Maybe former Sen. Phil Gramm isn't the best person to make the case that much of America's economic gloom is self-inflicted. He's a Republican and, as far as many people are concerned, the GOP cares only about the rich.

July 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

A Hispanic hate group that isn't: Janet Murguía, the National Council of La Raza's president, says she has little use for those who pit groups against each other.

July 9 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Afraid of anything but English: The language wars flare up whenever insecure Americans worry that English is becoming passe.

July 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

McCain is unclear on immigration: Presidential candidates who seem to change positions as they change audiences should avoid accusing others of flip-flopping. It makes them look silly.

July 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)

Is ObamaAmerican enough?: Barack Obama celebrated the week of the Fourth of July trying to address critics who say he is insufficiently patriotic. In the process, Obama almost hit another home run. He sent one into the stands a few months ago with his speech on race. But this time, speaking from Independence, Mo., Obama came up short.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. His twice weekly column appears in more than 175 newspapers. The second-generation Mexican-American is one of fewer than 10 Latino syndicated columnists in the United States, and one of the country's youngest syndicated columnists overall.

The two-time Harvard graduate is also an editorial writer and board member for The San Diego Union-Tribune. A former radio talk show host in three markets (Los Angeles, Phoenix and Fresno), he writes and records commentaries for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." On television he is often called upon to discuss current affairs on CNN and on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS. He has also appeared on "Now with Bill Moyers," "The Chris Matthews Show" and "The O'Reilly Factor."

Navarrette's first book, "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano," was published to favorable reviews by Bantam Books in 1993, when the author was just 26 years old. In 2000, his essay, "Vindication" (about the difficulties encountered in attempting to launch his writing career) was selected from over 5,000 entries as one of the 101 contributions to "Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul," an installment of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series.

Navarrette is a native of California's San Joaquin Valley.

He can be reached via e-mail at ruben.navarrette@
uniontrib.com.

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