Did you catch this?

As we continue to analyze the Mother Jones video of Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundrai$er to top elites, we want to hone in on when he stated:

 ”….we’re having a much harder time with Hispanic voters. And if the Hispanic voting bloc becomes as committed to the Democrats as the African American voting bloc has in the past, why we’re in trouble as a party and, I think, as a nation.”

Why does Romney believe that an increase in the Latino voting block would spell trouble for our Nation?

Did Romney forget Latinos are patriotic, and more importantly did he forget the contributions we made to this great Nation?

Then of course, what would you expect from Romney when he dodged the draft 4 different times?

What basis does Romney have to believe voting Latinos would spell trouble for our Nation when we have a strong history of defending Her?

When is Mitt Romney and the GOP going to figure out that you cannot win the hearts of Latinos by demonizing us?

Through­out my Air Force career, I met many cit­i­zens and nonci­t­i­zens as I worked and trained with Marines, Army, Navy, and  civil author­i­ties. I had the oppor­tu­nity to serve with fel­low Latino sol­diers who came from other coun­tries, who told me they joined the United States mil­i­tary so they could work toward Amer­i­can  cit­i­zen­ship. Nat­u­rally, this made quite an impres­sion on me to see oth­ers risk­ing their lives to become Americans.

I do not believe the main­stream media does an ade­quate job in por­tray­ing His­panic patri­o­tism. In fact, liv­ing in Ari­zona, I often see His­panic peo­ple being demo­nized and por­trayed in a  neg­a­tive light by isolationists.

His­panic patri­ots have fought for the United States since the Amer­i­can Rev­o­lu­tion. Many His­pan­ics served as “rough rid­ers”  with Teddy Roo­sevelt and were rec­og­nized for their patri­o­tism under the for­mer president.

Dur­ing World War I, approx­i­mately one third of the U.S. pop­u­la­tion was recent immi­grants; the United States imple­mented a draft for the war effort. Ten years after the war, the econ­omy slowed down and the U.S. adopted a repres­sive anti-immigration pol­icy against “Mex­i­cans,” using mass depor­ta­tion roundups and repa­tri­a­tion  that forced many estab­lished His­pan­ics out of their homes and  sep­a­rated fam­i­lies. These events occurred dur­ing the eco­nomic  depres­sion of 1929–1939 in a back­lash to cre­ate jobs for Euro­pean  Amer­i­cans. Thus, they deprived His­pan­ics of their pub­lic– and  private-sector jobs and ignored many past con­tri­bu­tions to the  mil­i­tary and our nation. Sim­i­larly, social and eco­nomic strains were evi­dent in 1953–1954 as sweeps from “Oper­a­tion Wet­back”  deported 1,874,431 ille­gal Mexicans.

Although it seems that the media does not do enough to portray patriotic Latinos and their contributions to American wars, let us not be dismayed. Instead, let us all remember great leaders in American history, and create a culture of unity. We must take on the mantle from Latino Veteran leaders such as Dr. Hector P. Garcia as we continue to see “Operation Wetback” programs rear it’s ugly head in the form of SB 1070.

We must fight the good fight in countering the people who demonize Latinos, and we do it by reminding the public of Latino Veteran contributions to our country. We counter isolationists by reminding the public of the economic contributions given by Hispanics, but most importantly, we remind the public that “All Men Are Created Equal”.

We must help our fellow brothers and sisters by getting them to be more politically involved. We must take control of our own destinies and change what we can change while praying to our Creator for the things beyond our control.

You can read the entire transcript of the video from Mother Jones here,  or jump directly to these highlights from Romney:

• On the 47 percent of Americans “who will vote for the president no matter what.”
• On the dividends of his anticipated November 6 victory: “we’ll see—without actually doing anything—we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.”
• On the “almost unthinkable prospects” for Mideast peace: “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway…and I say there’s just no way.”
• Mocking immigration in the United States: “[If] you have no skill or experience…you’re welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life.”