The damage has been done. Hours and hours of door-to-door, woman-to-woman outreach into high risk, underinsured populations who usually wouldn't give the health of their breasts a second thought was undermined in a single moment, with a single proclamation.

So what about Sosa? If he wants to be what the kids today call "light skinned-ed," well, is that so wrong?

Let's get past the stereotypes and get down to business on this census thing. I'm talking about the push to accurately count Hispanics during the 2010 U.S. census. Though organizers and many in the media like to say that the biggest barrier to counting Hispanics is fear on the part of illegal aliens, it's not all about fear.

Death is all around us. Well, that much is always true, but it has been especially so around my house, where, since Sunday, my living room has been graced by the yearly addition of a candled, flowered, candied altar to my dead.

Let's talk. Let's really talk about this problem of youth violence that is tearing us -- not just certain families and classrooms, but all of us -- apart.