Esther J. Cepeda

What happens when adults live in a world drenched in sexual innuendo, double entendre and sexually provocative media images? Children are inadvertently sexualized and become objects of suspicion.

Case in point: 7-year-old Mark Curran, a Boston first-grader, was recently accused of sexual harassment. He got into trouble for kicking a classmate in the crotch after the classmate allegedly choked him.

With less than a year until Election Day 2012, candidates for political office should be making sure they're not neglecting the most affluent, independent and now the fastest growing racial group of voters simply because they have routinely been overlooked in past elections.

Pity the candidates and political parties who haven't yet figured out that Asian-Americans are coming into their own and that failing to acknowledge their rising political power may someday prove to be perilous.

When I was a kid, the Latin American holiday Day of the Dead – a two-day observance that celebrates departed loved ones – was a little-known tradition in the United States.

Back then, the only place you'd see the brightly painted sugar skulls and pan de muerto -- a sweet bread dusted with crystal sugar most commonly baked in the form of a human figure with its arms crossed at the waist, hug-like, or a mound with slender "bone" toppings -- was the nearest Mexican bakery.

Not so these days.

If it weren't so tragic, it might be amusing.

Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, co-authored with Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, pushing "Digital Promise," a new program to use technology to "revolutionize" K-12 education.

It was published the day after Hastings sent an email to Netflix customers informing them that, in addition to having just ticked them off by both limiting their choices and hiking rates, he also planned to split the company into two separate and unrelated entertainment services.

Joblessness, the general economic malaise and a never-ending stream of depressing statistics -- the number of people in poverty, the millions of dollars that corporate CEOs are being paid in bonuses or severance -- have made 2011 the year when it became OK to hate both the rich and the poor.

There's no evidence to the contrary, based on how he's mishandling his campaign promises on comprehensive immigration reform. It's already becoming a problem for him as he maneuvers toward the 2012 presidential election.

The student arrived late to the honor roll ceremony at my son's middle school last week. Even though it was almost over, the teaching staff graciously presented him with his certificate for high honors. The tall, shy African-American walked across the gym floor to polite applause and a visible lack of camera flash. No parent was there to congratulate him.

Maybe it's just because I'm desperate for some warm spring weather to go along with the longer, brighter days North America is enjoying. Maybe it's that this Friday President Obama is set to depart from Andrews Air Force Base and land in Brasilia for some long-overdue relations-building with Latin America's largest country.

Raise your hand if you're disgusted with the Wisconsin school teachers who selfishly left thousands of school children and their parents in the lurch to demand protection of their contractually guaranteed goodies.