BRAKING: The car is slowing down

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Tuesday July 21, 2009 · 1:57 PM PDT

2009/07/21 · 13:57

Until recently we were accelerating, however, there is a red light in the distance. We will not be able to maintain this speed. We will, in fact, need to slow down significantly if we are going to come to a safe speed and obey the laws of traffic.

bristol

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Monday May 04, 2009 · 11:24 AM PDT

2009/05/04 · 11:24

Not seeing any memorials to Augusto Boal on this site, I wanted to honor the brilliant Brazilian actor, educator and philosopher & also share a bit on how he influenced my work and the work of the school that I'm at the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

bristol

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Saturday November 01, 2008 · 12:01 PM PDT

2008/11/01 · 12:01

Every day when I take the bus to work I ride past an informal garbage dump in Quetzaltenango's public market called La Democracia. Oftentimes I see homeless men fighting for rotting scraps of food with street dogs. Malnourished, shrunken children lying about their age (they're always fourteen, Guatemala's age where it's no longer 'child labor') offering to shine my shoes or sell me twelve cents worth of gum...

bristol

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Friday October 10, 2008 · 11:29 AM PDT

2008/10/10 · 11:29

As I grew up some of my fondest memories were trips to the library with my parents and my two brothers. We were big readers, so big that we had to bring a large plastic tub to carry back all the books we borrowed to my house. A few times the librarians had to make exceptions for us because we had over 100 books out at a time.

We plowed through the books, returned them, and were back for more.

My experiences at the Rockford Road library were very formational as I fell in love with reading, majored in English and plan on pursuing a teaching degree when I return to the United States.

My students in Guatemala are less lucky. In the second largest city, Quetzaltenango, there are no books.

There are books in ENGLISH for foreigners like myself. There are boring textbooks in Spanish. And if you are able to plunk down over 100Q (roughly $15 US) then you might be able to afford ONE book in Spanish.

For my students, whose families make roughly $40-50 a month, they cannot afford one book.

Public libraries? You better forget about it.

Therefore, in my city there are no books.

Given this, what's your top target to flip a state?

65 votes Vote Now!

Given this, what's your top target to flip a state?

AK-AL (go Ethan Berkowitz!)

26 votes

AZ-01 (go Ann Kirkpatrick!)

5 votes

ID-01 (go Walt Minnick!)

2 votes

LA-04 (go Paul Carmouche!)

4 votes

NV-03 (go Dina Titus!)

17 votes

WY-AL (go Gary Trauner!)

11 votes

LFQ: Economy forcing my students to drop out

bristol

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Thursday September 18, 2008 · 11:09 AM PDT

2008/09/18 · 11:09

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academyis a non-profit school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala that breaks cycles of poverty, racism and sexism through popular education. These are stories from the ground. Although a school in Guatemala isn't directly related to US politics, our stories touch on themes of immigration, education and economic justice.

Apologies that this has been such a long absence between when I first started the series—I’ve been on the road and hadn’t calculated how much energy doing a (semi)daily series would take. Since then, I’ve been doing some writing ahead so that I should be able to post nearly every day. We’ll see how it goes.

ANYHOO…here it goes. The economic problems faced by the US have not just stayed there locally, they are trickling down to us here in Quetzaltenango and causing massive problems for our students and their families. Bottom line: elementary-age children are dropping out of school so that they can work to support their families.

Why? How? More on the flip.

bristol

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Wednesday July 16, 2008 · 4:45 PM PDT

2008/07/16 · 16:45

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy is a non-profit school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala that breaks cycles of poverty, racism and sexism through popular education. These are stories from the ground. Although a school in Guatemala isn't directly related to US politics, our stories touch on themes of immigration, education and economic justice.

Yesterday I introduced Jorge Chojolan in the context of his time spent in exile and how he returned to his country to transform the educational system for social justice. Today I want to focus on a key transformative event from his childhood that forever tied him to education for social change.

bristol

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Tuesday July 15, 2008 · 4:18 PM PDT

2008/07/15 · 16:18

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy is a non-profit school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala that breaks cycles of poverty, racism and sexism through popular education. These are stories from the ground. Although a school in Guatemala isn't directly related to US politics, our stories touch on themes of immigration, education and economic justice.

Many thousands of refugees fled Guatemala to Mexico and the United States during the Guatemalan Civil War. Miguel Angel Asturias Academy founder Jorge Chojolan was one of many refugees—he needed to flee because the government deemed his work in education subversive. What did Jorge do that was so "subversive"? What did he do during his time in exile? Why did he return to Guatemala? I’ll answer these questions and more on the flip—the first of three diaries presenting Jorge Chojolan.

bristol

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Monday July 14, 2008 · 4:28 PM PDT

2008/07/14 · 16:28

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy is a non-profit school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala that breaks cycles of poverty, racism and sexism through popular education. These are stories from the ground. Although a school in Guatemala isn't directly related to US politics, our stories touch on themes of immigration, education and economic justice.

Because of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) it is now politically popular to talk about how we need to get the world's population to the $2 a day level. Currently, in Guatemala 80% are at or below the $2 level. What does this look like in regards to education and human rights? More on the flip.

bristol

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Monday March 24, 2008 · 8:47 AM PDT

2008/03/24 · 08:47

Much ado has been made about Debbie Wasserman Schultz's refusal to take on Republicans even though her job as DCCC Red to Blue co-chair is taking on Republicans. As it turns out, this is not out of character for her. Follow me to the other side of the flip as we look back on Ms. Wasserman Schultz's resume.

bristol

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Wednesday November 07, 2007 · 12:09 PM PST

2007/11/07 · 12:09

Over ten thousand people took time out of their day to make sure that District 281 children would not get more resources in their schools.

Huh?

bristol

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Saturday July 01, 2006 · 4:52 PM PDT

2006/07/01 · 16:52

One of the strengths I've observed in the netroots has been mobilizing money in support of deserving candidates. This sentence doesn't really need any backing up in these parts.

...but how will we be able to do in mobilizing free money in support of deserving candidates? In Minnesota, this is a reality (up to $50). If you registered to vote in Minnesota or know anyone who is please read on. Read More

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BRAKING: The car is slowing down

Augusto Boal 1931-2009

GOTV for those who can't

LFQ: In my city there are no books

House races to target in case of the 269-269 scenario

LFQ: Economy forcing my students to drop out

Letter from Quetzaltenango: From abuse survivor to educator

Letter From Quetzaltenango: Jorge Chojolan, leadership forged in exile

Letter From Quetzaltenango: What "less than $2 a day" means

Wasserman Schultz in previous jobs: a pattern emerges

MN District 281 Referrendum Goes Down In Flames

Who do you know who lives in Minnesota?