And now for something completely unoriginal

I'm asking Steve to be the "guest speaker" on the blog, mostly because he seems to have found the words I want to say. So here it is, blatantly stolen from Facebook:



Colom wins & the District 281 referendum go down in flamesShare
11:05am Wednesday, Nov 7
Two elections, both really critical.

GUATEMALA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

So, as many of you know I was in Guatemala over the summer. I fell in love with the country, with the city of Xela and with Colegio Miguel Angel Asturias. It's where I intend on going after I graduate--etc. etc.

For the longest time conventional wisdom dictated that Alvaro Colom would lose to Otto Perez Molina--a big deal because Colom is an anti-poverty crusader and Perez Molina has been accused of war crimes. Perez Molina's logo is a fist, and his campaign message seemed to be "Who wants to live in a police state?"

Oddly enough, he was polling ahead by seven points until the election. It swung 12 points and Colom won 52-47.

So that's good, at least. I mean Guatemala is still pretty lawless (I remember reading that only 2% of crimes get resolved) and realistically Colom and Perez Molina aren't that far apart politically, but at least the army is shut out of power--this is important because the quasi-military government killed upwards of 200,000 people between 1960 and 1996.

DISTRICT 281 REFERENDUM

It lost.

Really, it lost.

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

Huh?

Apparently, some guy from Iowa whose livelihood is based on defeating school referendums came in and defeated our school referendum. I'm told that the campaign was something like "we support the students, but not by giving them more resources." This is a political philosophy eerily similar to "we support the troops, but not by giving them body armor."

The net effect of the defeat of the referendum is that a whole slew of people get fired and activities become more expensive. Because of last-hired-first-fired this means young teachers (energy), teachers of color (because the 50-60 year old teachers came about when the state was far whiter than it is now--most teachers of color are younger in Minnesota and the rest of the nation), MARCHING BAND?! (because now it'll cost $160/year plus shoes, plus uniform rental fee) and every single educational assistant in the district.

Gone.

I hope that you enjoy your extra ~$200 a year all you No-voters.

Watching us lose the election is especially poignant when contrasted with a visit I made to Sagrada Corazon in south Mpls. There is a gang problem there. Twelve year olds are being recruited into gangs.

This deserves its own line: TWELVE YEAR OLDS are being recruited into GANGS where the average life expectancy is TWENTY FOUR YEARS.

Why is this happening? Because when you don't feel comfortable with English and you can't read/write Spanish (because you don't learn it in school) and you don't feel at home in Mexico or El Salvador or Ecuador or ... or Minnesota. And you can't really communicate with your parents because they only speak Spanish and you spend 90% of your time in English at school. And the streets are tough, and nobody has taught you what you need to do to get into college....THEN....well, I guess I can understand how such a progression might happen.

These cuts affect those twelve year olds I was hollering about. No middle school programming. None. At the point in young people's lives when they need to feel involved, wanted, loved, bigger than just themselves we are cutting ALL middle school after school programming.

We are setting kids up to fail. Vatos Locos, Surrenos, MS-13, Bloods, Crips, GD. Get used to hearing these gang names District 281 because when we rescind the invitation to after-school programming we are extending an invitation to gangs who have an entirely different idea of what goes on after school.

I don't know. I still have hope, because you gotta, but, you know. This is one of those really rough days. I made it out of 281 because my family has resources to send me to after school programming, ACT/SAT test prep, paying for AP tests, taking educational field trips and paying for library card fines racked up by irresponsibly losing all those books. Sometimes I wonder why I hit the jackpot and how so many others are screwed by structural things beyond their control.

***

Conclusion: We need a third way. We need solutions. We need each other.

Peace n love.