Today was the 1st Grade Poetry Celebration. Each student read an original poem at a microphone in front of a crowd of adoring parents. At the end of each piece, applause was given and one compliment was taken from the audience. The poems ranged in length, subject, and ability. Miss Thing read an original work about Mt. Lassen, her favorite place. It’s brevity driven more by her lack of study skills (can we really attribute …
5 articles Articles posted in altmamis
Women in Combat
Secretary Panetta made the official announcement: 230,000 military combat roles will be open to women. I think this is a tremendous stride. Since combat operations are necessary for real high-ranking advancement in the military, this will open the door for women to have more meaningful military careers and a voice at a most important table. Like every other hall of power, I think things will be better – more solid, perhaps – with women’s perspectives …
Rubio vs Castro: What Makes You Latino?
Now that the political theater of the conventions is over, the commentary keeps plowing on from: who got their message out, who motivated their base the most, and, oh so importantly, which party had the best (read: most) Latino representative. I’ve complained in the past about demographers insisting that the Latino Vote is a monolith. Insisting that Latinos swear political allegiance to only one party is just a different way to stereotype, as far as …
The Wrong Kind of Brown
Followers will know that Deldelp Medina and I have a session submission in to SXSW. One of the things that SXSW is very clear about is that your session should answer 5 questions that you need to articulate before you can submit. The five questions we came up with are these: Why isn’t our generation of Latinos considered exceptional? How do we become visible in the media landscape without being reduced to the lowest common …
Welcome Back to Public (Private) School
I went to Catholic school from K-12, so when Miss Thing started at our local public school last year, there were a number of things that didn’t really phase me that seem to give folks a lot of consternation. First, I don’t really worry about what teacher she is going to get. There was only ever one class at each grade for me from K-8, so there was no choice. Maybe I just haven’t been …
