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The Other Civil Rights Movement

I watched a movie tonight on HBO. What originally interested me in this movie was the fact that Michael Pena starred in it. Since his excellent role in Crash, I knew he would be an actor to look out for in more starring roles in the future. The movie I watched tonight was called Walkout. It is the story of a teacher (Pena) mentoring Chicano high school students protesting injustices in the East L.A. public schools in 1968 which led to a series of walkouts. To say the least, the movie was excellent. The first 5 minutes of the film brought up some great points about history.

The 1968 classroom headed by Sal Castro (Pena) questioned where Chicano history was in the textbooks. Almost 40 years later, one must still wonder where it is. Rarely do you read about the Chicano civil rights movement in history texts, the same movement that spread across the country and help raise Chicano college enrollment from 2% to 25% over the few years following the High School walkouts and also helped stop the injustices and help make Chicano schools more equal. Edward James Olmos did this story great justice with his direction and production of this movie allowing millions to see and experience a Civil Rights movement that many never knew existed. I implore anyone who is interested in history, civil rights, and more importantly, human rights, to watch this movie.

Quick Update

Nothing much to really write about, or at least write a whole post about, so I figure I’d throw up some random happenings in my life.

I’m subbing a fair amount at Fort Zumwalt. It’s kind of odd seeing the younger siblings of some of my friends in my classes, but what can you do. I should be getting my first paycheck from subbing sometime over the next couple of days. It won’t be for much as I came in at the end of a pay period. It will still be nice to have a check to deposit though.

My dad did my taxes today and I will be getting a combined amount of around $300 back from state and federal. I won’t be spending this because student loan payments will kick in sometime in June. Well, that’s it for now. Nothing spectacular, I know, but I felt I was neglecting my blogging duties.

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The Blueberry Story

This story is a bit old. I first heard it while student teaching in Troy as told to my Contemporary Issues class by my cooperating teacher. It is an excellent story about trying to run the education system as a business. Why post it now? Well, #wordpress was in one of it’s several hour long political discussions and many things came up. This time I didn’t participate, probably because politics bores me right now. I did offer this story though. It’s a good read.

“If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business very long!”

I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of inservice. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife. Read more

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Repost: The Game

Baseball is just around the corner, so I thought I’d repost this short tribute to the game I wrote a year ago for those who might not have caught it the first time around.

The time is approaching. You can hear it swimming through the air. Closer and closer. You hear a crack. A sound so familiar, but you can’t quite figure out where you’ve heard it before. Read more

The Wedding

I had a great time at the wedding. It was really fun, except for the 3 hours of picture taking with odd poses. About 15 minutes before the reception, the Maid of Honor Angela and I found out we had the exact same toast. We decided to combine our toasts. I think it went well. Of course, there was no topping Anna’s dad’s toast. His was excellent. The night was fairly painless. I danced a couple times. Slow dances are easy, but fast songs and a white boy with no rhythm don’t play well together. Sorry Angela (and all the friends’ girlfriends I made dance with me during that excruciatingly long song). Blame the DJ for that. All I can say is thankfully there was an open bar. Pictures will hopefully be up within the next few weeks as they come in from various people. Stay tuned.

EDIT: here are the first of the pictures: wedding photos