Roughly three hundred homeless students will start a new school year in Saint Cloud, and almost seventy in Sauk Rapids-Rice.
Local organizations such as Anna Marie's Alliance are providing all the support they can for children and teens in the shelters. It is extremely difficult for homeless kids in shelters to keep up with school, as shelters only allow families to stay for 30-45 days at a time. Anna Marie's Alliance has recruited tutors for the homeless children, and a fleet of five iPads so that students can stay connected with assignments and instruction through online learning and educational apps.
Even among the college set, some students couch surf and live out of their cars while they get an education. Their families might have kicked them out, they might have run away from home, or they simply have no family in the area and nowhere to stay while they go to college.
In Minnesota, ten percent of the population does not know where their next meal is coming from. Children make up forty percent of the hungry population. School becomes attractive to hungry kids, because they can receive at least one free meal there. Stearns and Sherburne Counties have more than the average number of hungry people in the state; many will be students.
For anyone who works in a school, the kindest thing to do is bring food for the kids. Any type of food will do. As Minnesota has also revamped its cafeteria menus to provide "healthier" lunches, all students will be eating less. Our hungry students will not make it through the winter without your help.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
What No One Is Talking About
Voter turnout in the 2012 Minnesota primary election was the lowest in over 60 years.
Only 8% of the state voted. People are either happy with the status quo, are resigned to the status quo, or...seriously...they did not get a reminder postcard from their local board of elections, or a booklet of some kind about the candidates. Not only that, but candidates were not campaigning as hard this year as they had in previous years.
Only 8% of the state voted. People are either happy with the status quo, are resigned to the status quo, or...seriously...they did not get a reminder postcard from their local board of elections, or a booklet of some kind about the candidates. Not only that, but candidates were not campaigning as hard this year as they had in previous years.
Friday, August 10, 2012
One Perspective
For centuries, European countries have existed as unique, individual entities. Each country had prejudice against the others, during times of war and peace alike. Each country had prejudices against common minorities as well.
In the twenty-first century, despite the financial problems caused by Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, the western nations of the European Union seem to function like a close-knit team. They have committed to some loft goals in terms of human rights, particularly in the area of LGBT individuals. The Council of Europe has recognized that LGBT people contribute to national culture, and that by 2020 all cultural heritage institutions in the European Union will have LGBT resources. The European Union has gone so far as to say that "homophobia will not be tolerated in the EU", and it is beginning to enforce anti-discrimination laws in its new central and eastern European member states. Prominent European sports figures have even made pro-LGBT statements on television, with the hope of taming any homophobic sentiments in their rowdy fans.
At the same time, in everyday conversations, ordinary EU citizens make it plain on who does not belong. They are fast to say that the Muslims do not support gay pride, which quickly translates to Muslims are the problem in the EU, even though . They are also chilly toward any mention of Serbians, Russians, and Ukrainians. "The Ukraine will never be a part of the EU," a man from Ireland told me, even though my question to him was how to help two gay Ukrainian men find funding for their magazine, the only gay magazine in the Ukraine. The privileged educated elite also have no sense of charity or reaching out to the working class and poor. There is no sense of LGBT brotherhood/sisterhood that transcends class or educational status. It is a very different movement than in the United States.
I have returned from two weeks in Amsterdam, which is one of the most multicultural, international cities in Europe. During that time I have spoken with native Amsterdammers, as well as people from other EU countries during an international conference for LGBT librarians, archivists, and museum curators. I was shocked to find that their concept of support for LGBT rights did not extend past their borders. In an increasingly wired world, where only laws prohibit us from making all LGBT books available digitally for everyone around the world, this attitude must change. Social justice is a global movement, not limited to a privileged few.
The motto of the European Union is "United in Diversity". But how is it so when EU countries continue to ban headscarves, veils, and other religious clothing and jewelry, when EU countries ban kosher and halal slaughter, and when EU countries continue to evict and forcibly relocate their Roma populations? If homophobia has no place in the EU, then what about all of the other phobias?
In the United States, we have our problems. We are far from a perfect country, and perhaps we are a little less educated than the European Union. But we admit our faults. We know too well our history and present state of racism, religious discrimination, and homophobia/transphobia. We make fewer grand national statements, but make greater, more permanent improvements in civil rights through national discussion as well as legislation. We know that there will always be those who will not agree...and we know that, as long as they harm no one, we are OK if they do not agree.
In the twenty-first century, despite the financial problems caused by Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, the western nations of the European Union seem to function like a close-knit team. They have committed to some loft goals in terms of human rights, particularly in the area of LGBT individuals. The Council of Europe has recognized that LGBT people contribute to national culture, and that by 2020 all cultural heritage institutions in the European Union will have LGBT resources. The European Union has gone so far as to say that "homophobia will not be tolerated in the EU", and it is beginning to enforce anti-discrimination laws in its new central and eastern European member states. Prominent European sports figures have even made pro-LGBT statements on television, with the hope of taming any homophobic sentiments in their rowdy fans.
At the same time, in everyday conversations, ordinary EU citizens make it plain on who does not belong. They are fast to say that the Muslims do not support gay pride, which quickly translates to Muslims are the problem in the EU, even though . They are also chilly toward any mention of Serbians, Russians, and Ukrainians. "The Ukraine will never be a part of the EU," a man from Ireland told me, even though my question to him was how to help two gay Ukrainian men find funding for their magazine, the only gay magazine in the Ukraine. The privileged educated elite also have no sense of charity or reaching out to the working class and poor. There is no sense of LGBT brotherhood/sisterhood that transcends class or educational status. It is a very different movement than in the United States.
I have returned from two weeks in Amsterdam, which is one of the most multicultural, international cities in Europe. During that time I have spoken with native Amsterdammers, as well as people from other EU countries during an international conference for LGBT librarians, archivists, and museum curators. I was shocked to find that their concept of support for LGBT rights did not extend past their borders. In an increasingly wired world, where only laws prohibit us from making all LGBT books available digitally for everyone around the world, this attitude must change. Social justice is a global movement, not limited to a privileged few.
The motto of the European Union is "United in Diversity". But how is it so when EU countries continue to ban headscarves, veils, and other religious clothing and jewelry, when EU countries ban kosher and halal slaughter, and when EU countries continue to evict and forcibly relocate their Roma populations? If homophobia has no place in the EU, then what about all of the other phobias?
In the United States, we have our problems. We are far from a perfect country, and perhaps we are a little less educated than the European Union. But we admit our faults. We know too well our history and present state of racism, religious discrimination, and homophobia/transphobia. We make fewer grand national statements, but make greater, more permanent improvements in civil rights through national discussion as well as legislation. We know that there will always be those who will not agree...and we know that, as long as they harm no one, we are OK if they do not agree.
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