Rachel Corrie was an American peace activist and a member of the International Solidarity Movement. She was killed in 2003 (at the age of 23), by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) armored bulldozer in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, during the height of the second Palestinian intifada.

After her death, Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner edited and directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie, based on Corrie’s diaries and e-mails home. The play was censored (put off stage) several times by some theaters. “Rachel Corrie lived in nobody’s pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard,” Rickman said then.

In his article for The Independent Robert Fisk wrote:

“An American heroine, Rachel earned no brownie points from the Bush administration which bangs on about courage…

Young Somali refugees living in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya (the world’s largest refugee camp, home to nearly 400,000 refugees) have sent letters of encouragement to Syrian refugee children who have also had to flee their homeland.

In their letters, they write to to their „brothers and sisters“ with great kindness, encouraging them in their hours, days, months of darkness, emphasizing the importance of education and studying.

Hibo Mahamed Dubow wrote:

„I am really encouraging you not to lose hope, you will get peace and stability. I am encouraging you, I personally , to go to school and learn, in future you can rebuild your country, you will get peace and no longer be a refugee…“

Dahir Mohamed wrote:

„Our beloved brothers and sisters, go and work hard in schools, be the stars and the new presidents of Syria.“

Abshir Hussein wrote:

„Don’t become hopeless, have less worry…

Metro Detroit Times has just published an extraordinary expose of the software-based curriculum that was imposed in 2012 in 12 Detroit, Michigan schools.  These were the bulk of schools in Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s new Education Achievement Authority (EAA), a state agency created to take over Michigan’s schools with the lowest test scores.  “In all, about 10,000 students—largely poor, predominantly African American, often lagging years behind in terms of academics—would be the test subjects.”

According to the report’s author, Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter with the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Snyder’s state school takeover was intended to originate with a number of low-scoring schools in Detroit and then take over so-called failing schools across the state; however, the legislation to expand the Education Achievement Authority beyond Detroit never passed in the legislature.  Snyder is known to have modeled his idea on the Louisiana Recovery School District, that took…

Susan Sadlowski Garza talks to her neighbors at last night’s meet-and-greet in the 10th Ward.

I took a drive to the 10th Ward last night.

I could have taken the Dan Ryan to the Skyway and gotten off just before Indiana.

But I took my old route. South Lakeshore Drive and then followed US41 through the east side to South Chicago.

I drove past the what used to be U.S. Steel’s South Works.

Back in the 70s I worked in the 96″ plate mill.

11,000 steelworkers once had jobs in the various mills that made up South Works.

It’s empty land now. Just prairie.

There is talk of condo development. That talk has been going on for years.

I drove to 108th and Avenue J where there was a meet-and-greet for Susan Sadlowski Garza. Susan is running for 10th Ward Alderman.

She is a school counselor and a south side leader…