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Freedom Elementary School honors UFW activists

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By Donna Jones

djones@santacruzsentinel.com @DonnaJonesSCS on Twitter

Freedom School kindergarten teacher Lola Martin-Atilano leads the school's students in a rally commemorating Cesar Chavez on Friday, as she has done for the past 15 years. Ines Marines and Jose Martin were also honored as 'living legends' of the early United Farm Workers movement. (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Watsonville >> For the past 15 years, Freedom Elementary School has honored Cesar Chavez by recognizing one of its own teachers for performing an community service.

Friday, for the first time, the school reached into the community to honor Ines Marines and Jose Martin, field workers who were active in an historic lettuce strike led by the United Farm Workers in the Salinas and Pajaro valleys.

Also honored at the assembly was kindergarten teacher Lola Martin-Atilano, the daughter of Martin.

"At Freedom School, we know about Cesar Chavez and all the work he did for us," said Principal Gloria Pulga, standing on a stage bedecked with handmade red and black UFW flags. "(Martin-Atilano) actually knew Cesar Chavez. She walked with Cesar Chavez. She is one of our role models here at Freedom Elementary School."

Honored as one of the 'living legends' of the early United Farm Workers movement, Ines Marines tells Freedom School students Friday about his early days in the fields, working for a foreman he called 'El Diablo.' (Dan Coyro -- Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Nearly all Freedom's students come from low-income, Latino families. Many parents work in the fields.

Martin-Atilano said she was a child when she marched alongside family members and Chavez, and at the time didn't fully comprehend the significance of the actions.

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Freedom Elementary School honors UFW activists

Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are the big draws at the Freedom Summit

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"Are you kidding me?"

When you ask the New Hampshire residents attending the inaugural Freedom Summit why they're here, there is a 98 percent chance this is the first thing that will come out of their mouth, followed up with a reverent recitation of the people that drew more than 700 people to a hotel conference center in Manchester on a sunny Saturday morning.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks at a GOP Freedom Summit in Manchester, N.H. (Jim Cole/ AP)

There's Ted Cruz, whoJean Ferreira, 55, was most excited to see at the event which is organized by Americans for Prosperity, a group best known for the people who started it, the Koch brothers, and Citizens United, now synonymous with the Supreme Court decision that led to super PACs and the expansion of corporate political spending.

Ferreira was wearing a "Truth Has No Agenda" T-shirt, but she had another in her bag that read, "I Cruz With Ted." "I'm praying he'll sign it," she said.

Ray Shakir, who is 65 and can now qualify for what he deems "socialist security" was also looking forward to Cruz. Shakirvoted for Newt Gingrich in 2012, but he thinks Cruz is "the strong, aggressive conservative we need today. He has the hmm, how should I put this. Thecojones."

Shakir is a well-known Republican activist in New Hampshire, who hosted a fundraiser for former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty in 2011. He writes letters to Conway Daily Sun frequently aboutBorat Hussein OBummer," "O'Bummercare" and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who he calls "Osama's Dream Girl."

Rand Paul was the other person highly anticipated by the people attending the conference. Spec Bowers, a former New Hampshire state representative (and future one, he hopes), likes the junior senator from Kentucky. He voted for Ron Paul "about 30 years ago," but didn't in 2012. "I didn't think he could be elected."

The conference marks Lauren Rumpler's first day on the job as a field coordinator with Americans for Prosperity in New Hampshire. Rumpler, who is 25 and also runs the YouTube channel "Objectivist Girl," likes Rand Paul and his father quite a bit. Ted Cruz, not so much."He's all right, but I'm a libertarian," she said. "I'm more of an anarchist, really." Rumpler moved to New Hampshire from Ohio to join the Free Stater movement, another reason she supports the Paul family.

There is a far longer list of people who spoke at the Freedom Summit. There are former presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and Donald Trump, all people who have expressed interest or have ended up on lists of possible 2016 presidential candidates.

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Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are the big draws at the Freedom Summit

20 Years After Genocide, Rwanda Prospers but Political Freedom Remains Elusive – Video

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20 Years After Genocide, Rwanda Prospers but Political Freedom Remains Elusive
Rwanda is a country on the move, having rebuilt from the 1994 genocide that divided the nation and left an estimated 800000 people dead. But as VOA #39;s Gabe J...

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20 Years After Genocide, Rwanda Prospers but Political Freedom Remains Elusive - Video

End of ICANN contract puts Internet freedom at risk, critics say

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The freedom and openness of the Internet are at stake after the U.S. government announced plans to end its contractual oversight of ICANN, some critics said Thursday.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administrations announcement last month that it will end its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to operate key domain-name functions could embolden other nations to attempt to seize control, some Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee said.

All hyperbole aside, this hearing is about nothing less than the future of the Internet and, significantly, who has the right, the ability and the authority to determine it, said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican. Should it be decided by a few people in Washington, Beijing, Moscow, Sao Paolo or even Silicon Valley or should it be determined by those who use and stand to benefit from it?

Goodlatte suggested that other countries would try to control ICANN after the U.S. ends its contract. The U.S. can rightly take credit for the freedom that exists the Internet today, he said during a hearing. When we let go of that final link, will that institution be safer from those efforts to regulate the Internet, or will it be more exposed because it no longer has the protection of the United States?

The Internet engineers, companies and civil society groups involved in ICANN wouldnt allow a government takeover of the organization, supporters of the NTIAs plan said. I cannot imagine the Internet engineers that I know agreeing to do any of the parade of horribles that people are concerned about, said Representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat.

Separately, the technology subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Thursday to approve the Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act, which would require a U.S. Government Accountability Office study about the effects of the transition before it happens. Members of that committee raised similar concerns in a hearing last week.

President Barack Obamas administration opposes the bill because it raises questions about the U.S. governments long-term support of a multistakeholder governance model at ICANN, said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling.

Strickling assured Judiciary Committee members that the agency would not give up oversight of ICANN unless it is satisfied that the organization has a transition plan in place that prohibits a government takeover.

Several Republicans committee members questioned NTIAs move to end its contractual relationship with ICANN as soon as late 2015, but Strickling defended the plan, saying one of the main reasons for the change is to remove the perception in some countries that the U.S. has too much control.

While the NTIAs contract for ICANN to operate the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions is largely symbolic, the move would show the world that the U.S. supports a multistakeholder governance model at ICANN that it has advocated since 1998, Strickling said.

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End of ICANN contract puts Internet freedom at risk, critics say


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