A nonpartisan (and, at least theoretically, apolitical) event, by request.
My essay in Tuesday night's Top Comments: Little Katrinas was a brief sketch of Shannon County, South Dakota, which is part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota Nation. To recap: Shannon County is frequently the poorest county in the nation, and is currently the second poorest, and is still in many ways recovering from the impact of a 1999 series of tornadoes.
I also mentioned Loneman School in Oglala, where Nikki Pipe On Head estimates as many as half of their students qualify as homeless due to the dilapidated state of their homes.
In that diary and comments, I hinted at the topic for tonight, the efforts of one group of South Dakotans (and friends from around the country) to make a difference for Loneman School: the simple, but ever-worthwhile book drive.
Below the fold there's more, just like it says on the tin.
From the the University of South Dakota chapter of AECT:
The University of South Dakota student chapter of the Northern Plains Association for Educational Communications and Technology is sponsoring a book drive for the Loneman School District in Oglala, SD on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The students are exploring Internet-based communications such as blogs, Facebook and Second Life for Community Service Programs.
Loneman serves about 335 children from pre-K through 8th grades. The school is working hard to increase language arts scores in all grade levels. Our goal is to fill the libraries and send at least one book home with each child for the summer break. New and used book donations are welcome. Oglala is in Shannon County and is part of the Lakota Nation. All students are Native American. The district has Median Household Income $17,368 with an average of 4.8 persons per household. The Prior HHS Poverty Guidelines and Federal Register References lists the poverty threshold for a family of four at US $20,444.
I was delighted to pitch in on this project when NPAECT asked me to promote their book drive on Daily Kos, though we agreed that it was in the best interests of NPAECT and both schools that our presentation of it be nonpartisan. Nikki Pipe On Head, who lives and works there, can tell you about the school and its community better than I could:
The Loneman School is a BIA 10297 Grant School, governed by a local school board of community members. The school board consists of six members, representing the communities in Whiteclay District. Loneman School is accredited through North Central Association and the State of South Dakota. The school is located in Oglala, South Dakota, a geographically-isolated rural area on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwestern South Dakota. Ninety-nine percent of the students enrolled at and served by the school are members of the Oglala Lakota Nation. The Oglala Sioux Tribal members are descendants of the Tetonwan Division of the Great Sioux Nation. According to the 2000 Census Bureau the population of the Lakota/Dakota/Sioux had almost doubled in 10 years to 168,000 members. Loneman School is located in the Whiteclay District , but also serves students who reside in other districts located throughout the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Reservation encompasses an 11,000 square miles, and is larger than Connecticut and Delaware, combined. Over 40,000 people live on this terrain of rolling hills, woodlands, river valleys and creeks that dominated the reservation. The nearest city with any type of major services or activities is Rapid City, South Dakota, which is 80 miles North of Oglala, South Dakota.
Even though they only recently put up their website for the book drive, NPAECT reports that the books are already flowing in. In the comments for Tuesday's diary, some folks asked what kinds of books to send, and where. The fact of the matter is that any age-appropriate, educational book would be of value to a school faced with Loneman's challenges. Check after the weekend at the NPAECT link given above for updates on specific books that may be wanted, but here's a sampling of the specific books they're looking for:
A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O’Neil Grace
Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac
Baby Coyote Counts by Te Ata
Bright Path: Young Jim Thorpe by Don Brown
The Boy Who Made The Dragon Fly by Tony Hillerman
How the Morning & Evening Stars Came To Be by Jerome Fourster
Native American Games & Stories by James Bruchac
Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story by Laura Evert
And if there are any books you want to recommend be added to the want list, send an email to the address provided on the NPAECT web page.
Being an historian's son, my pet idea, if enough people are interested in it, is to try to provide Loneman with as many volumes as we can of the Indians of North America series from Chelsea House. The original series of about 60 books was published in the 1980s and 1990s, and is actually a fairly remarkable accomplishment. While the series was designed, written, and edited with an 8th-grade audience in mind, the quality of the scholarship behind the books is such that some of them have been used in college history and Indian studies courses. In 2005, Chelsea House began to update the original volumes of the series, publishing them as the Heritage Edition, of which 12 revised volumes have been published.
I can't figure out how to successfully live-link search results from the Library of Congress Online Catalog, but you can bring up what I assume is a fairly comprehesive list of titles in the series by doing a Series/Unified Title Browse for Indians of North America (Chelsea House Publishers). Where you buy any books you want to contribute is entirely up to you, but for the sake of convenience, here's a Google Products search result for the series.
While any books we send will surely be put to good use, I can think of few resources that might be more valuable to Loneman's library than this accessible, scholarly, and extensive series on Native American history and culture.
Books may be sent directly to:
Loneman School
USD NPAECT Book Drive
ATTN: Nikki Pipe on Head
PO Box 50
South BIA Highway 41
Oglala, SD 57764
Donations may be sent, by check payable to NPAECT, to:
NPAECT
Elizabeth Simmons
Curriculum and Instruction
University of South Dakota
414 E Clark
Vermillion, SD 57069
NPAECT also welcomes the participation of Jackson Street Books of Seattle, Washington. And, since apparently it's not a Progressive Witness diary unless I mention Second Life at least once, Jackson Street Books can also be found in-world here. They are collecting books for the drive, and you can order from them as well, and they'll send them to Loneman.
Well, thanks for listening to our pitch, but I know what you're really here for: pithy, clever Kossack musings!
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Nominations received in our TopComments AT gmail.com account - send your nominations each evening before 9:30 eastern and don't forget to include your UID!
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From dconrad:
pullbackthecurtain has the solution to foreign powers arming Iraqi insurgents, in baltogeek's diary.
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terrypinder waxes downright rhapsodic:
Bubbanomics is my hero.
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revbludge contributes:
TrueBlueMajority gives a well-thought-out list of rational concerns about a certain candidate in Keith Olbermann's Manchurian Candidates and Fox diary.
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From the vortex of Kos, vertexoflife recovered:
This comment thread discusses how the mojo pie is handed out, and is a hilarious must-read for any kossack-kommenter.
This comment in particular struggles with some of the issues that diaries face.
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My picks for tonight:
Ever since I discovered Question Time on CSPAN a couple of decades ago, I've been a complete geek about the British political system. So may I just say we don't see nearly enough diaries about the political wranglings of our one-time Colonial overlords? So I was especially grateful for expatyank's Breaking: Labour Party trounced in UK elections, which spawned a number of worthwhile discussions in the comments. One was a review of the historical currents that led to the rise of New Labour, and began with Kab ibn al Ashraf's The demise of the Labour Party goes back to.
MD Blue Crab didn't understand why British voters would reject pro-war Labour by turning to the Tories, understandably, on which question both expatyank and Darkmind shed some ellumination.
But really, just read the whole diary and comments thread. It's a good 'un.
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TOP MOJO courtesy of brillig, who in addition to being brillig, can actually teach others her Mojo Hero superpowers! Thanks, friend!
Top Mojo - excluding search-identifiable tip jars and first diary comments (top 30 of each plus ties):
1) Cannot post there any longer. by Bob Johnson — 123
2) Said it before, and I'll keep saying it by Muzikal203 — 106
3) time for the Supers to stampede for Obama by MD patriot — 95
4) What's worse is she's FOR the oil companies by HKHeadhunter — 95
5) I'm reccing this... by mayan — 93
6) But It Isn't Dislike of HER by Keith Olbermann — 88
7) Typical Clinton triangulation by ra in ca — 85
8) Countdown is the absolute best political show. by Seele — 83
9) No not Kantor by soms — 81
10) Please Rejoin Us Here In 2008 by Keith Olbermann — 80
11) Covering a story that might hurt Clinton by billssha — 79
12) I beg to differ by droogie6655321 — 78
13) Ugh by jenontheshore — 76
14) I love your having Ms. Maddow on. by nowheredesign — 71
15) IIRC, Obama was a "Dean Dozen" originally! by Blue Waters Run Deep — 71
16) Can we do a Coast-to-Coast Pizza Run for Obama? by Blue Waters Run Deep — 70
17) I hesitated on this as well. I wrote this by Robinswing — 63
18) He's not disputing that part by RFK Lives — 61
19) And imagine that it comes right on the heels by RadioGirl — 61
20) I used to really like Ann Curry by Saska — 60
21) Whew. . . by IndyScott — 59
22) Not a good idea by KingGeorgetheTurd — 59
23) The fact he came out and denied it by Osaka — 58
24) Clinton knows by kid oakland — 58
25) Anything about Barack, good or Bad is going by Muzikal203 — 58
26) I've always thought that blaming ... by Meteor Blades — 58
27) tonight - the Kantor...??? by voila — 57
28) Already diaried. by jay w — 56
29) After Hillary's attack on Congress by Mikecan1978 — 54
30) Good to read you, Keith. by Phil N DeBlanc — 54
31) I am broke but with you. by Pager — 54
Top 30 (including ties) with no exclusions:
[Diarist's note: somebody, and I'm not going to say who, has, shall we say, a dramatic advantage in this list tonight. Yes, I'm looking at you, Mister Teevee Personality.]
1) OK, Tipiolas by Keith Olbermann — 1105
2) Tips by Sun dog — 582
3) Tips for uncovering the truth by davidkc — 460
4) tips for our kick-ass next First Lady! by carpediva — 458
5) Tip jar by ILPundit — 427
6) Tip Jar? by PLS — 326
7) Tips. by MBNYC — 305
8) Tipping allowed by GregMitch — 265
9) I just dropped $100 bucks by Granny Doc — 265
10) Tips/Recs by Hope08 — 223
11) Of course this gives us our own opening by eugene — 221
12) Mad yet? by nyceve — 213
13) Tips for Activists by second gen — 205
14) Tips or Flames by astral66 — 183
15) Tips by turneresq — 142
16) Mojo Mug by TexDem — 126
17) Cannot post there any longer. by Bob Johnson — 123
18) The lounge is open by TexDem — 117
19) Friday Tip Jar: by Bill in Portland Maine — 113
20) I'll have my usual, barkeep! by whytwolf — 106
21) Said it before, and I'll keep saying it by Muzikal203 — 106
22) did you rec this diary? by jlms qkw — 98
23) Make mine a double by CCSDem — 98
24) Thanks for coming by TexDem — 97
25) Mojo Friday wants you by TexDem — 97
26) What's worse is she's FOR the oil companies by HKHeadhunter — 95
27) time for the Supers to stampede for Obama by MD patriot — 95
28) Congrats and mojo to all! by blue jersey mom — 94
29) I'm reccing this... by mayan — 93
30) Happy Anniversary to TexDem by Fortschreitend — 93
31) Diary Pimpin at its best! by Timroff — 93
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Going out to Prairies, the Highlands, the Lowlands, and all the ships at sea,
Progressive Witness