Texas Road Trip Photos, Jan 2014

Texas Road Trip, Jan 2014, a set on Flickr.

by Julia and Patrick

Josh Hoyt, Fighting the Good Fight the Chicago Way

Richard Mertens wrote an amazing piece about my Chicago History Book Club mate, Josh Hoyt. Josh has been fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised, both here in Chicago but also in Latin America, for his entire adult life. Most recently, he has been working on improving immigrant rights through community organizing. His main goal has been to unite the disparate groups across Chicago and Illinois so that they may speak to politicians & the electorate with one larger voice.

“We can’t have a democracy where 11 million people are frozen in third-class status and with their families vulnerable to being deported any moment,” he says. “We benefit from their work. They clean our floors, serve our tables, and yet we won’t invite them to the table of our democracy. The only way immigrants have become full members of our democracy is to fight to get to the table.” (emphasis mine)

Read the rest in University of Chicago Magazine
Illustration by Mark Bender

This is Gonna' Hurt The Green Party's Chances

According to the Sun-Times, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney's name is misspelled as "Rich Whitey" on touch-screen voting machines across the city. The error has appeared in 23 wards, about half of which are comprised predominately of African-Americans.

Chicago Board of Elections spokesman, Jim Allen, says there is not enough time to reprogram the machines by Nov. 2, which is, by the way, election day.

The latest polls at Rasmussen Reports say Whitney trails the two main party candidates and a former steroid user with 2% of the statewide vote.

Good Luck!