Maria Elena Salinas

Destino 2008 : Univision's Democratic Presidential Forum

I am opening a chat session and I will also be liveblogging Univisión's Presidential Forum. This is going to be incredibly interesting since the forum will be conducted in English.

LIVEBLOGGING
María Elena Salinas' first question seems odd : Is it a political risk to appear in this forum. This is an obvious jab at all the republicans that have refused to appear before a latino audience.

Jorge Ramos asks Kucinich, Dodd and Richardson if they would support making Spanish the second official language of the United States. Richardson used the opportunity for ragging on Univision for not allowing him and the other Spanish-speaking candidates to do so.

Kucinich has gotten the most applause with his answer about ending the war in Iraq.

I can't believe they went there : Salina's has asked why build a wall on the Mexican border and not build one with on the border of Canada?

More than two thousand questions were polled at Univision and about 70% of the questions were about immigration; which is why more than half of the forum is focused on immigration.

Now that last part of the forums is focused on America Latina ---please notice they didn't say 'hispanic' america.

Another incredibly interesting question : Do you believe Hugo Chavez is a dictator?

What do you think is going to happen in a Cuba without Castro and what would you do to aid that transition.

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Famously opposed educators come together:

"Our macro-level differences do not interfere with our mutual respect for each otherâ€™s work.
That itself is something we hope our schools can help teach young people.

Our differences helped us consider ways to rethink our ideas and find places where those holding different views might compromise, and perhaps learn to live under one umbrella.

What we hope to model is the idea of democratic engagement, the notion that citizens need to think about and debate their beliefs and values with others who do not necessarily share all of them.

We want the issues connected to schooling to be a matter for discussion among all people who care.

We donâ€™t have it in our power to solve the problems that confront American educationâ€”not those that take place within the schoolhouse, much less those that have a direct impact on childrenâ€™s ability to learn, such as their unequal access to health care, housing, and myriad other life necessities.

But we hope that we have it in our power to provoke the thinking that must precede, accompany, and follow any attempt to reformâ€”perhaps, even better, to transformâ€”our schools."

— Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch May 24, 2006 commentary in EDUCATION WEEK