Jim Miller is a political action vice president for American Federation of Teachers Local 1931. He teaches English and Labor Studies at San Diego City College.

The San Diego Nine Walk in the Footsteps of Martin Luther King

by Jim Miller

Jim Miller

The San Diego Nine picked the perfect week for a hunger strike.  They may not have known it, but the ghosts of Memphis were haunting the Mission Valley Hilton.  What’s the connection?

Last week was the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered in Memphis where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.  As I noted in my column for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January, the real MLK is frequently neglected in favor of a distorted picture of a vanilla saint who just wanted us all to get along.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

On The Road: Update from the March for California’s Future for the Week of March 8th

by Jim Miller

We are marching because we are witnessing the destruction of the California Dream. Our state ranks 47th in per pupil spending on education for K-12 and 45th for community colleges. Our CSU and UC systems, once affordable ladders to opportunity for the working and middle classes, are now increasingly unaffordable.

We are marching because of these grim realities, but the march, thus far, has been full of hope.