Just a couple of random thoughts tonight:

First, I'm busier than I've been in I don't know how long. There is literally not a minute in the day that I'm not working, coaching, parenting, or studying for my class. It's really getting to me. I don't see it slowing down for the next two or three weeks, and they blocked blogs at school, so it may be a little slow for a while.

There's a good chance I'll be heading to Guatemala in the beginning of April to work with 200 high school teachers on implementing a curriculum I and some others developed a few years ago. I'm really looking forward to that, but trying not to get my hopes up too much in case it doesn't work out.

Sojourner's doesn't realize that when they break the law, no matter their intentions, the US Gov will not be happy:

The 25 members of Witness Against Torture returned from their vigil at Guantanamo on Sunday night, Dec. 18, and were not given a very warm welcome by Homeland Security agents. The group of Christian peace activists had walked 50 miles from Santiago, Cuba, to the gates of the controversial American detention center at Guantanamo Bay to set up a vigil and encampment at the closest point they could reach to the prisoners held there. "After repeated appeals to the White House and the Guantanamo base commander," said Art Laffin, vigil participant and Catholic Worker member from Washington, D.C., "we were denied an opportunity to perform a simple work of mercy - to visit the prisoners." On Thursday the vigil participants ended a three-day water-only fast with a liturgy at the Glorieta Cuban military checkpoint, about 10 miles from the tortured prisoners. On Sunday they headed back to the United States.

However, 14 of those who flew via the Domincan Republic and landed at Newark Airport were met by U.S. agents lacking Christmas cheer. The Witness Against Torture members were interrogated by Homeland Security and U.S. Customs agents. "We had to fill out a special Cuba form explaining why we went to Cuba without a license and what we did," said Laffin. This information, they were told, will be turned over to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a division of the Treasury Department that deals with people who travel to Cuba without a government license. The office is the government agency that recently fined Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for taking medicine and medical supplies to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions laws. "It remains to be seen what will happen," continued Laffin. "We give thanks to God for what we were able to do and pray that God will now guide us in the next steps we take on behalf of the Guantanamo prisoners."

Obviously there is a balance here, but they are then the same people who expect the government to bail them out when they get kidnapped in these dangerous places. There are proper channels to go through. On the Cuba issue, I read a book two years ago called "Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag" which really left an impression on me in regard to Cuba. They may put on a good face, but it's ugly over there.