The Internet: A Tool for Democracy

I went to a fascinating lecture by Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, who served as a federal court interpreter at the May 2008 immigration raid in Postville, today.  After the raid, he wrote an essay about the human rights abuses he witnessed in Postville.  Though Dr. Camayd-Freixas initially shared the essay only with a small circle of family and friends, it quickly spread around the Internet and inspired an editorial in the New York Times.

(Image from flickr.com by pCka)
 


Here Dr. Camayd-Freixas talks to the New York Times about the Postville raid.





Dr. Camayd-Freixas made a comment that really caught my attention during the lecture; he said that his essay never would have gotten any attention if it hadn't gotten out on the Internet.  He went on to say that the Internet is now one of our greatest and most remarkable tools to preserving our democracy.

This really got me thinking--I use the Internet for social networking, for research, and for recreation, but I rarely think about it as a social justice tool.  Doing so could have a whole host of applications in the classroom.  Students could email their representatives about important issues, blog about the injustices they see in their own lives, learn more about the issues that impact their lives and their society. In reflecting on this, I hope I can incorporate ideas of civic engagement and free speech into the technologies my students will use on a daily basis.