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This week Roderick Thomas talks about the challenges his family faces in White Horse, New Mexico and Joyce Cook shares a victory from Richmond, California.

RODERICK THOMAS



Roderick Lifecasts about family struggles, and using his writing as a release from stress.

If you didn't see last week's post you can find out more about Roderick in this short video, and visit the New America Media site for even more of Roderick's story.

Journalist Holly Watt reported last week in a Washington Post article about the Navajo Nation's fight to keep its internet access from being shut down due to a contract dispute with a satellite company:

"The tribe of about 250,000 people already has lost Internet service to libraries and community centers known as "chapter houses," and has little access to cellphone service on a reservation that stretches across parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Most Internet access there is provided via satellite, which is due to be shut off. Much of the Navajo Nation is inaccessible to land lines." The loss of satellite service threatens not just the many students taking online classes and the daily communication that most of us take for granted, but access to emergency services as well.

One resident said that without satellite service the nearest place for most people to access the Internet is "about 60 miles away."

While it looks like a crisis has been held off by last minute intervention by the FCC, the situation highlights some of the problems faced by remote rural communities, including the difficulty of communicating your experience and your needs when access to the outside world is so limited and tenuous.

JOYCE COOK



Meanwhile, from Richmond, California, Joyce shares a victory in her work to create change in the California youth prison system.

Click here to find out more about Joyce and read her past posts.

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