I have seen the enemy, the enemy is not a homeless mother

Let's keep truth simple, a homeless mother should not go to jail for trying to get her child a better education in a public school system rooted in inequality.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are." 
Is this the America we want? An America where schools are places where the quality of a child's education depends on their zip code? Tanya McDowell is not a criminal she is a mother trying to beat a system that is rooted in inequality. The people are tired of education reforms based on competitions, lotteries, and zip codes. I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is not the homeless, but a system that goes after a homeless mother. 

I have seen the enemy,

Tanya McDowell is not the enemy,

Parents are not the enemy,

Children are not the enemy,

Teachers are not the enemy,

The enemy is education reform that reduces children to data,

The enemy is education reform that shames teachers,

The enemy is education reform that claims equity is a lottery,

The enemy is education reform that closes schools rather than supports them,

The enemy steals from the poor to give to the rich,

The enemy promises hope by making schools compete,

I walked against the enemy,

I marched against the enemy,

I will conduct Teach-Ins in Selma Alabama this coming Saturday at the Selma Jubilee, 

I am holding a Save Our Schools Town Hall meeting in Connecticut this March 31,

I will occupy the DOE in DC that house of the enemy on April 1 & 2,

The enemy is not homeless American mothers,

The enemy is the 1% who believe public education is a competition, not a system rooted in equality.

Still marching,

Jesse 

You can read Savy Sister's blog telling it through her tears in the link below:

http://www.the-savvy-sista.com/2012/02/tanya-mcdowell-sentenced-to-12-years.html

If you are wondering what the walking man is listening to on his walk this morning it's I hear them all by Old Crow Medicine Show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD3jsS-sL1Q