We are marching!

I am inspired by this image of Sisters Ceresta Smith and Morna McDemott walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. This bridge is sacred ground in the Civil Rights movement. That bridge where Civil Rights marchers dared to march across a bridge for the right to vote. That sacred place where marchers were met with force, violence, and death on a Sunday. In Civil Rights history it is recorded as Sunday Bloody Sunday. That bridge where marchers have celebrated that march for 49 years. Ceresta and Morna are walking across that bridge to join the marchers. My heroes have always been marchers. We are on the march again readers. Listen well for the drum as we come your way.

Good morning readers, I walked up the Avon Mountain in Connecticut this morning. It's about a two hour walk, and it is a bit chilly in the morning, but once you reach the top the sun is up, and you can't help feeling warm and inspired. I greeted the sun in prayer, and I found myself more determined, more committed, with a heart full of grace ready to fight for America's children, parents, teachers, and public schools. Dr. Martin Luther King said:

"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. “

Save Our Schools is going back to our nation's capital to tell it on the mountain one more time. We will ring it out loud and clear; our children are more than test scores.  I am on their National Steering Committee, and SOS has decided to put it all on the table. To go to the mountain one more time. We are going to hold a Save Our Schools “Education Convention: A People’s Policy and Activism Summit.  Democracy is a series of actions. Democracy is something more than political parties, more than elections; democracy is rooted in a people willing to act. Is that not the dream our founding fathers hoped for when they stood against a mad king, and the world's most powerful nation the British Empire? Their dream was of a people acting together standing up to tyrants, and fighting for what is right, and just, and we follow in their footsteps.

Watch out Secretary Status Quo Duncan the Walking Man and his friends are coming back to DC. We are on a mission to take back our schools from those NCLB/RTTT moneychangers. We are on a mission, and we can and are taking back our public schools. You don't stand a chance Secretary Duncan. 

You don’t stand a chance Hedge Fund Billionaires.

You don’t stand a chance ALEC.
You don’t stand a chance you Pearson’s Common Core believers.
You don’t stand a chance you data managers.

The people are coming!

Now no one said the right to do is easy, on the contrary the right to do is never easy. It means rejecting silence, it means rejecting apathy, it means marching when everyone else falls.

We rise today ready to serve. We have great work to do, and America's children, parents, and teachers have placed their faith in people willing to do the right thing in the face of incredible odds. Trust the Walking Man when he tells you many have placed their faith in us. There is not a day that goes by without some parent, or some teacher saying thank you, and their thank you(s) are always about the work and hope that will make our schools more than testing factories.  So the mission remains we are going to make history in DC this summer, and we are going to save our schools, because it is the right thing to do, and we will do so with hearts full of grace and love. People I will need your help in this struggle in the coming months. I have placed my faith in a group of people that have always said walk Walking Man walk for our schools, walk for children, parents, and teachers. So listen for the sound of the drum, Children Are More Than Test Scores and Opt Out are on the march to DC with Save Our Schools.

Dedicated to Sisters Ceresta and Morna my fellow marchers on the road to DC.

Sincerely,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

For information on The People Education Convention check out http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=hcmjeneab&v=001JFE3cRrg5TI6rlCMoLYhxBEeerOw0iQNf5-2ye2AfsoVr_O3F50AdxGHaX-F3rkes6gs4VJONfdG04RVjQ1QjYRBcQpZQ6pkOh6EW_4br8NtL5DmrWMgCv3XpwVUMhVNU0gWUhKi8PaJZf1ZZ-FGg0mgTc_FPcU25Yu39sgJoeULybm4Ilfs-AAevEnQguyVuzALHMz5DpDeOlreS6yvzn0RYra_Q91eR8zrvs9dsYqwqO6rEFCTe5MOGcBC9as6

And if you really want to help just email me at readdoctor@yahoo.com 

If you are wondering what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk up the mountain this more it's The Impressions singing "People Get Ready" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q09rEi1dChE&feature=related