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Friday, January 20, 2017

America's heart problem and my Momma's lullaby at the Women's March




--> https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000003975536/lullaby.html

2. 5 million American children was homeless at some point in 2014. The problem is not getting better my friends. Readers, please take 6 minutes to watch the short documentary link above, about young mothers living at Siena House shelter in the Bronx who write lullabies to bond with their babies. The film is speaking to America 2017, the world's richest and most powerful nation.
Rev Dr. William Barber said "America has a heart problem". 
I see an America that has in my humble opinion, wage a war on our poor mothers and their families for decades.  An America that at the same time rewards the wealthy, the powerful and the connected every single day.
However, this video is less about America's heart problem, but about the beautiful hearts of homeless mothers, and the power of music to heal themselves and their babies.   

Bob Marley sings...
"But my 'and was made strong
By the 'and of the Almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs"

I remember being homeless, I remember my Mother and I holding all we owned in one suit case and two brown paper bags. I remember sleeping in the train station. I remember my mother saying you are going to live with your sister Jessica and her husband James for a while. I remember being afraid.

I remember her singing me to sleep on that wooden bench in the Erie-Lackawanna station in Hoboken New Jersey. 
I remember being welcomed, embraced and loved in my sister's house. I would live with my sister and my brother in law for many beautiful years. I was blessed at every turn. In their home, and at school by loving and caring teachers.
I remember moving back in with my Momma when I went to college.
I remember it all, and none of it crushed me.
While I may have had nothing at times.
I have always had a mother's lullaby where ever I roamed.


" It's Okay Mommy is here..
She's not going anywhere,

It's Okay Mommy is here,

She's not going anywhere...

Mommy is here"

I am marching with Save Our Schools tomorrow at the Women's March in DC.
I am marching with my wife and my fellow educators.
I shall march with my mother's lullaby every step of the way.
For as long as I can hear her voice in my heart,  I walk with love, dignity, and hope.
I know America's mothers are not the ones with a heart problem. Love to every mother in every place in the land.
Here's to those beautiful redemption lullabies that kept their babies warm through every cold night.

Still my Momma's boy,
Jesse Patrick Turner




If you like to listen to the tune this Walking Man listened to on my morning walk ...it's the Black Eyed Peas singing their remix of "Where is the love" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsRMoWYGLNA



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