Day 14 is dedicated to the one and only E.A. Reynolds West Side High School and their great principal, Jean Schutt McTavish.

What does activism look like?
It's a fellowship of walkers for justice not just more testing.
It looks like

Rosalie Friend of SOS walking 10 miles with me,
It looks like Gretchen Merenthaler and Fred Smith walking five sharing the tales and stories of Change The Stakes,
It looks like SOS National Steering Committee member Michael Shaw joining for the last five miles, and speaking turth to power at our press conference at New York City Hall,
It look like retired teacher Council member Danny Drumm saying preach it Walking Man.
It's looks Michael Elliot with his back pack of cameras, microphones, and video cameras.
It looks like Darla Shaw and her husband driving down from Connecticut for a press conference.

What does it feel like?
It feels like tired feet,
It feels like hope resting as you break bread with your fellow walkers at the Metro Diner in Manhattan,
It feel like hope and love growing in your heart.

What does love look Walking Man?
It looks like walkers walking for justice not just more testing?
It looks like E.A. Reynolds West Side High School School Principal Jean Schutte Tavish greeting you at the door with smoothies.
It looks like 30 beautiful smiling teachers running out to greet you, thank you, and to welcome you into their school.
It's look like sitting on the school steps holding a welcome Walking Man banner.
It's looks 30 teachers saying give us that "We Are Marching In The Light" sermon Jesse.

What does love sound like Walking Man?
It sounds like we love our students here,
It sounds like we love our school here,
It sounds like we love our principal here,
It sounds like we love our work here.

Walking Man, tell us where hope lives?
Teachers, teachers hope lives in:
Your eyes,
Your welcoming smiles,
Your warm embraces,
Love grows strong here at EA Reynolds West Side High School,
I see love everywhere here.

Walking Man, tell us where inspiration lives?
Teachers, teachers inspiration  lives in you,
Lives in your students,
Your school, and in each other,
Your inspiration overpowers me,
It comforts me,
It inspires me.

What is transformation and when does it begin?
Teachers, teachers, it already began on the front steps of your high school,
It was already in your heart long before the Walking Man knocked at your school door.
You who gave your heart all year long to your students,
The ones no one else wanted,
The ones you transformed.
You are transformation walking in this world.

Perhaps you thought this Walking Man brought it to you?
No, no, no, you brought it to him.

Perhaps you thought this Walking Man was bringing love to you?
No, no, no, you brought it to him.
Perhaps you thought this Walking Man would inspire you?
No, no, no, you inspired him.
On this my 14 day of my 400 mile walk to DC,
I give this 10-miles to Principal Jean Schutte Tavish and her glorious, loving, caring, awe inspiring E.A. Reynolds West Side School teachers.

I am humbled by your love, your light, and your hope.
On day 14 when my feet were tired I found love, rest, nourishment in an Oasis called E.A. Reynolds West Side High School.
On day 14 the Lord led me to the steps of hope outside your school doors.
Love,
Love,
Love,
Walking to DC,
Jesse

If you want to hear what this Walking Man listened to on his walk to today. It's The Omage community youth Choir singing "Love Rescue Me" https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AknxIzxU10Ja7D26VXD0Y0ebvZx4?p=Utube+love+rescue+me&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-901&fp=1
Truth be told I found tears rolling down my eyes as I heard a story of my Grandfather's hometown. Perhaps music and stories are the magic that lifts us up. Perhaps One Man Walking In The Name of Love does matter? 

Day 13 dedicated to Jamaal Bowman the Lion who defends childhood look like in the Bronx

Day 13 of my walk to DC is dedicated to Principal Jamaal Bowman, his compassionate teachers, and the children of The Corner Stone Academy for social Action. This walking man found himself lifted by those beautiful roses growing in the Bronx, the future, the children. Today 10 is for our roses.

Abdul Kalam said: “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

Abdul Kalam said: “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

If America cannot lift Black and Latin fathers, mothers, and teachers, then it cannot lift up their children.

In Selma we sing at the Jubilee Education Summit every year:

Fathers you're not too heavy

Mothers you're not to heavy

Teachers you're not too heavy

We will lift you up

I have been moved to tears time and time again in Selma every time we sing:

You're not heavy

We will lift you up!

What does leadership that lifts up Black and Latino children look like?

It looks like Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman.
 

What does true moral leadership look like?

What does leadership that heals, inspires, and lifts those fathers, mothers, and teachers look like?
It looks like Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman.

What does moral leadership look like in our public schools?

What does compassionate leadership look like in our public schools?

What does a defender of childhood look like in our public schools?
Who is the Lion who defends the childhood of Young Black and Latino minds in the Bronx?

Who educates the body, the kids, and the souls of young Black and Latino children in the Bronx?
Who loves New York's beautiful Bronx roses that grow between the cracks in New York City cement streets?

I met that Lion yesterday at Crotona Park in the Bronx?
What does it mean to lift Black and Latin fathers and mothers up?
It means you lift up their children.
It means you let children run, jump, play, and learn.
What does it mean it mean to lift up teachers?
It means you help them lift up the children they teach.
It means you focus on the Whole Child.
It means nourishing a school culture where teachers can teach.
It means nourishing a school culture where teachers can be compassionate.
It means nourishing a school culture where teaching and learning becomes immersed in a love of children, a love of parents, a love of teachers, and a love of what childhood is meant to be.
Imagine school reforms policies that fight that culture of love of what childhood should be?
I am walking to DC fighting for what childhood ought to be, and yesterday I found leadership that gets it, leadership that walks the walk, talks the talk of “children you’re not heavy, we will lift you up.
Lord I thank you for sending me an army of children, teachers, activists, and that Lion Jamaal Bowman to lift my walk for justice not just more tests yesterday.
Thank you children and teachers from the Corner Stone Academy for Social Action for lifting me up,
One Man Walking In The Name Of Love to DC,
Jesse

What is the walking man listening to today? It's the roar of a Lion protecting the pride.
Today I am reading Jamaal Bowman's " The Tryanny of an Empty Park; A Play Manifesto by Bronx Principal Jamaal Bowman"
https://www.facebook.com/mark.naison.5/posts/10153125799043800

My Day 12 heroes talk the talk, walk the walk, and they live near you!

Day 12 belongs to the grassroots activists I find everywhere I walk. These are my day 12 heroes. 
America’s corporate education reformers, policy makers, testing company CEOs believe that they hold every key, but this is not the way I see it.  The view from on the ground is an uprising of the people calling for change in our schools.   At every turn I see a beautiful tapestry of my people, a beautiful tapestry of America’s people, a glorious tapestry of Black, White, Brown, Yellow and every thread in between.  I hear our children, I hear our parents, and hear our teachers at every step of this journey to DC.
Corporate reformers love their Comic Book heroes; they are forever waiting Superman but me I have found real heroes.
I find them in America’s schools, at music festivals, on country roads, on busy city streets, in back yard gardens, in church halls, and in our libraries from Connecticut to DC.
 
My hero’s are not driven by data walls,
My heroes are not driven by profit margins,
My heroes are driven by,
Hope and love.
Their only desire is to do right by America’s children.
My heroes believe in school equity, my heroes hand out flyers, knock on doors, and spread the word that schools can be more than a race to the bottom.

They are young,

They are old,

They are tall,

They are shot,

They come all faiths;
They are on the left,

They are on the right, and they are in between.
My heroes are not hedge fund managers,

My heroes are not secretaries and commissioners of education,

My heroes are not legislators,

My heroes are not millionaires,

They do not play golf with millionaires,

They do not fly in corporate jets,

They do not Play pickup basketball games what Hollywood stars,

They do not have the White House on speed dial,

My heroes are parents, who cannot afford to send their children to an elite private school.

My heroes are teachers who have to buy their own art supplies, pencils and the paper for their classrooms.

My hero’s are found in kindergartens to high schools all across America doing the best they can do every day,

My heroes are more than test scores,

My heroes are not your data, and
My heroes are not your profits.

The intellect of my heroes is far too big for those tiny bubbles your standardized test.
The potentials of my heroes cannot measured by America’s CEOs.
They are our future,
They are hope walking,
They are our children,
They are our teachers, and
They want their public schools back.

My heroes defend local public schools,

My heroes fight high-stakes testing,

My heroes want justice not more tests,
My heroes are beautiful,
My heroes inspire me,

My heroes are tireless, and
My heroes will not rest until they take back our classrooms and public schools.

Today this 10 miles is for every grassroots education activist who speaks up, who knocks on doors, hands out the flyers, and spreads the truth about our public schools,
I am sincerely humbled by the parents, the teachers, the activists who use social media, knock on doors, hand out the flyers of hope and leading our resistance.
Walking to DC,
Jesse 

If you want to know what tune this walking man sang on his walk from Yonkers to the Bronx? It's Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA <