There are narratives, and there are narratives

My Momma said sometimes you have to testify. Sometimes you have to stand up in public, and through your tears and your pain you tell your story, your narrative son. Well this week in New York people have been testifying. There are narratives, and there are narratives. There is a war of silence in New York City’s appointed board of education. A war of you do not matter waged against some of our nation’s most battled narratives. The narratives of those from the bottom 99% are not welcomed in Mayor Bloomberg’s world of power and influence. He prefers his narratives sweet and squeaky clean. His narratives trade millions of dollars everyday. His narratives wear Armani, and Crockett & Jones Leeds shoes, and they never testify in public. The mayor is oblivious to the voice of Emma Lazarus that young Jewish poet whose poem sits at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Her sonnet in 1883 testified that America was a nation of new narratives, a nation where the most battled narratives of the 99% are welcomed. The mayor does not get it. He does not hear it. He cannot see it.  Those narratives are not welcomed in his City Hall, or at the Mayoral Controlled Board of Education. There are narratives, and there are narratives. The narratives of an appointed board of education were not the ones Emma Lazarus had in mind when she wrote her sonnet. The narratives of the appointed are not elected, and they are the narratives of privilege and power that are most welcomed at City Hall. They will not be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Well there are narratives, and there are narratives. Emma’s narratives don’t eat at Masa’s restaurant.  Where there are just 26 seats in an elegantly designed Japanese restaurant in the Time Warner Center. There is no menu; all diners will spend about 3 hours having an unparalleled omakase experience. Her narratives are not welcomed at the Masa.

I said there are narratives, and there are narratives. Some narratives are Brooklyn born. Some narratives beat the odds, some narratives like a phoenix rise from the ashes of poverty.  The narrative of Iran Rosario is one of those New York narratives the mayor just does not get. Mr. Rosario walked into Bushwick Community High School 14 year ago, and beat the odds. He testified this week before Mayor Bloomberg’s appointed board of privilege. His story is not unique really, his story is not unheard of, but his story is as American as apple pie. They don’t serve apple pie at Masa’s. He stood up, and told that board of appointed privilege: “Where would I be without this school family? I would be in jail. I would be dead,” said Iran Rosario, a tall bear of a man who wandered in here as a lost 18-year-old and now returned 14 years later as a teacher. “Friends tell you what you want to hear; family tells you what you need to hear. They did that for me, and saved my life.”

His narrative is about a man who became a teacher, his narrative is about a man who came to give back, and a man who testified to a board of privileged number crunchers. His narrative, and the narratives many others are on the the mayor's chopping block. There faiths will be decided by an appointed board that was selected by America's most privileged mayor on Thursday night?
The hope of Bushwick Community High School, a school where all narratives are welcomed and given the opportunity to be educated is on the chopping block. The Panel for Education Policy is controlled by Mayor Bloomberg, and is set to lay off the principal and half the staff. “Give department officials credit: they don’t really try to argue their indictment on the merits, but on the metrics — that is, test scores and graduation rates.” 

The Iran Rosario(s) are numbers, they are capital, and they are the unwanted narratives of a mayor and his appointed board of privilege. Somewhere there is a God who sees all. Somewhere there is a Jewish poet who loves the narratives of the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse, the homeless, and the tempest-tossed.  On Thursday night her lamp will be lit. The question is will the mayor’s appointed board snuff out the narratives Emma so clearly loved.
With the deepest Love, and respect for the narrative of one Iran Rosario,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you are wondering what the Walking Man was listening to on his walk this morning it was Nappy Roots "Po Folks" that southern poor boy's national anthem. An anthem no one on the mayor's appointed board hears.

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

And they wonder why we act this way

Nappy Boys gon’ be okay

All my life been po’

But it really don’t matter no mo’

 

If you want to read the New York Times article about Bushwick Community High School click here: > http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/nyregion/pleading-for-the-life-of-a-brooklyn-high-school.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y <

If you were a poor boy like me who beat the odds, a poor boy like me who owes his life to the teachers who gave voice to his narrative, and you want to hear Nappy Roots singing Po' Folks click here > http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=po%20folks%20youtube&tnr=21&vid=4635898054443071&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D4635898054443071%26id%3D9471b9eec45a27d9cc810be0f0393c57%26bid%3D%252bTa%252b6UbtToIvRQ%26bn%3DThumb%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.youtube.com%252fwatch%253fv%253dQbN6VkleO48&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQbN6VkleO48&sigr=11ao94gln&newfp=1&tit=Nappy+Roots+-+Po%26%2339%3B+Folks+%28Video%29+w%2FAnthony+Hamilton  <

Calling two presidents

A President to President happening this week clearly marks NCLB/RTTT as a failure that is taking public education in America in the wrong direction. The letter is well written, and summarizes a great deal of what parents, teachers, education activists, and educators from all walks of life have been saying for over a decade. Mary Broderick the National School Boards Association President echoes the policies of the previous two Secretaries of Education, (Secretary Page and Secretary Spelling), and our current Secretary of Education Duncan of the United States Department of Education as demonizing and demoralizing our nation’s children and teachers. The National School Boards Association is not some radical fringe group, they are a center of the road organzation that has for decades advocated for sane education policies. Mary Broderick wrote a public letter to President Obama that is calling for a national dialogue > http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2012/04/nsbas-president-letter-to-obama/ < She writes:

"I urge you to convene a national dialogue, not made up of politicians, but including the breadth of educational opinion, to reconsider our educational direction. I would love to help you do this. Let’s ensure that each child has the tools to be successful. Let’s marshal the nation’s brain power and tap into the research, proven practice, and demonstrated evidence of excellence."

I echo Mary Broderick NSBA President’s call for dialogue. I invite The National School Boards Association to join Save Our Schools March who are already holding that dialogue, and are marshaling parents, teachers, school leaders, and leaders from diverse communities to come to our nation's capital this August 3-5 for the People's Education Convention.

I also extend a sincere offer to President Obama to join us at the People's Education Convention as well. I have one condition only Mr. President leave the private sector CEOs home. This is a People's Education Convention, and we want the people's voice to be heard. The people are calling you Mr. President to join us in shaping the future of public education in America. We are calling our president, the one who began his career in that rich grassroots river of democracy to return to that river once again. We are calling you to the people’s river President Obama to wade in the waters of hope and the waters of change. We the people who also have the audacity to hope.

Please forgive us if we have become mistrustful of private sector partners, and the United States Department of Education. Over the past decade it is our belief that their leadership was and is rooted not in sincere dialogue, but in bullying, marginalizing diverse voices that led to an endless series of harmful insensitive top down mandates that have demoralized our nation's public schools. 
Please come President Obama, come hear the people’s view of what the current state of school reform has done to our children, teachers, public schools, and diverse communities. Come help us imagine change, come help build a new vision, a bottom up vision for a new direction for our public schools. Let’s us all build a vision of education reform that empowers children, teachers, all schools, and all communities.
Finally Mr. President we could use another voice with the audacity to hope at our convention. For Save Our Schools the mission has always been about putting the public, our parents, our teachers, our locally elected school boards, and diverse voices back into public education. We invite both you, and Mary Broderick NSBA President to join us at the People’s Education Convention this summer.
Sincerely
Jesse Turner

SOS National Steering Committee 

If people are wondering what the walking man was singing and listening to on his walk today as the sun broke through the clouds: It Mississipppi John Hurt " I shall not be move"

I love singing those words that inspire me, lift me, and point me on the road to hope and change:
Just like the tree,
I shall not be moved
Just like the tree,
I shall, shall not be moved
Just like this tree planted down the waters
Just like the tree,
I shall, shall not be moved

If you want to hear Mississippi John Hurt sing it:

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/colorado_mass_choir/#share 

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIF.ZpVPaFsASJX7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBrNHJqN2l0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZANWMTIz?p=Mississippi+John+hurt%27s++i+shall+not+be+move+utube&ei=utf-8&n=21&tnr=20

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