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Monday, February 29, 2016

It’s time to RISE UP and TURN UP CT BATs and SOSers for Black, Brown and poor children



Readers, Dr. Fran Huckabee an Associate Professor from Texas Christian University was a panelist on media messaging at the United Opt Out Conference this past weekend. She spoke about dangerous truths and the contradiction of saying save our schools public schools while at the same time discussing the test and punish culture premeditating those same schools. We had lunch together, and she shared the amazing work she is doing around social justice and education. Trust me she is rising star in this movement to save our public schools. On the 4 hour drive home I kept thinking about the idea of thw dangerous truths of my childhood. There are two that define me, that transform me, two that made me the man, the brother, the husband, the father and the activist I am today.
I am going to share two truths and one glorious and one dangerous. I am going to ask you click on a link for a 3 and half minute video clip of the man I have become, and ask you to join me in rising up and turning up for equity, for justice, for children. parents, teachers, and our public schools.

My two truths

My first truth is an glorious and easy to share. At the age of eight my grandfather wanted to go to Dr. King's March On Washington. He offered to drive people from Trenton New Jersey to Washington DC. He asked his pastor to say he was looking for company to go to DC. No one would go. He asked at the union hall. No one would go. He asked at the his VFW hall. No one would go. He asked my grandmother. She was afraid there would be trouble. She asked him not to go, but he explained he had to go. Grandma said no, but said you should and need to go.
She called my mother, and they prayed together about this going to the March On Washington trip. I doubt people today understand that every soul that turned up for the March On Washington has similar stories. I am certain they all face moments where people they thought would go with them said no. My grandfather was 68 years old, and they were worried about his age and driving alone to DC. As Catholics Grandma and Momma prayed the rosary,. They asked the other Rosary Ladies to pray for someone to go with my Grandfather. For weeks everyone prayed, but no one would rise up, no one would turn up. Then Momma called Grandma, and said take the boy. He keep him company. Because he has the boy he'll have to stay out of trouble.
So at eight years old I stood in the shadow of greatness holding my grandfather's hand at the March On Washington, and heard Dr. Martin Luther King speak with 250,000 others. I stood in the glory of hope, and was blessed with the legacy of Martin's dream. It became my dream. I know God's Grace, I know what it means to be saved, I know the Holy Spirit, and no Pastor needs to lay his hands on me to tell me I am save for I was touched by a saint name Martin. Every time I tell this story tears run down my eyes. Martin said on that historic day “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Grandpa said that's scripture boy. Call me bless by the truth of Dr. Marin Luther King America's greatest dreamer. This is my glorious truth.

My second truth, my dangerous truth. The one that open the wounds of a childhood of poverty and my deepest pain. At the age of ten my father's alcoholism was out of control. Every night was a night of screaming, breaking things, and threats. Every night I prayed dear Lord send him away. That prayer stills hurts me. No child should have to pray that pray.
Then the screaming and breaking turned to slapping Momma. I know injustice, I know sin, I know wrong, and I know right. I felt Martin calling me to rise up and turn up. I felt something Christian deep inside me saying did not Christ lay down his life for you...So I stopped praying for him to leave, and jumped in front of my mother as he went to hit her. It took everything I had to keep standing as his fist hit my cheek. I could feel my legs wobble, blood flowing in my mouth, and my heart breaking. But, I would not fall. I could not fall. I could not let him hit my mother once more time. I had reached that moral arch that make a man something worthy of his manhood. Through pain, blood and tears, "I said you can not hit my mother". My father said "boy do you think you can't take what I have to give"?
My mother wrapped her arms around me crying, screaming enough, enough, enough, please God enough. My father looked at us, shaking and crying himself. Turned around and walked out of our lives right then and there. He would not return until he was dying 15 years later. 16 years later Momma asked me to forgive him. I did, but it would be years later before I could forgive myself.
Momma worked six days a weeks as a waitress, but without my father's income she could not maintain our apartment. We would come to know hunger, days and nights without heat, and even homelessness.
At the age of ten I found my moral arch. But it cut me deeply. For many years I felt responsible for that poverty. Every night without heat, every night we were hungry, the Thanksgiving without a turkey, the Christmas without a tree, every night that we had no place of our own to sleep cuts deeply. I know trauma. I carried that pain, but that pain ended each day at the school house door, at church on Sunday, at that local library of warmth and hope everyday. Did not Martin say “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” He never said it would be easy. He never said those waters will flow without pain. It's my glorious and dangerous truths that call me to rise up and turn up for our Black, Brown and poor children in our Connecticut public schools and public schools everywhere.   


The short video clip of the man I am today:
I like you to do me a favor. Barry Lane is making a movie "What Are School For" he interviewed me in the process. He asked me why poverty matters. It short it's 3 and half minutes long. The favor I am asking is to watch it before you read today's RISE UP and TURN UP on. Link is below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71O0ChPFzAI 


Time to RISE UP and TURN UP for Black, Brown and poor children

Finally my call to my Connecticut brothers and sisters:

In Connecticut Governor Malloy who as a mayor supported the Connecticut Coalition For Justice in Education Funding case CCJEFF v. Rell case, but once elected governor he has fought it from day one.   http://ccjef.org/ 
Why Poverty matters, and what can Connecticut teachers, parents, students, and activists do stand up for Black, Brown and Poor children?
Well as Bishop John Selders leader of Connecticut Moral Monday has said time and time again “TURN UP”
We BATs and SOSers can start sitting in that Superior Court room for CCJEF v. Rell,
Christains, Jews, Muslims and people of all faiths can start praying outside the court room daily,
We can thank CT teachers every time they testify for CCJEF,
We can sit in the Governor’s office asking him why Black, Brown and Poor children have to fight for equity in our courts,
We can sit in the Connecticut Commissioner of Education office asking her our why is the Connecticut State Department of Education not demanding equity, not standing with us outside the CCJEF courtroom clapping for teachers testifying for CCJEF. We can demand they condemn inequity in our public schools.
What can we do for CCJEF?
We can gather together like New York State Alliance for Quality Education, (AQE), who condemns Governor Cuomo for failing to fully support the schools of Black, Brown and poor children. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/new-york-alliance-condemn_b_9097294.html.
We can condemn our own governor who has fought against school equity from the Governor's mansion from day one, while continuously allocating more money for charter schools and choice programs. Let me make this clear Choice Without Equity is the wrong choice.
Connecticut BATS and SOSers are rising up, and we shall start turning up in that CCJEF courtroom.
It’s time to RISE UP and TURN UP for Black, Brown and poor children,
Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner

If you like to listen to the song I listened to on my walk this morning it's Adra Day and Nick Jonas "Rise Up" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeQzH0tP-TA


Friday, February 26, 2016

I am not opting out of high-stakes testing, I am opting for jusitce

Why I am going to the United Opt Conference, February 26 – 28, 2016: Transcending Resistance, Igniting Revolution? 49 states spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools, (Quality Counts 2015 Education Week Report). Jonathan Kozol said in "The Sahme Of The Nation: The Restoration of Aparteid Schooling in America: “There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before.”
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because equity matters more than any standardized test.
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because it is immoral for the wealthiest nation to pretend that testing and standards solves 49 states to spending more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because one cannot separate standardized testing, and the history of American Eugenics. American Eugenics reconstructed racism into a sick quasi scientific racism deeply rooted in the belief that Black, Hispanics, Jews, Biracial people, and mentally challenged are inferior to White Americans. On poverty they love to discuss that slums don't make the poor, the poor make slums. In other poverty is a choice made by people of color and the poor. The poor make poverty not the privileged. It all a choice, and that choice can be rooted out through educational testing and selection.
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because testing is not equity.
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because standards will never bring equity to our public schools.
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because poverty is not a choice.
I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because the policies of No Child Left Behind, Race To The Top, and Every Stduent Succeeds Act are reattemps of an elite previleged class of Americans to once again blame the poor for being poor, blame people of color for the racism they face everyday.

Thus I am going to the United Opt 2016 conference, because high-stakes testing is a defict view of America's children still deeply rooted in the politics of Racism. Like Principal Jammal Bowmen I view Opting opt  opting out not as opting out of a test, but as opting out for jusitce.

Let me make this simple and perfectly clear even if it offends supporters of "Every Student Succeeds Act. Policies rooted in viewing public education rooted in high-stakes testing are rooted in racism. Fight the testing, and you are fight ingracism.Still marching,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner



If you want to know which song I'll be singing with Barry Lane driving down from Connecticut to
Philadelphia to the National Opt Out conference this morning it's... that 60's hit "Get Together" by the Young bloods  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WybIhLJjlTY 
 




Sometimes when injustice rules the land, you just start walking for justice.


Friday, February 12, 2016

Silence and apathy not me

Silence and apathy are not acceptable when:
49 states spend more money on their wealthy schools than their poor schools,
When Detroit's public schools crumble, and their children are poison,
When DEYETT parents in Chicago have to go on hunger strike just to be heard,
When your nation is number one in prison incarceration,
When the middle class in your nation are no longer the majority,
When Wall Street and banks get bail outs, and the young are saddled with student loan debt,
When our nation's public schools are for sale to the highest bidder,
When CEOs income increases 850% while minimum wage earners need soup kitchens and food pantries just to get by,
Silence and apathy are not acceptable when the city of Cleveland files a creditor’s claim for $500, saying the mother of Tamir Rice owes them for the ambulance and paramedics that tended to his 12-year-old’s body after he was shot by a police officer in November,
2014,
Silence and apathy is not acceptable when Billionaires and lobbyists write legislation for our nation,
Silence and apathy not me,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner






If you want to hear what this walking man listened to on his walk on this very cold morning...it's Patty Griffin singing "up To The Moutain" MLK tribute....
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCGDPJwm5YM <


Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Humbled and honored to be one of the recognized by Young Men Strong in 2016

I have accepted Young Men Strong’s 100-100-1 Professional Leaders who are ‘DOING THE WORK’ Award, and will attend the March 12 Award Ceremony in New York. It is an incredible honor just to be nominated, and to be one of the recognized award winners selected by 100 Black Women of Long Island. I am deeply humbled and thankful to be one of those recognized for our work.
Any of my friends living on Long Island interested in attending this event please let me know It is a Black Tie event and fund raising event YMS http://www.youngmenstrong.com/
This award is a direct outcome of my activism for equity and justice in our public schools.
What we do for young people matters,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner


'Celebrating Our Men Everyday'
DR. JESSE TURNER,
Congratulations & THANK YOU!
It is our privilege to confirm your nomination as Young Men Strong’s 100-100-1 Professional Leaders who are ‘DOING THE WORK’ Award.
You’ve been nominated for this award because of your commitment to the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state communities as well your ability to make a difference in the lives of the urban male youth you touched through your work.
Your professional presence and commitment will be honored with a gourmet lunch, Live Band, awards ceremony led by Keynote Speakers Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, Senior Pastor Katherine Corbett, and Alex O. Ellis, Tied to Greatness' to take place at New Life Christian Center, Saturday, March 12, 2016, from 11:00 – 3:00 pm.



If you like to listen to the song I listened to this morning on my walk....it's Bob Dylan's "Blowing In The Win"..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWwgrjjIMXA