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<\/a><\/p>\nMom and Dad (now known as Cookie and Pop) were rooted in a commitment to public education.\u00a0 Here is my dad\u2019s father (in the middle, wearing the non-conformist cap) and his four brothers.\u00a0 The little guy at the end is my Uncle Bill.\u00a0 He served the public school system all his adult life, as a public school teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools in Mineral Wells, Texas.\u00a0 (The shadow of the man taking the photo is of their daddy, my great-grandfather, Papa.)<\/p>\n
My mom\u2019s parents were both public school teachers.\u00a0 Here is my grandfather, Big Daddy, on the far side in a suit, with his sophomore class of 1929 in Miles, Texas.\u00a0 He loved to work on his Corvair, and he served as a math teacher while also helping to raise his three children, my mom, her older sister, my Aunt Mary (now Honey) and my Uncle Robert.\u00a0 Honey served as a special-education teacher for decades in the public school system around Texas.\u00a0 (I think she may still be serving as a consultant to special education teachers in the D\/FW area.)<\/p>\n This glamour shot is one of my favorite family photos.\u00a0 It is of my mother\u2019s mother, who served as an elementary school teacher and school counselor her entire adult life, while raising my mom, my Aunt Mary, and my Uncle Robert.\u00a0 Their family scrimped and saved to make a good home life for three kids on two teachers\u2019 salaries, but, back then, it was possible.\u00a0 My Grandma, Agnes Louise Tisdale, loved intricate, beautiful things, and, in her spare time (!) she painted detailed flowers on china for friends and family.\u00a0 She would have loved the banner that my new friend made for us to carry at Moral Monday.<\/p>\n At one of the Moral Monday gatherings, I came across a sweet young man carrying the most adorable banner with a trenchant word about the big lies behind austerity politics.\u00a0 (I \u201ctweeted\u201d a picture of the banner that day.\u00a0 You can see it here<\/a>.)\u00a0 It was just my sort of combination of smart, ticked-off, and sweet.\u00a0 I eventually met his mother, a public school teacher in the area, and asked if I could share a photo of the banner.\u00a0 She not only said yes, she offered to make me one!\u00a0 She insisted I come up with the theme and that we collaborate on details.\u00a0 Around that time, various talking-heads were suggesting that the protests were undignified, so I decided to inhabit and do the twist with that idea, and be a well-dressed, ticked-off, righteous-seeking Lady for Justice.\u00a0 I am not quite old enough yet to be a Raging Granny, but, the next week, a few of them stood with us for a photo, along with a brave suffragette, who was delighted to find someone else in costume.<\/p>\n Someone handed Emily and her friend this sign to hold at the gathering.\u00a0 They both just learned health in their fifth grade class at George Watts Elementary.\u00a0 At this particular rally, they were privy to hundreds of women \u2013 teens and grannies in cut-offs and in swishy skirts \u2013 standing up for real funding for women\u2019s health.\u00a0 As we walked around with our fabulous new banner, many women cheered for the pro-teacher message on the backside, a timeless note about the wisdom of investing in public schools, because, after all \u201cNo one can make a dollar stretch like a school teacher!\u201d\u00a0 This was particularly appropriate given that an actual school teacher made the banner with quilting scraps and fabric glue!<\/p>\n I bought this dress at Dolly\u2019s in Durham<\/a>\u00a0for an NAACP meeting in 2011.\u00a0 David LaMotte wrote a piece about that event here<\/a>.\u00a0 You might wonder why I bought a vintage tea dress and white gloves for a serious rally?\u00a0 Well, that was a bit of a Bridget Jones moment.\u00a0 Tim Tyson (love you!) suggested some of us dress up as if indeed for a \u201cTea Party.\u201d\u00a0 But, it turned out, I was the only person who showed up at the event dressed in costume.\u00a0 (Again, love you, Tim!)\u00a0 So, what does my mother\u2019s daughter do?\u00a0 Throw back my shoulders and enter the fray in a frock and a retro clutch.\u00a0 And, when given the chance, re-use the frock for another NAACP event.<\/p>\n Amanda Mackay Smith has been working for gender equity and genuine communication in public school systems across the country for much of her adult life.\u00a0 You can get a sense of the serious scope of her work here<\/a>.\u00a0 She helped me carry the banner, and introduced me to all sorts of wonderful people working on justice issues.\u00a0 And, when I said I was a bit wary of going too close to the stage, and making a spectacle of myself and our banner, she told me in no uncertain terms that women have to risk appearing pushy sometimes, particularly when the cause is so obviously important.\u00a0 She also informed me that the piping on the dress I was wearing is not called \u201cbric-a-brac\u201d but \u201cric-rac.\u201d\u00a0 Imagine a dress adorned with bric-a-brac . . .<\/p>\n Part of what was so lovely about the Moral Monday gatherings were the conversations going on around the edges.\u00a0 People were talking to one another about what we each care passionately about for the good of a state we love.\u00a0 Because I was carrying a banner tagged specifically to public school funding, I was blessed with many conversations with school teachers.\u00a0 Some shared stories with me and with one another about whether their own principal and co-workers would be supportive of their being there.\u00a0 Some of us talked about confronting a climate of fear in a workplace, figuring out how to speak together about what we think is best for a school, a city, a region.\u00a0 I love this photo for the sense of gathering and the cloud configuration in the big sky above us.\u00a0 Maybe it is the West Texan in me, but that expansive sky makes me hopeful that the seemingly small conversations that go on in a big \u201cmovement\u201d help each of us go back home and find ways to be brave also in our local contexts, spreading courage around like little seeds that will flower in ways even the grand strategists can\u2019t anticipate.<\/p>\n Laura Rodgers Levens came straight from teaching, so here she and I are, one lady and one school teacher, smiling and praying for change.\u00a0 One of us is wearing shoes that actually make sense for such an event . . . (Ah, vanity.)\u00a0 Laura would love Pat O\u2019Donnell, who picked out the ric-rac dress for me.\u00a0 Pat was there at Moral Monday in spirit.\u00a0 She runs the Madame Butterfly<\/a> Vintage Clothing\u00a0and Lending Boutique way, way down the funky part of Lexington in Asheville.\u00a0 Pat loved on the Green Street Girls when we spent a few days in Asheville this summer, as we tried on taffeta and tulle and some marvelously bizarre outfits from the 80s.\u00a0 She had Donna Summer playing, which, of course, made me very happy.\u00a0 Pat was one of many people we met in Asheville who had heard about Moral Monday.\u00a0 I am cheering for them<\/a> from here as Mountain Moral Monday gets going<\/a>!<\/p>\n The final Moral Monday was spectacular, with thousands of public school teachers traveling hours to come and share their passion for teaching real children in actual schools across North Carolina.\u00a0 Their signs were clear, creative, courageous \u2013 just as you would expect from women and men who have committed to the daily work of quickening imaginations and brightening burgeoning minds.\u00a0 I was so grateful just to be there and shout myself hoarse with all of these inspiring people.\u00a0 This local television station<\/a> did a short piece that showcased some of the women facing up to the mess with wit and persistence.\u00a0 You can find lots more links if you do a search for Moral Monday and \u201cteachers.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This sweetheart of a man donned a creative outfit to make a point.\u00a0 I am way behind schedule on a collaborative post on that \u201cMan of Steel\u201d movie, but this is the kind of superhero we need.\u00a0 There are lots of ways to fight for justice.\u00a0 Some of us make banners. \u00a0Some of us go through arrest.\u00a0 Some of us write courageously at home, thinking about how to find the right words that might persuade people to have enough hope to shake off apathy or generalized rage and pay attention.\u00a0 The work to be done right now is not \u201cone style fits all.\u201d\u00a0 People have different gifts, and it is time to find ways to use your own, unique, precious gift to help shift this state back to sanity.\u00a0 Perhaps the superhero movie that we all need to watch again is actually this one<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0Those guys would have loved Captain Justice!\u00a0 And, what a soundtrack.\u00a0 I want to fight evil to Smash Mouth and classic disco, please?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n