Obama's Inaugural Road . . . Leads to You | What's Working in Schools

?We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.?

History tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they have never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.

Indeed, the words of Jefferson and Obama above reflect what King, Kennedy, Ghandi and others have long advocated: Be the change you want to see in the world. Here is a true story of what that might look like.

An infant abandoned by family begins his second year of life in Foster Care in New York. Bouncing around from home to home?including the one his biological mother briefly maintains?his path is uncertain, his future bleak, and he eventually winds up in a group home in Queens, surrounded primarily by other teens?all poor; most black and brown?all precious.

One day a southern?man comes to the city from upstate New York. He is charged with administering the Equal Opportunity Program grant for the State University of New York at Potsdam. The boy from Queens is accepted. He gets a ticket out of the group home to college. The destination of many of his peers, however, is dead-end jobs, prison, or the streets.

The boy/adolescent in this story is clear to me, because it was me, a generation ago. The man who gave me that ticket out will be 85 years old this spring. Dr. Brown?s birthday present was a ticket, too?to the inauguration. It came from the boy he helped save through education some 30 years earlier.

Two days ago Dr. Brown heard? how ?We the people? will be the ones who decide our futures. He also must have deeply understood that ?preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action,? for this black man from Alabama who suffered the worst racism imaginable wore no shaded glasses when he recruited this impoverished white boy from New York to go to college. Dr. Brown has put a new spin on the color and class myths exemplified by Western movie stars who traverse the globe to save little hungry African children. In fact, we all need a hand at times, regardless of its color?and regardless of the color of our own.

Institutionally, this ?collective action? our President calls for has a natural home in our schools, as they are both the only entity that touches every child in this country, and the foundation for all that these children will create in our society. It is even more poignant, then, that Dr. Brown is a lifelong educator and facilitator of education for others. And it is powerful to see the ripple effect that he and others in this arena have every day on our children, our nation, and our world. People who have dedicated their lives in this way truly hold the ?ticket out? for so many children. And sometimes, those whose lives they impact are able to find them again later and say: ?Thank you. You made all the difference in my life.?

Dr. Brown and Alan Blankstein at the Inaugural Ball

To see a moving three-minute video of their story, click here.

??preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today?s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we?ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.?

My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it?so long as we seize it together.

Source: http://www.hopefoundation.org/blog/2013/01/24/obamas-inaugural-road-leads-to-you/

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