The Faces of Protest

Go to MinnPost.com, click on Community Voices, for Wednesday, March 2. MinnPost ran an article of mine on that day.

I have watched the protests and uprising in the Middle  East since they began in Egypt. Especially I have watched the faces of people who have had the courage to confront long-time oppressive leaders. As if those faces could somehow tell me what they are thinking and feeling as the unimaginable happens.

And of course, I have been watching the saga in neighboring Wisconsin. Just as any occupational category, there are teachers who should have been long gone from the classroom. All of us have had at least one of these "non-teachers." However, there are far more teachers to whom we are indebted - who taught us so many things, from the basics of reading and writing to understanding the world in which we live. Teachers who coaxed and challenged us to learn and who believed in our potential.

My father was a teacher who brought the union into his small-town school. As a teenager, I didn't pay much attention to what my parents were doing - what teen does! Now I realize what a hero he was. If he were still alive, I can imagine him watching what is happening in Wisconsin and elsewhere.



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