First People's Board Meeting Held Wednesday, Sept 25, 2013 at Mount Carmel Missionary Church on Chicago's South Side

Notes from a participant:
Wednesday night was a terrific People's Board Meeting. It was excellent. I counted, and we had about 100 people, but it wasn't about the numbers. People lined up and spoke, and though some folks probably could have been shorter, everyone who went up there spoke, and they said all kinds of insightful, powerful, moving, and hopeful things. The Board listened and responded, and Adourthus McDowell from KOCO chaired it (as the Board chair) and ran it like the hundreds of LSC meetings he's run over 20 years—fairly, decently, with dignity and seriousness, noting important things for us to do and be.

It was a great example of us trying to live what we want to be. We don't often get to practice that kind of people's democracy, and although we do not have democracy (people's or otherwise!), it is important to envision it and practice it when we can. We have to become the people we want to be, in the process of changing the world. As one speaker said, we are authentic and transparent, and are engaging in a bottom-up process to change our children's education. You could feel it Wednesday night. Everyone there seem to take it very seriously. People spoke from the heart and others listened, and it felt powerful.

And Jessica Suárez spoke on behalf of TSJ, and spoke from the heart (as always) as a mother and to-be-teacher about how you have to know the students' community and have passion for their struggles.
(Photos by Rousemary Vega)