“One last wake up call. Yesterday. Even babies know. Yours and mine. It was all day. Kindergarteners wondered how someone who says bad words was president. Cutting with scissors gluing pictures based on syllables to a page he looks up at me. Five years old. He’s a racist he says. Why don’t no one care he says? I care I said. He waves me off. I know he says. But you’re not with me when I go home. I cry. He’s 5”

Leslie Mason, Principal

Leslie Mason is the Principal of a Philadelphia public elementary school .  Her school serves a racially, ethnically and economically diverse community and houses students in Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade. Leslie is responsible for 300 young lives from pre-K to 8th grade.  She is a hands-on educator and leader who knows her students and is known by her students.  She gave me permission to share the above encounter she had with a Kindergarten student on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, the day after the American Presidential election.

This moment captured perfectly for me everything that was at stake the day of the election, why my heart is broken that half of America’s eligible voters didn’t even bother to show up the polls and why it is imperative that we move beyond our grief as quickly as we are able to and start rolling up our sleeves to start the hard work ahead of us.

I believe that this is a story that the whole world needs to hear.  I would be grateful if you would consider reblogging, liking and sharing this story and disseminating it as far and wide as you can.  I NEED this five year old to know that Leslie Mason is not the only person out there who cares, that she is not the last holder of our humanity.