Rochester’s advocates and activists filled buses and drove cars to lend their voice to the 50th Anniversary March on Washington.

It was a very different affair than the original, t-shirt salesmen and trinket hawkers lined the streets with the hopes of capitalizing on the multitude of participants from around the country and spectators from around the world.

Save Our Schools together with United Opt Out marched from Farragut Square to the Washington Monument spreading the word to participants and passerbys about the devastating role mis-education has played in the reality that 50 years after this country’s initial awakening to the truth of inequality, the struggle continues.

As educators, parents, students, and community members settled into their place on the monument grounds, they immediately began to educate those walking by to reject the common core and opt out of standardized testing.

Shouts of “Educate to Liberate!” and “No More Common Core!” resounded enticing participants to stop and listen to knowledgeable and impassioned witnesses tell their stories and relate the true information about the damaging effects of our current system of education.

Deeper conversations convinced rally goers that the entire system of education must change its focus from disabling children to discovering their gifts and talents, from enabling children to empowering them.

No one asked, “What can I do?” Everyone there understood that the only way to affect change is by raising our collective voice through the power of our individual vote.

Rochester voices were also heard speaking out against racial profiling and the injustice of our local, state, and federal justice systems.

There were many participants who attended the original March on Washington in 1963 who were disheartened by the fact that there needed to be a second and hopeful that a third would not be necessary.

The only way to insure that we will not revisit the Washington Monument to protest injustice in another 50 years is to change the system of education so that it concentrates on discovering, developing, and directing the gifts and talents of ALL children.

A strong America requires a strong people.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!