Out Of The Box

 I asked support from my colleagues this past Monday, Presidents Day. I gave them permission to find me and slam the lid of my laptop down on my fingers if I was found to be consorting in any way on a Zoom meeting. Over the past six months, I have forgotten about Zoom fatigue. I have enjoyed encountering those with whom I consort in hallways and on the playground. It has been a relief to have human contact outside of those boxes. 

Then school closings appeared. Suddenly I was spending way too much time monitoring the chat and waiting for links. I was set up with two screens, one to monitor the meeting and another to conduct searches and confirm suspicions in real time. That was for the school board meetings. The rest of the week included plenty of opportunities to meet with union members, community organizers, and those same colleagues with whom I had been ever so briefly in direct contact. On Zoom. 

Which had the effect of numbing a little of the pain connected to the ongoing struggle we are all experiencing during this time. Not being able to be in the room with the school board as they continue to press forward with their agenda to balance their budget on the backs of black and brown students is something that I won't soon forget. Or forgive. Thousands of people attended their meetings and hundreds had raised an electronic hand to speak. A very small percentage of them had a chance to give a voice to their displeasure. Yes, there is still something to be said for the opportunity to participate in the democratic process without leaving the comfort and safety of your living room. But when the bell sounds at the end of what the people on high have determined is the end of public comment, there are still those raised hands.

The challenge here is that this is a top-down solution from the top. It was not generated by discussion with community. It came from a spreadsheet delivered by outside consultants who gave the school board the answers they had already anticipated. So we all got a front row seat to the execution. Nothing we could do would stop the hacking and slashing. We took our Zoom lumps and left the meeting. It was over.

Until we figured out that we could take it to the streets. This turns out to be too big for Zoom. Too big for those little boxes. Too big for that little screen. We will be heard. 

Out there.