Do You Ride My Bus?
/Every year, all of the students at the kids' school memorize parts of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Each class takes a section and then they gather together and recite it - preschoolers, elementary and junion high students together. I've never been present for the recitation but I've heard my kids recite various parts of the speech over the years and, even as they stand alone, the earnestness with which they speak and the words themselves bring me to tears every time. The kids are fascinated by the civil rights movement and Zeca's been talking about all that she has been learning for weeks. Today, She was singing a song the song - If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus by Pete Seeger. First she sang:
If you miss me at the back of the bus, and you can't find me nowhere. Come on up to the front of the bus, I'll be sittin' up there. I'll be sittin' up there, I'll be sittin' up there. Come on up to the front of the bus, I'll be sitting' up there.
Then, she began to improvise and sang her own verse:
If you miss me on the lesbian bus, and you can't find me nowhere. Come on over to the Jewish bus, I'll be sittin' up there. I'll be sittin' up there, I'll be sittin' up there. Come on over to the Jewish bus, I'll be sitting' up there.
Apparently, the lesbians and the Jews are segregated from each other and Zeca has a dream to rectify that. Equality for all!