by Ethel Mortenson Davis
A baby wren came to sit in the burning bush to show me she has grown into a strong bird. With graceful gratitude she came to show me light in my dark world — just as a matched pair of horses pulled John Lewis across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, so he can be a light in our black world just one more time.
fourwindowspress 
oh, how beautiful, especially the last stanza
Thank you always for your comment. Ethel
Beautiful and poignant, Ethel.
Love to you.
Thanks so much, Betty. Love to you and your family. Ethel
In case you didn’t see this article, here’s the link:
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-federal-government-gives-native-students-an-inadequate-education-and-gets-away-with-it?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter&utm_content=feature
Thanks for the article, Kenne. Having struggled with Indian education most of my professional life, I’m all too familiar with the struggles of the BIE schools. The question is, what can be done about the situation? The complexity of the problem is much deeper, in my opinion, than the author of this article understands. The boarding school experience has made many American Indian people distrustful of white man’s education, and, like with other people, poverty and its attendant environmental ills, has affects that schools operated by either the state or tribes or the federal government struggle to overcome. More funding can help, of course, but the problems are deeper than just funding. Absenteeism is high throughout much of Indian country. The only real way to improve that is probably by improving the incomes of parents and grandparents. It’s a societal generated problem. The whole complex of issues surrounding racism and how tribal people distrust schools and the political winds all of that creates is also really important. I basically agree with what the author says, but I think the story is much more complex than what is stated. I think there are answers, but improving BIE operation of schools is only a partial solution, although, in my opinion, one that does need to be done.