Lee Smith is a man dedicated to the truth. As many a man of color does he simply wanted to put in his work, do what was necessary to earn a living, and do it well. Respect should come with a job well done, for skills brought to bear on a given task, respect for skill shown and success afforded. However, in a bastion of liberal perspective under a banner widely recognized as being for the people, it was not for him. His experience at WGBH, a non-profit television station in Boston Massachusetts know nationwide was a personal journey of pain and persecution. Unfortunately, it was not a unique experience. However, Lee would not simply accept it. He fought it and fighting it would cost him dearly over the course of his life. In this two part episode of Etch The Edges we hear Lee’s story and experience his journey as he comes to grips with life in America, and satisfaction unfulfilled, par for the course of any given American Black Man.

Lee Smith is a man dedicated to the truth. As many a man of color does he simply wanted to put in his work, do what was necessary to earn a living, and do it well. Respect should come with a job well done, for skills brought to bear on a given task, respect for skill shown and success afforded. However, in a bastion of liberal perspective under a banner widely recognized as being for the people, it was not for him. His experience at WGBH, a non-profit television station in Boston Massachusetts know nationwide was a personal journey of pain and persecution. Unfortunately, it was not a unique experience. However, Lee would not simply accept it. He fought it and fighting it would cost him dearly over the course of his life. In this two part episode of Etch The Edges we hear Lee’s story and experience his journey as he comes to grips with life in America, and satisfaction unfulfilled, par for the course of any given American Black Man.

Or is Hell already here?

Hell is coming to America, or some say Hell is already here. In the final week of August we see the glaring existential danger that is Donald Trump take the stage to lie in a display of mendacity that is truly astonishing to behold. He smiled and hurled nonsense to his sycophantic crowd who sat shoulder to shoulder in an invisible Covid cloud nodding, smiling, exhaling in each other’s faces. It was horrible to watch these Americans test their very lives to listen to a man achieve unheard of levels of mendacity all while doing this in the People’s house, a house he seems bound and determined to turn into his palace. He is an existential threat to America and the entire world. This November Americans must do the right thing and #VOTEHIMOUT … #DOITFORAMERICA

Check out these soundbite from Anthony Downer on the work of bringing equity and justice to our education system, even in the midst of a pandemic.

Gwinnett Educators For Equity and Justice are on the forefront of the challenge of elevating education to serve the American community, because we know the truth, the American community in total has never been served by our educational system, not all of it. Aireane Montgomery and Anthony Downer represent a vanguard of educators fully aware of the weight of the moment in which they live and the trying painfully challenging times in which they have been charged to raise up generations. We say raise up because an educator of is challenged with a lot more than just educating, they actually must step into the fold and raise many a young woman and young man. They are be no means nannies or babysitters, but they are often charged with the task nonetheless. And as teachers the world over do and have always done, they face this and embrace it, because they take what they do so seriously they have committed their very lives to task. For this, we will always be thankful. Listen to them as they share their journey.

Michelle Head and Jeremy Persons are our guest on this episode of Etch The Edges. Please join us for a powerful conversation on what is it like being on the front lines of the pandemic not as a medical professional, peace-keeper, or grocery store worker, but rather an educator whose work is doubling, pay in some cases decreasing, and danger magnifying in ways unheard of. The choice is no choice at all, tempt fate and dance with possible death, or quit and possibly lose the ability to take care of yourself and your family. This does not feel like America, but yes, this is America. Let’s etch it out.

Check out these soundbites of Michelle and Jeremy from their time with Etch The Edges. Educator and student, facing the devil’s choice.

In this soundbite listen to Karen talk about the importance of understanding what's happening locally, politically, and why it is critically important. She explains that Education is not Political, and she will work to ensure it remains that way.

In an environment where we have people happily marching into the darkest spaces of the COVID ERA on purpose because they can’t think beyond the pained perspective of failed leadership, we have people like Karen Watkins. People who are perfectly willing to lean into discomfort and launch out into the battle of our era, engaging against a political machine that is perfectly willing to raise autocracy over reason and cause our children to suffer at the hands of incompetence, she rises to claim a seat of authority on the Gwinnett County Board of Education in order to promote equity and uplift. This is who she is and what she will do. This is the one about the truth, Education is not Political … unless we make it.

It just doesn’t make any damn sense. Trump doesn't make any damn sense. In the final summation that’s what we get to in this episode of Etch The Edges. We talk to Dennis Mercon, a man who has spent most of his life on the ideological right side of the divide. However, as many of us have evolved to understand, the majority of us who claim a right or left more often than not have a great deal in common in the middle. Dennis shares with us his journey from the edge to the middle, and how in the era of Trump, the only logical answer in this instance, in this year is to skew to the left. He’s ridin’ with Biden.